Time to take the plunge and play for REAL money???

I'm one of those "freeroll to bankroll" people. I have a full-time job and three kids and not a great deal of time to play poker. And I am a extremely conservative person with my money (you may say cheap, I say frugal ). But what I'd love is to be able to earn a small but steady stream of "mad money" on the side while I'm having fun and meeting interesting people (yes, that's you, CC people!).

Over the last two years I've signed up (sadly, before I knew anything about rakeback) at multiple sites that allow US players. Probably I have an account at just about every one! On some of those sites I've gotten no-deposit bankrolls. On others I got money via freerolls. As I was learning poker, I blew through most of the winnings I've earned. Not horrible, since I was learning the game and none of it was on my own dime. I got books, I read forum postings, I listen to podcasts, I ask lots of questions and I'm now an active member of CC (hoping that I'll be able to give advice some day and not just absorb advice).

All the work seems to be paying off. I now only have money for micro-stakes play at Absolute. After winning a few freerolls and playing micro-stakes and micro tournaments, I've now upped my bankroll to over $200 (ups and down but yesterday I placed 1st and 2nd in two cash tournies for about $150 in winnings for the day). I've just learned that I can't withdraw there without depositing first. So now, for the first time, I'm really considering depositing. I'm willing to consider not just a min deposit to get my AP $$ but also depositing on FT and/or PS (and I'm thinking like $50 or $100 at each of those sites) so that I can get my foot in the door there without agonizing over the 7500-player freerolls. I'm talking here about money I can afford to spend; no children will be harmed in the making of this player. That's raising multiple questions. Any advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated:

1. If I've never deposited before, doesn't that make me a first-time depositor? Can I "trash" my play accounts and sign up for some rakeback deals? Or are they out of reach because I've downloaded the software before?

Getting tired of my questions. Wait, there's more:

2. How do I take advantage of the best deposit bonuses given that I don't want to deposit more than a couple of hundred dollars total? Would the points requirements to free up the bonus dollars be out of my reach if I never play more than 10-15 hours a week?

3. Got any general advice for a newbie in my situation?

Thanks for reading this far. I could think of several forums where this could go, so please excuse the long and rambling nature of this post.

Hi debpes quite a few questions in there. Firstly well done on building up a decent bankroll on Absolute. It is not a site I use but I would guess like most sites you need to either deposit to withdraw or else earn sufficient points to clear the withdrawal sum. Check this out before you deposit. Some sites insist that even after you deposit you still have to clear a certain number of points to clear any freeroll winnings before you deposited.

On the subject of deleting your accounts. Try approaching them before you deposit and tell them that you are not affiliated to anyone but if they will link you to a rakeback site you will deposit. They may accomodate you on this because they have nothing to lose.

Clearing bonus payments is difficult and the best way to do this is to play cash games. Given your limited time I would settle for a lower deposit and lower bonus amount. You can always depost more later and a lot of sites offer a reload bonus.

I hope this helps.

1. I was under the impression that you could cash out at absolute with no deposit as long as you play 2500 raked hands(which is a ton). I would contact each poker site and make sure you can cancel out your old account or add rakeback to it.

2.It depends on how many tables you play, what games, what sites. You should be able to clear at least partial bonus.

3. Glad to hear you are out of the FR game. Hope you have learned enough to be a constant winning player(sounds like you are there). Good luck with your rakeback issues. Other players will probably be able to help with this more. Finally, play with proper BR management and good luck at the tables.

Nicely done with the bankroll.
Do not trash your play money accounts, you use the same one for the real money and I think if it is your first deposit, you can get the bonus.
An email to support would be a good idea before depositing.
Good luck.

Another bonus of depositing on Stars and Tilt is that you will be able to play in the CC real money tourneys. Far and away I've found the CC games to be of a higher caliber than the open ones at the same buy-ins.
Great company too.

Thanks for the comments so far. They're much appreciated.

Any knowledge about rakeback? Or has that ship sailed?

There is a slight chance that you can still get rakeback at FT. When I DLed FT I went and googled it and got it straight from FT and had no affiliate attached to my account so was able to get it. Set up an account at rakeback pros and send them an email to see if you are eligible to receive it. They should let you know within a week.

Pokerstars has a VPP program instead of rakeback which seems ok if you play there a lot.

As far as ditching your account I'm not sure that you would even be able to if you wanted to. As far as I understand it, once you make an account that's pretty much it. You can always ask for your account to be closed, but they typically don't let you open up another one.

Congrats on your bankroll though. It's really nice to hear that it can be done as I am trying to do the same thing. I actually just cashed $5 recently and did ok with it on FT but ended up losing it which is disappointing. I know it will take a while because I am still learning the finer points of the game as well. It's just hard to absorb swings when you are having to buy into a game with 15% of your BR.

Happy playing!

i used to play at absolute and i did the same thing i got real$$ in by only freerolls, what i did back then is found some1 who plays there and i would have them give me cash then i would transfer funds to there account,there happy im happy,see if that still works nowadays,,,,good luck

before depositing and cashing out a bonus try and figure out the amount of time it will take to get the bonus. most sites offer this bonus because players aren't good enough or don't have the correct bankroll size to clear the bonus. as for rakeback if you are tagged to an affiliate you are out of luck, i would contact support and see if you are tagged to someone, if not there is a possibility you can still get rakeback.

One more thing regarding trashing your play money accounts -- it is ill-advised to open more than one account on any poker site. Most poker sites have it in their terms of service that players are allowed ONLY ONE account, and if they catch you with more than one they may freeze all your accounts and any funds that may be in them.

^ this. If you just signed up for Full Tilt right from their site, you can probably still get rb. People run in to problems when they sign up through an affiliate for a first time deposit bonus, but it doesn't sound like this is the case in your situation.

edit: I'd check and see if you can get rb at absolute as well, since you already have some $$ there.

Good Luck!! My response (obviously) in bold above.

I will attempt to help you with question #1.

1. If I've never deposited before, doesn't that make me a first-time depositor? Can I "trash" my play accounts and sign up for some rakeback deals? Or are they out of reach because I've downloaded the software before?

(A)If you have never deposited before,no matter how long you have played or no matter how much freeroll money you won,You still qualify as a first time depositor.

(A)If you downloaded from the .net sites,which are playmoney,you can still join the real money site and get rakeback.

(A2)If you downloaded a real money poker site directly from google,your account will not be *tagged*to an afilliate and therefore can be tagged to a rakeback site.

Also,even if you are tagged to an affiliate,and you have not opened or played at a poker site in over a year and possibly forgot your login details,you might be able to rejoin the site with a new account and download thru a rakeback site,thus getting rakeback.
I did this at Ultimatebet with no problems.I had quit UB prior to the scandal because I thought it was a fishy site,even before anyone knew about the cheating.

I hope this helps,and just answers your question #1,someone else can help you with 2 and 3,lol...

these deposit bonuses only really kik in if u play mostly cash tables,,and at the micro cash u will be play in it will take u nearly a year to get any were near enuff that u get any cash bak,,,u need to be playin at least 4 to 6 tables at once to start even chippin into ye ffp to earn your cash boneses

Wonderful and thorough responses. My thanks to everyone.

A few questions I need to answer:

1) I read another post here (sorry, can't find it now to reference it) about the saga of getting rakeback from Full Tilt. I used rakebackpros and got my rakeback offer within a day. Of course, I have no $$ on FT at this point (actually, I have $0.10 from a freeroll bankroll of a few bucks that I tried to convert to a bigger BR and flubbed).

2) I tried to get rakeback from AP. Unlike what I've read about FT, when I got my rakeback "rejection" letter, they told me who my affiliate was. I contacted them but was unable to get rakeback (I signed up a few years ago with them via a "no deposit bankroll" deal that I blew because I tried to play without having any idea what I was doing!).

3) I primarily play micro cash and micro MTTs. Basically I started at zero and played freerolls on AP until I had enough cash for micro cash tables and then increased my bankroll from there. I did this step several times!

4) My progression from early October: started with few $$ from a freeroll, increased with micro cash play, won a few MTTs. I'm playing .05/.10 micro cash games (1-2 tables at a time) and tourneys up to about a 5.50 buy-in. As of today, I have about $380 in tourney winnings and $60 in cash tables. So MTTs make me more money but cash tables give me a more consistent win rate (but not a lot of money because I'm playing little stakes).

5) I don't have a HUD but have created a tracking spreadsheet to give me basic BR stats so I have dates and buy-ins and a lovely chart that shows the heater I'm on. It also gives me a high-level view of which MTTs I win at. I'm still debating whether or not to buy a HUD. I think its biggest value for me is that I can learn more about my own leaks and improve my game.

6) Fletchdad, thanks for all your insight about this. I ended up depositing $20 on AP just so that I could withdraw (no withdrawals without a cash deposit) and withdrew $215 yesterday. Mostly to prove to my husband that this "hobby" can make money and, to be honest, my own fear that it's not really my money until it's in my bank account. Now that I've done that, I'll see if I'll work it back up to over $400 again and then withdraw. Or, more likely now that I'm seeing what Fletch is saying, and proving to myself that I can be a winning player, perhaps I'll try and grow it to see if I can win bigger. I guess I should look at it like an investment account. No guarantee on a return, but lots of potential.

7) I'm a super cautious person. Just depositing $20 was a big step for me. Not because of the cash but because I feel so strongly about not "wasting" money on a hobby. (I never said I was an uncomplicated woman!)

8) I don't think I'll be playing often enough to clear any bonuses from PokerStars. So I'm thinking that my "other" regular site should be Full Tilt since I have the rakeback deal there. But I'll try a few FT freerolls from CC before I deposit there

congrats
i am also a freeroll to bankroll player
it has cost you nothing so just keep growing it.
you sound very level-headed
i am sure you will do well,
just carry on with what you are doing.
who knows,we might see you on the telly one day.
best of luck