when first starting to play poker you should learn discipline. Discipline is what seperates people who are
gambling from those who are playing for a living. In your case you are starting w just 20$. This is such a micro bankroll it is not funny. It is actually sad and you will find out quickly that nobody online cares much of anything under 10$. Some not even as much as 50$. So here is my advice, be discplined in your stakes and limits. You are supposed to not wager more than 4% of your entire bankroll on a tournament. (i.e. 4% of 20$ is 80 cents). I doubt you find any tournament for that low on
pokerstars, so dont play anything over 1$... YOu can play up to about 7 or 8% of your bankroll on SNGs so start w some 1$ sngs, but be aware of the players you are playing with, you will find out quickly the ones that are gambling and not caring about their money and the ones that want to play an actual game of poker. So keep your wits about you and pay attention to the table. As far as cash games go you should have about 50 max buy ins. In your case you shouldnt sit down at any table with more than 40 cents, which sucks becasue i dont advise ever sitting down at a cash game with less than the max buy in. So your best bet would be to stay with some SNGs til you get your bankroll to managable size and then you can start playing some MTTs and some cash once your bankrolll is up a bit more. Those are the most displined ways to play online, the only bad thing is if you are playing like you are at a real table and playing a real game worth 500$ not many others will be looking at it like that. I have run into this dilema plenty of times when i was younger and have learned my lesson. I will not play games under 10$ buy ins online and i will not play any cash less than 50$ max buy in. So since i dont have money now i dont play online other than freerolls becasue i know it will be basically gambling against others that just dont care, and that is sad. But if you keep to the SNGs then that is probably the best chance you will have to keep your bankroll going in the right direction. Good luck at the tables and remember to keep playing your game no matter how many donkeys and people you run into that just do not care. Not everyone that plays this game is trying to play poker, some are just gambling and most that do that, do it at low stakes. So keep discplined as much as you can. Good luck