Small Bankroll? No Problem! Find a Small Deposit Poker Site

Small deposit poker sites give people on a budget the opportunity to play poker for real money. When you combine that will the games, stakes and promotions aimed at micro stakes players, there hasn’t been a better time for players with a smaller bankroll to turn it into a large one.

Below you’ll find a list of poker sites that have the lowest deposit threshold. Following that you’ll find our answers to some common questions we get regarding small deposit poker sites.

How Do Small Deposit Poker Sites Exist?

When you compare online poker sites to brick and mortar casinos, one of the first things that come to mind is how the poker sites can stay in business. $10 deposits? $1 games? How can they possibly make any money?

There are a couple of reasons why.

The first is overhead. Look at a brick and mortar casino. What expenses do they have? Property taxes, electricity, employees, water/sewage, maintenance, etc. The list goes on and on.

Online poker operators don’t have all that. Sure, they have a building and employees, but it’s much smaller compared to a brick and mortar casino. They have server/software costs, but I’m positive that it’s much lower than paying 10s, if not 100s of employees on an hourly basis.

In addition to overhead, online poker sites can offer micro deposits and games because they’re on the internet. The internet gives them the ability to expand their reach (to more people). So they can aim for volume or quantity of players, as opposed to quality (higher stakes). This gives online operators the ability to charge less for their games, which in turn appeals to a larger demographic anyway.

What’s the Minimum I Can Deposit Online?

The minimum deposit amount will depend on the site. But there are sites that will let you deposit $5 or $10 at a time.

However, keep in mind that deposit limits will depend on what method you use. You may also be asked to pay a fee on your deposit. And if so, you have to decide whether or not it  makes sense to pay a fee that is nearly the same amount as your deposit. Probably not, right?

Another thing to think about is the deposit bonus. If you can deposit $100, but just want to deposit $10 (for whatever reason), realize that you’re missing out on a relatively substantial amount of (free) money.

What Games Can I Play with a Small Deposit?

There is no game that small deposit poker players can’t play. Ok, other than high stakes games, but I think that’s a given.

That means you can play:

• Guaranteed tournaments – You can find guaranteed tournaments with buy-ins of less than $5. But the prize pools are hundreds, if not thousands of dollars.
• Step tournaments – Earn a seat to a guaranteed tournament through a step tourney. These usually have 5-7 steps, with the first one starting at .10, .25 or $1.
• Satellites – Buy into a satellite for less than a dollar and earn a seat to a $xx or $xxx buy-in tournament.
• You can buy into any tournament or sit n go for less than $1.
• Cash games can be bought into for less than $1.

Of course, these are the minimums. But as you can see, there are no games that you can’t play. It’s very possible to load your account with $10 and build it into a massive bankroll with some patience and sound bankroll strategy.

What Type of Poker Bonus Should I Be Looking For?

My first recommendation would be to find a poker site that has a no deposit bonus. I do realize that this renders this entire article pointless, but I do think earning a free $10 or $20 without making a deposit is better. The reason why is that you’ll receive this money instantly, giving you funds to grind a bankroll with, as opposed to slowly earning it. The clearing requirements are usually much better, too.

However, if that’s not an option, then I recommend finding a bonus that has the biggest match and easiest clearing requirements. I wouldn’t care about the overall size of the bonus. Why? Because you’re not going to deposit enough money for it to matter. If you only have $20 to deposit, what does it matter if the overall bonus is $100 or $1,000? You can’t take advantage of it either way, anyhow. So, I’d spend more time trying to find a poker site that will match you 150%, 200% or more. And preferably you have to rake no more than $25 or so for every $5 of your bonus money.

Other than that, I recommend a bonus that has a generous timeframe, like 90 days. Especially since you’ll be playing lower stakes and won’t be clearing your bonus in leaps and bounds.

My last piece of advice would be to bonus hunt (whore) if possible. Find the smallest and easiest bonus to clear, clear it and then move that money to another site so that you can take advantage of another bonus. Keep doing that until you have the money to play slightly higher stakes, which will enable you to build your bankroll faster. Just be sure to map which poker sites you’re going to hit, and in what order, so that you can fully take advantage of each bonus and maximize your earnings.