The key to building a bankroll in poker is moderation. These days in poker a person can literally start from zero and make hundreds of thousands of dollars. I'm not saying you'll win that much or anything at all to be honest but if you would like to give it a try here is how to do it. Most people when starting out in poker are starting with no money, so the first thing to do is to find a free online poker site where you don't have to stump up any of your own cash, and play some freerolls.

Try not to waste too much of your time at major sites because often their freerolls have anywhere from 2,000 to 20,000 people. Mind you the prize at the end of the road is always something huge, your odds of getting it are far from it. Place top 1% to win a ticket to this, for a shot at that. After placement in top 1% two or even 3 times in a row is how you make money.

Hitting the big tables is where many players fail. Search for a site which is smaller and doesn't have more than 200 people in the freerolls. You may not win a trip to Vegas but this will start you on your way. Winning anywhere from 10c to $5 or $10 is not uncommon and a few placements like this is all you need to be on your way. Once you have something you feel you can play with you need to know how to manage your bankroll so you don't lose all of your hard earned money in a single tournament.

The common way to do this is said to be using 1/20th of your bankroll for NL cash games. You want to have at least 300 big blinds in limit cash games so if the big blind is 5c you should have at least $15 before you sit. If you prefer SnG tournaments with 6-10 people you should use only 1/40th of your bankroll and about 1/100th for large tournaments.

The reason for playing with so little of your bankroll is because it doesn't matter who you are we all go on hot and cold streaks. Managing your bankroll accounts for you losing for awhile without needing to worry about going broke. If you have your own cash to play with then your bankroll can be restocked at any given time, so these rules really don't apply to you unless you want to put yourself on a budget. If you, like most of us, need to build from a very low starting base then free online poker sites are ideal and will get you rolling.