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- At the various poker sites - At the poker site(s) you are currently playing - In an e-wallet like moneybookers or netteller - In your bank account - other
Things to consider: - Deposit bonus: if you want to take a deposit bonus offer, you can't first withdraw, and the put it back in again, or can you? - Inactive account fees: I know Party Poker charges you about $6 or $7 after 180 days of not generating any rake; how about other sites? Doesn't moneybookers do something similar? - Currency conversion charges: if you need to convert between currencies, moneybookers or netteller charge you about a 3% fee. If you let the pokerstars of full tilt handle the conversion, it's practically free (< 0.5%). I don't know of any other place in the world where you can do this this cheaply. - Account currency: related to previous point, but is there a point in playing with USD on the site, while you live in a EUR country? I thought so, but now I am unsure, since the sites use the same exchange rate for buying into a game as they do when leaving/winning, so it's free. It saves you from all the currency conversion hassle, does it not? - Quick access: depositing from your bank account is pretty quick, but what about withdrawing to it? - Withdrawal charges: Some withdrawal options are expensive (bank transfer, cheque, credit card etc...), while others are free (moneybookers, netteller, UCash). - Keeping track of "the bottom line": I've never withdrawn any winnings to my bank account, partly because of the currency conversion charges, and I don't need the money, but mainly to keep track of my "career winnings". It's a non-argument really, but now I don't have to remember anything to calculate my career winnings... - Other: Like having to deposit before being able to withdraw; often it's required that you have deposited in the last 6 months, from the same e-wallet, you are trying to withdraw from (another hassle). One way I found is to use UCash, which is free, but has no such requirement.
Can you abuse Pokerstars or Full Tilt for currency conversions? In fact they take this under consideration when cashing out; I suppose when you deposit $1000, only to immediately withdraw the same amount in EUR, they probably won't allow that (or do they?)... This might be a consideration to deposit most of you winnings on the various sites to Pokerstars of Full Tilt, if you intend to withdraw at some later date in the future, in a different currency...
Please give your opinions, and correct any mistakes I've made (most is from research, not experience).
Joined: May '12
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 38 (M)
Posts: 2064
To me, this question is all just a matter of your definition of "bankroll".
Personally, I'd only class money I have on a poker site as bankroll - and any money in a bank account would become bankroll the moment it's deposited onto a poker site.
If you're a professional player - then I suppose every penny you have is bankroll.
Joined: May '13
Location: Mauritius
Age: 32 (M)
Posts: 2688
Pokerstars itself, well because they reputed I would trust them with my money but if I had lots, bank account would be preferable, because I could withdraw into liquid in my country there after to use.
In ewallet maybe some dollars just to be on the lookout for reload bonuses or if I need a refill but most cash would go to bank as mentioned!
Joined: Mar '11
Location: Croatia
Age: 43 (M)
Posts: 1738
I keep it divided between a pokersite and skrill. the first part is to use and try to increase the overall amount obviously. The second part i use from time to time for a deposit bonus when they become available. Usually i withdraw the deposit back and if possible some extra 5 to 10% to cover for the transfer fees and still collect a little profit. I dont know if it's the optimal solution. All i know is that with this system i've been playing for over 2 years and never made a deposit from my own money to a pokersite or casino. So far it's all play money for me u see... as soon as i start using my own money ( from y bank account i mean) then it would definitely affect my play and my approach towards poker. I play for fun and the chance of making some nice cash. If i start losing my hard earned $$$ than i would be sure to lose both.
Joined: Mar '09
Location: Greece
Age: 47 (F)
Posts: 14136
I would say somewhere you trust the most, that will keep operating without the fear of closure. Also for the same reason, you have to spread the money in more than one "places" in order to avoid losing all, or a big chunk out of it in case something like that happens.
Joined: Feb '12
Location: Canada
Age: 64 (M)
Posts: 6036
I clicked 'Other' because I keep it rolled up nice and tight in my bra between my boobs...
...Actually, I just keep it at whatever poker sites I won it at. In my case I have about $50 at PokerStars,...and about $12 at Full Tilt because I use it daily...
Joined: May '08
Location: Lithuania
Age: 39 (M)
Posts: 10090
i don't think you're actually abusing stars/tilt in terms of currency conversion, you mentioned yourself it does cost <0.5%, this might look very cheap to you, but consider doing 100 of such conversions in 1 day and you will be left with 50% roll. btw if this fee looks small to you, check how much you can actually pay when you have no dealing desk brokerage account (in forex).
Joined: Mar '09
Location: Greece
Age: 47 (F)
Posts: 14136
With that 0.5%, they are making some serious money in general. Something that most of the sites dont do and let the ewallets do the conversions, which are much higher at 2.95% now
Joined: Nov '11
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 67 (M)
Posts: 3361
i keep my money (most of it) in skrill,then when i need to put some $ anywhere i can move it about where and when i want to. i think this is the easiest way to go.
Joined: Apr '11
Location: Romania
Age: 35 (M)
Posts: 6669
0.5% for currency conversion is not so bad actually, i mean wallets charge you more...
Still, if you have the stars/ftp account in the same currency in which you have the skrill currency is much, much better. Plus you can always deposit on other poker sites from there!
About the fees that PS and FT charge for currency conversion:
I recently moved $60 from FT to PS, via skrill, because I couldn't enter a bonus code, with the paired account option.
The thing is that my skrill is in EUR currency (my mistake), so there were 2 conversions USD => EUR and back EUR => USD. After these two conversions, I ended up with $59.71...
That works out to be 0.24% per conversion.
If I had let Skrill do the conversions; it would have cost me 2.95% twice (almost $3.50)... I believe my bank charges even more for these conversions, as does Party Poker.
As far as I'm aware you can't get it cheaper than that, unless you start day trading currencies with a professional broker, then the margin can be as low as 0.05% (which pochui mentioned).
However, I won't be using skrill anymore, now I found UKash, which allows free transfers, without the need for setting up an account, and bypasses the "deposit before you can withdraw" hassle... Now I can withdraw from Party Poker (USD) => UKash (USD) => Pokerstars (USD) free of charge, and from there convert to EUR to => Skrill (EUR) for 0.24%.
Does anyone actually just have accounts in their own currency on the various poker sites? If so, are there any disadvantages to that? I can't for the life of me remember why I didn't just do that...
All poker funds are separated by keeping them in my Skrill account. Like most here started with 0 and worked my way up. It's not a large amount...keeps me playing. Find this a good way to keep track of fun money and transfers are quick and easy in most cases. Nice thread and poll Marquis Might give UKash a try souds interesting.
Joined: Feb '11
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 59 (M)
Posts: 5712
Move it around. Make the most of deposit bonusses etc and use it wisely. Your Bankroll on online poker is much more thn just entry fees. Use it wisely and make it grow in as many different ways as you can.
Joined: Mar '09
Location: Greece
Age: 47 (F)
Posts: 14136
If you have made a decent amount from poker, its better to keep that money in a bank i believe, since its the only place that you can gain some interest on it. If you leave for too long money in ewallets its just a waste, since you are not getting anything more from there.
If you want marqis you can request a currency change with Skrill, You will have to close your account and open a new one.
Joined: Jan '11
Location: United States
Age: 60 (M)
Posts: 3361
Just so I never get carried away I usually put money on my pre-pay credit card for a couple of reasons. 1. I'm paranoid to put my credit card number and information online to where someone could gain access and use my credit line.
2. it does prevent me from ever placing more then a $100 at a time and lasts for quite sometime, but I manage to lose it all no matter if I go up to $300 or more I just get reckless.
Joined: Jan '12
Location: Slovenia
Age: 32 (M)
Posts: 1405
I have almost all at the moneybookers- skrill acount. When i like to play i just trasfer to poker room to have like for few buy ins. if i loose i transfer another. I don't like to have too much money at the poker house, couse i don't thrust them.
