While most people who decide to play online poker for real money usually make a small deposit and work from there, it’s possible to play poker online for free. There are two main ways to do this. One is to play with play money and then sell the play money to sites that will buy your play money. A second way is to play with what’s known as a no deposit bonus. Here we’re going to take a brief look at each method, along with the advantages and disadvantages of each approach.
Some people feel like play money poker is a waste of time because no one cares about how they play and it’s almost impossible to try to get better. All you have to do to beat any play money game is to play tight and just wait for good hands because you’ll get paid off over and over again. If you search the Internet, you can find places that will buy your play money chips if you have a lot of them. They typically will buy your play money chips with a player-to-player money transfer, and you can use those funds to start your bankroll. The main disadvantage to this approach is the time investment it takes to build up a lot of play money chips.
Other sites offer what they call “no deposit bonuses” to some players as well. These bonuses are just free money that players can get to start their online poker bankroll. The poker rooms profit from this since it gets players interested in their games, and a lot of people who start this way go on to give them a lot of business. While these bonuses are nice, be careful to read the terms and conditions of the bonuses very carefully. Sometimes these bonuses can trap you into terms that are favorable for the poker rooms, like not being eligible for future bonuses or promotions.
Another way to play online poker for free is to have someone stake you. This is typically best for proven winning players who have quit poker at some point and have decided to get back into the game and don’t have a bankroll of their own to use. Then someone can stake them in cash games or tournaments at a level they would be expected to beat, and the player will take a percentage of his profits for his services. This can be profitable for both the backer and the player, but like all matters that involve the exchange of money, you should be careful with who you trust in a staking agreement.