Bankrolls can be built quite quickly if one goes about it the right way. In fact, they can be built a lot faster than most people think. Have you ever seen how quickly some of the super high stakes players seem to bounce back after losing a couple hundred thousand dollars? Well, you can do the same except you have the advantages of bonuses and easier competition. This article will give step-by-step directions on how to get that fledgling bankroll up and going and bigger than ever.
But before you can go any further, there are five obstacles to building bankrolls that you must overcome or else you will only be wasting your own time. They are:

1. Bad play / Tilt
2. Playing outside your bankroll
3. Not going after bonuses
4. Frequent cashouts
5. No focus on moving up

1.  Bad Play / Tilt
The first one is sort of obvious but I have to mention it because it’s the ultimate destroyer of bankrolls. If you play bad or tilt, your bankroll will shrink no matter how hard you work on every other aspect of building it. If you are currently losing money at the poker tables, there is no way you can work on building a bankroll. We all used to lose money at poker; it’s the nature of learning new things. Hell, I've moved in and out of this category several times throughout my poker career. If you find yourself in this position, that’s OK because you can check out my strategy guide and articles to get yourself refreshed.

2.  Playing Outside Your Bankroll
Number two is the second-biggest obstacle to building a bankroll. All too often people get impatient, they go on tilt, or for whatever reason they play outside of their bankrolls. Playing outside of your bankroll is the biggest no-no in poker period. It’s the fastest way to go broke so don't do it. Always have 20 buy-ins for whatever level you play. Read my bankroll article here for more detail.

3.  Not Going After Bonuses
Yes, you can build a bankroll without bonuses but what's the point in doing that?  The hardest part of building a bankroll is getting started.  If you can get three $500 bonuses and triple your bankroll, you'll be playing higher stakes way sooner.  Skipping bonuses equates to a major opportunity cost because instead of playing at micro stakes for two months, you could be playing at higher stakes making more money.

4.  Frequent Cashouts
Number four is pretty obvious as well. If you make frequent cashouts from a small bankroll, it will not only hurt you immediately but the opportunity cost is immeasurable. The money you spent cashing out could have been used to move up in stakes and bring in a return of many, many times the initial amount.

5.  No Focus on Moving Up
Number five is a mindset thing. People get content at the stakes they play and they just don't focus on moving up. Make specific goals about moving up. Make your immediate goals small, like moving up to the next limit. Make your long term goals something like move up to 2/4 no limit within the next six months. You get the picture.

Now, let’s get on to the fun part: building a bankroll.

Using Bonuses to Build Your Bankroll

I'll start with a small number and explain the best way to move up. It really doesn't matter if you're starting with a $50 bankroll or a $5,000 bankroll, the same tactics apply. The only difference is that as your bankroll grows, bonuses will become a smaller part of your tactics and good play will become even more important.

Let's begin with $100. A lot of people can spare that much to get started, but if you can't then save up your money for a while. It's not good to be playing on money you can't afford to lose. No matter how great of a player you may be, there is always a risk in poker - especially when working from a short bankroll.

The fastest way to get started with a small bankroll is to bonus hunt. With the help of bonuses, you'll have turned that $100 into $2,000 in no time.

Here's what we do. First, we find the site with the smallest sign-up bonus and get that one taken care of before any of the others. It would do no good to waste your 100% $600 Full Tilt Poker bonus if you only have $100. So, we will start with PokerStars. They offer a 100% $50 sign up bonus. It sounds small but there's no point in going for a bigger bonus right now.

Deposit that $100 and they'll match you with $50. You do not need a bonus code or anything, just click on any PokerStars link on my site and the first deposit bonus will be automatic. You clear the bonus by collecting the required number of player points. You do this by playing as many hands as you can at .02/.05 NL (remember the 20 buyin rule). As long as you play well and don't hit any major downswings, you'll have a $150 bankroll when you've finished with this part. That doesn't sound like much right now, but it's all about to snowball upwards big time. Hopefully by the time you clear this bonus you'll have been playing well and managed to grind an extra $50 profit by this time. You have now finished the hardest step in the process. Once you get your bankroll up to $200, the rest is cake.

Now, you're sitting with a $200-ish bankroll and are properly rolled to play .05/.10 NL. Now your profits will be coming in twice as fast. We're already off to a great start! Grind away at .05/.10 until you can make another $50 and get your roll up to $250. This won't take long at all as the play is so atrocious at this level that anyone using basic strategy can win if they work at it.

Once you hit that $250 mark, you're going to have to make a decision.  The next set of bonuses are 100% matches that can get you up to $500 or $600 depending on how much you deposit.  The only problem is that right now you only have $250.  You can either use the next bonus immediately to get a $250 bonus or you can save the bonus and grind yourself another $250 so you can take full advantage of the next bonus.

The choice is yours but I recommend you do it the hard way and grind until your bankroll is $500.  These bonuses are one time things only so you don't want to waste it.  I also recommend you wait until you have $500 because when you get to $500, you'll be properly rolled for .10/.25 no limit which will make the next bonus much easier to clear.

For the rest of this example we'll just assume you waited until you had $500 before continuing.  If you don't want to wait you can still follow along, you'll just have to adjust a couple of the numbers.

It just so happens that Carbon Poker offers a 100% bonus of up to $500. You must use the bonus code 100FIRST1K when you deposit to get this bonus. Well, isn't that nice - I'm sure you can see where this is going. However much money you deposit, they will match it up to $500! I strongly recommend you wait until you have a full $500 in your bankroll before hitting this bonus so that you can get the most benefit. Remember, you only get the first time deposit bonus one time.

After you clear this bonus, you're going to have doubled your bankroll again to a total of $1,000 plus whatever profit you've managed to squeeze out while clearing the bonus. Now you're rolled for .25/.50 NL!

So after just two bonuses, you've managed to turn a $100 bankroll into $1,000 and can comfortably play .25/.50. At this level, the money will be coming in faster than ever. If you've had decent success at the tables, your bankroll may even be bigger by now. I'm guessing the average bankroll will be somewhere around $1,200 by now.

The next stop is Cake Poker . Here you can get a 100% bonus up to $500. Type in the bonus code 500BUCKS to be eligible for the bonus. This bonus will bump your bankroll up to the next level, from about $1,200 to $1,700.  Pretty soon you'll be rolled for .50/1.00. If you've been doing well at the tables, you will have earned a little extra on top of that bonus and should be sitting at around $1,800 or so.

Next, you take that $1,800 roll of yours and deposit it into Full Tilt Poker and get yourself a nice 100% matching bonus of $600. There is no bonus code necessary here; just click on any link to Full Tilt on my site and you'll be good to go. After you clear this bonus you will end up with a bankroll of over $2,400. If you've played well and not run into too much bad luck, your bankroll could easily be anywhere between $2,500 and $2,800 by now.

Wow!  If you've made it this far congratulations!  You have officially made more money than 80% of people who've ever played poker.  That last bonus should have put you well above the $2,000 mark and maybe even to the $3,000 mark.  You're now rolled for .50/1.00 and you can start making some serious money at 100NL.  If you look back to when you first started, a single buyin at your current stakes is equal to the entire bankroll you started out with!  You're not done yet, though.  We've got a couple more bonuses to hit…

Doyle's Room is going to be our next stop.  The bonus here is a 110% first time deposit bonus that's good for up to $550.  To be on the safe side, we'll say you've got about $2,500 right now.  After this bonus, your bankroll will be about $3,050.  If you won a little while playing, you will probably have about $3,200 after this bonus.

The last stop is Bodog Poker.  I've made Bodog the last stop in your journey because of the way the bonus is set up.  Bodog gives you an instant 10% bonus up to $50 and a 100% bonus up to $500 after you've played there for a month.  The $500 bonus doesn't require any certain deposit amount, it just releases based on how many player points you earn there.  5,000 are required for the full $500 bonus.  After you clear this bonus you will probably have at least $3,750 in your bankroll and more likely will have over $4,000.

Now, after just six bonuses, you have turned that $100 deposit into $4,000 without a whole lot of work. Even if you're starting out on a bigger bankroll, these bonuses are huge and add up quickly.

These six bonuses come to a total of $2,650 in free money. Add to that the profit you're bringing in while clearing these bonuses and you can see how easy it is to build a bankroll. All it takes is patience and perseverance. Even if you hit a speed bump or run into a big downswing along the way, you just recollect yourself, move down temporarily (if necessary), rebuild, and then move on to the next bonus when you're ready. It's amazing, really.

Use my bonus page for reference if you don't want to search through this entire article every time you need a new bonus.

Good luck at the tables!