If you are interested in making some extra money by playing poker then here are a few tips on where to start. 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.

My first tip would be to avoid the huge sites where the freerolls can take as many twenty thousand players at one time. 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. Now you have made the first steps and have a some money to play with, the trick is to know how to manage your bankroll to avoid losing everything you have won so far in a single game.

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. By managing your bankroll correctly you will be able to take a beat and still have some chips left to continue betting without being down and out. 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. When I started playing, I found that free online poker were the way forward and I managed to get some cash behind me to occasionally take my play to real cash games.