People often think of poker as a way to get rich quick but unless you luckbox your way to a big score in a major tournament (oh, hi there, Mr. Cada, Mr. Moon), building up a poker bankroll takes a lot of time and effort.  Fortunately for online poker players, there are ways to help build your bankroll a little bit faster than just grinding away on the tables.

Rakeback
Online poker rooms make their money by collecting a certain percentage of the pot before they give it to the winner.  This is called rake.  Rakeback is a refund of the portion of that rake.  Rakeback deals range between 25% and 40% of the "Monthly Generated Revenue" (or MGR).  MGR is generally calculated by dividing the rake taken from a pot by the total number of players dealt into that hand.  Do this for each hand and total it up and that would be your MGR.  For example, if you play on a 10-handed table and the room raked $1.00, your MGR for that hand would be ten cents.  If you played 1,000 hands this way, your MGR for the month would be $100.  So, if you had a rakeback deal of 30%, you would make $30 for that month in rakeback.  Note that you get this rakeback whether or not you won any of those $1,000 hands - you merely had to be dealt in.  For a more real-world example, if you play around 60,000 hands of NL100 fullring NLHE at Full Tilt Poker with 27% rakeback, you will get around 800 bucks in rakeback.  That is a pretty nice chunk of change, IMO.  
 
Important considerations when getting rakeback:  

* You cannot get rakeback deals from the online poker rooms themselves - you have to get it from an affiliate (a third party that helps drive players to the online poker room).  This is because the online poker room pays their affiliates a certain percentage of your MGR and in turn, your affiliate shares that with you in the form of rakeback.

* It is very important to set up your rakeback before you make your first deposit because once you do, it is highly unlikely that you'll be able to get rakeback.  It is also safest to use the links from your affiliate to download the poker room software rather than going to the site directly.  

* A special note about PokerStars:  Pokerstars doesn't allow its affiliates to offer rakeback.  Instead, it has what it calls its "VIP" program in which you earn Frequent Player Points (FPPs) that allow you to buy cash bonuses, gift certificates, electronics, etc.  Per FPPPro.com you can get an equivalent of rakeback range from 8% if you reach the Bronze Star level (smallest level) all the way up to 57% for Supernova Elite.  What this means is that if you don't put in a lot of volume and want to maximize rakeback, you are better of playing on a site that offers traditional rakeback.  If, however, you are a mega-grinder who will get in millions of hands in a year, then Pokerstars is the place to go for rakeback.  In between small volume and mega-grinder it ends up being fairly close to traditional rakeback so you should just play on the room you like the best.  

* While getting rakeback should be one of the things you take into consideration in choosing an online poker room to play, it shouldn't be the only consideration.  For example, you may be able to get 40% rakeback on a poker room but if they have little traffic, a bad reputation, or spotty customer service you would be better off going with a different online room and taking less rakeback to play on a higher quality room.


Bonus Whoring
Bonus whoring is another great way to add to your bankroll.  Most every online poker rooms provide "first time deposit" bonuses to players new to their room.   "Bonus whoring" is the act of signing up to play at a poker room, making a deposit, earning your bonus, withdrawing, and then moving on to the next poker room.  Despite many poker rooms leaving the U.S. market thanks to the UIGEA, there are still enough online poker rooms available to U.S. players to make bonus whoring worthwhile.  

Here is an example of how bonus whoring works:  Poker room A has a deposit bonus of $200.  You deposit $200 there, play enough to earn your bonus while breaking even, then withdraw your $400 (your original $200 + $200 bonus money).  You then go to Poker room B and it has a $400 deposit bonus.  You deposit your $400 there, play enough to earn your bonus while breaking even and cash out your $800 roll (your original $400 deposit + $400 bonus money).  By doing this with just two rooms, you've taken a $200 initial deposit and turned it into $800 just by playing break-even poker.  Now just rinse and repeat with a several other online poker rooms and you've got yourself a decent poker bankroll.     

Tips and considerations for you whores:  

* Read the fine print:  To get your bonus, you almost always have to "earn it".  Typically you earn it by earning so many frequent player points (or whatever name the poker room gives for that) which is a factor of how many hands you play and at what level you play (i.e., how much rake you help generate).  How quickly you can earn your bonus can vary greatly between poker rooms so do your research.  Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars bonuses clear pretty fast.  I recently opened a Cake Poker account and it looks like the bonus will clear at a snails pace.  

* Take full advantage of the bonus.  In other words, if the online poker room you are looking to join is offering a 110% bonus up to $600, make sure you deposit the full $600.  Depositing less than the max is like setting money on fire.  

* Make sure you also get rakeback.  At most online poker rooms, you can get both rakeback and the first time deposit bonus.  Don't get too excited about a deposit bonus and sign up directly with the online poker room because you'll most likely lose your chance to get rakeback.  

* As with rakeback, you don't want to pick an online poker room to play purely based on the deposit bonus - it should only be one of many factors you consider before playing at an online poker room.  

* One non-monetary advantage of bonus whoring is that by playing a number of poker rooms you will learn which ones you like best and once you complete your whoring mission you can go back to your favorite poker rooms for your normal play. 


Until next time, good luck at the tables!


If you have any questions about this article, or anything online poker related please free to shoot an email to:  dougfieselman@ymail.com. For great rakeback and bonus deals, go to http://rakeback.pokernewspage.com.