Freerolled $800, Now What?

Greetings Cardschatters!

I am coming up on my 1-year anniversary of playing online poker. I started playing in late October of 2008, and soon after discovered freerolls, so I decided to build a bankroll without depositing.

In the 11 months that I have been playing, I have accumulated around $800 from freerolls, bonuses, promotions and 1 free bankroll offer. I will not bore you with a year's worth of screenshots, but if anyone would like to see a blog of my progress, google the words "poker freeroll slog to $150" and the top result will be a link to the site where I keep my poker blog. (The link will take you to the blog page, my blog is titled "Slog to $150").

My winnings have come from 10 sites (Cake, Full Tilt, Poker Stars, Bodog, Doyle's Room, Carbon, Pitbull, Absolute Poker, Party Poker, and Ultimate Bet) and range from just $0.70 (AP) to $175.00 (Full Tilt).

I am now ready to begin playing poker in earnest (actually buying into games and trying to build the bankrolls that I have accumulated).

Now the question....

What will be the best way to proceed to real money games from here?

Keep in mind the following facts:

• I have never deposited, so the money on some of the sites is untouchable until I have done so.
• I will not deposit, so any money put into one site must be taken out of another.
• I already have downloaded and played at the 10 sites I have mentioned (this means rakeback offers are impossible now at these sites, but I'm not completely sure??)
• I live in Europe, so pretty much any poker site is open to me.
• I am just now graduating from freerolls, so I will be playing the lowest of the low level micros (meaning I will need a fairly easy bonus, or a lot of time to clear it).

Ok, now I would like some opinions of how to proceed from here. What is the safest route to building this bankroll now. Please make your suggestions on the conservative side, as I am still an inexperienced player, and I do not want to spend another year accumulating a bankroll!

Ah, and finally, a special thanks to Cardschat. A lot of that money I have won came from the generous freerolls hosted here. Glad I found this site!

well... thats quite the journey you've taken over the past year, im glad to see it paid off. about moving into normal games and micro levels, try to identify your strongest and weakest points in your game and see what kind of gaming format suits you best (MTT's, SNG's, ring games etc...).
you've been playing freerolls for a year now, you say youve accumilated 800 dollars from them.... maybe you have a nack for MTT's.
perhaps you should try to play the daily dollar on FTP or the 0.10, both are very fun tourneys, although the 0.10 is a donk fest in the start.
also, if you do well in big freerolls, you must be a very patient player (correct me if im wrong), thus playing turbo SNG's or turbo Satelites probably wont be your specialty....
again, try to really think what you've excelled at this passed year and what you can do now to profit from your 800$ bankroll.
do not rush into anything and make sure not to blow it all away quickly.
manage it carefully.
best of luck to you

Congrats on your success-to-date!

Check out some of the rb sites, I'm not sure you're ineligible for rb if you've never deposited.

Nice job on the freeroll bank. Now dont get carry away and lose it all

When I Googled "poker freeroll slog" the top thread is this one. I checked the next couple of links and couldn't find your thread.

I believe you can still get Rakeback at Full tilt. Email customer support and ask them if you qualify.

To win that much freeroll money you must be a fairly solid tournament player. PS has double or nothing small stakes tables which are profitable if you understand bubble play. Sit N Gos might also be profitable.

We probably need more info.

How much do you have at each site as not being able to consolidate the bankroll/not wanting to deposit restricts you and you will have to play the correct stakes for the relevant site using correct Bankroll management?

Review the each site that u wish to play and evaluate its rake structure. you do not want to be playing tourneys where rake is substantial and eating into your profits.

Possibly e-mail each site admin and find out what you need to do to allow withdrawal of funds.


consider getting neteller account for the easy movement of funds between pokersites if you do eventually meet w/d requirements.

First of all congrats on a great return on the time you have invested. I hope you go on and use the return tobuild an even bigger bankroll. It is always a problem getting to the money if you have not deposited. If you want to withdraw you will need to deposit at some stage.

Congrats on your success so far!

I offer only one piece of advice... practice very solid bankroll management from day one!

300BB minimum on LHE
20 buyin minimum on NLHE
20 buyin min SNG
etc

Good luck!

Try Googling "poker freeroll slog to $150"

It will now be the #2 hit, as this one has moved up to #1.

I would post a link, but my blog is on a competing poker forum, so better safe than sorry.

There is no competing forum, not even close, LOL!!

As above, be strict with yr BRM when buying in... lots of threads here on the subject, so Search.

Thanks! You were right on target. I have found that some of these sites will let me have a rakeback deal if I ask. Great info to know!

Spot on! I found that FT will allow this, not really sure why Poker Stars seems unwilling. They are just going to lose a customer.

As of Sept 21, 2009.....bankrolls are:

* Cake - $110.00
* Full Tilt - $164.56
* Bodog - $30.06
* Poker Stars - $1.09
* Carbon - $165.48
* Absolute Poker - $0.70
* Doyle's - $85.61
* Pitbull - $112.25
* Party Poker - $72.72
* Ultimate Bet - $14.15

So, from these posts and my research the plan is to....

Create a Neteller account and transfer money from one site, perhaps $50 from Full Tilt. (Is this possible, or will I need to actually wire money in, for my first Neteller deposit???)

Then, deposit this $50 at one of the other sites and clear my freeroll money. I was originally thinking Pitbull, as you receive an instant $20 bonus with your first deposit there. (Any opinions on this as a first site, or would one of the other nine be a better option?)

Then, after clearing the bonus and freeroll money there, move on to the next site, rinse and repeat.

Anything I am overlooking with this plan?

I like this idea. Keep moving your bankrolls and clear bonuses. Start with the websites with the lowest bonuses first, so that when you get to higher %'s, your bonus will be that much higher

Can you withdraw if you haven't deposited? That might be the only hitch with transfering money.

I've read of players in this forum depositing just to clear the bonus then attempting to withdraw. The poker sites don't take too kindly to that and peoples account's end up being closed. If you get away with it once you're lucky imo, but it's not going to work.

Congrats on your year long journey and good lucl in the future.

Some sites you can (Full Tilt), some sites you cannot (Pitbull). This is why I chose Full Tilt to take money out of, because they will let you withdraw without having deposited.

If I get away with what? I am not doing anything illegal or cheating in any way. I intend to comply with all the terms of the offer. If poker rooms are closing the accounts of people who obtained their bonuses legitimately, we are all in trouble!

Hey there,
I love 2 hear when a player builds there bankroll from zero it shows these are legit trnys where evry1 has a fair chance.Wtg on ur bankroll,keep up the good work.

awesome job freerolling that much, makes me feel stupid, im down the same amount your up in one year hahahah.

Firstly, WTG.

About the clearing deposits issue, I think you can do it as long as you don't haul all your money out of there as soon as it is cleared.

Hope this helps.

Great job, now blow it all on a football bet on sunday.

Take a look at this thread.

Full Tilt Poker - A Warning To You All

If you play and withdraw right after you reach the full bonus I think it is sketchy. You have to remember that it doesn't matter if you haven't broken any rules. Sites have the authority to do whatever they please, especially if they think you're toying around with them and their system.

OK. First, thanks to everyone who took the time to respond. This is exactly why I posed these questions, as I was not sure if I had overlooked anything.

The forum post referenced above was insightful, however, I do not think it really applies to my situation because the poster deposited and then tried to withdraw immediately (to get a bigger bonus). As I stated before in this thread, my plan is to deposit, clear the bonus (or at least attempt to) and then withdraw. This means my deposit will be staying with the poker site for an extended period of time while I am playing real money games.

But, after reading your concerns, I have made a change in my plans. I will forgo point 2 below, and actually deposit a small amount at one site, just to
build some goodwill and avoid any similar problems.

So, how about if I deposit say $50 at Full Tilt, play for a month while trying to clear the bonus, and then withdraw part of my money so I can move it to another site? Anyone think I could run into trouble taking this more conservative approach

Congrats on a good year and hopefull the next year will be even better. Good luck!

I have also went ur route in that I have never depositied and have built a very nice bankroll from playing in freerolls which is no easy feat considering the extreme donk factor that you have to contend with so I congratulate you, now that I have built up my nest egg I have been playing in micro limit sit n goes and buying in small private tourneys where there are not so many players to make your way thru has worked wonderfully for me and hope rthe same goes for you.

if you don't deposit, you won't ever be able to withdraw from any of these sites

When you first start playing bonus' and rakeback are usually the only thing that stop you losing. You also have to play stupid ass freerolls if you don't deposit.

Congratulations on your wins you've done something that's very hard to do. Now deposit.