Start a poker career completely free?

That's right. I'm not about to tell you it's easy. Heck, I'm not even sure if it is entirely possible in practice, but I know in theory it can be done. The explosion in popularity of poker and online poker brought about a complex set of changes. No, it's not just the fact that every day hundreds, probably thousands of people who have never played a poker hand in their lives decide it might be something for them, although that too is part of the phenomenon, and as such, linked to the other ramifications of the issue. Popularity brought about bigger player numbers on one hand, which meant online poker rooms made more money. On the other hand, the profitability of the business meant that hundreds of online poker rooms sprung up all over the internet, looking to carve themselves a share (be that small as may be) of the global poker industry revenue. This led to an escalation of the competition. Whenever well-funded profitable organizations compete for the attentions of poker players, it is the everyday Joe who usually has the most to gain. As the gloves were off, poker rooms started offering more and more generous bonuses and promotions in order to deal their opponents a blow. As the blows exchanged became stronger and harder, some of them began targeting under the belt too. Nowadays, you shouldn't act surprised, no matter generous an online poker offer you stumble upon. Some poker rooms are willing to give part of their revenue back to their players. This is called rakeback, or more recently cashback (which is basically the same under a different name). Other poker rooms hire players to play, in order to provide action for the regular players and thus to boost critical player liquidity. These "hired" players are known as prop players and they get paid via an unusually generous (above 100% rakeback). Still other poker rooms simply give their players money, so they can begin real money play without investing a single cent of their own. These are called "free poker bankrolls" and they are out there in large enough numbers, so you can even afford the luxury to browse through them and decide which one is indeed the most advantageous. A free poker bankroll will usually consist of $10-$50, and in most of the cases it comes with no strings attached whatsoever. You don't have to unlock anything, you just get the money and play. Naturally, you won't be able to cash out until you have fulfilled certain requirements (this way, everyone would just take the money and be on their way). The reason I'm saying that building up a real and potent poker bankroll having started off a free one is extremely difficult, has to do with the amount of money you get when you sign up. No matter how rich and generous these poker rooms are, they cannot afford to give you more than I mentioned above. That much though, will just not be enough in most of the cases. Even though there are schools of fish out there, beating them is not nearly as easy as many online poker sites would have you imagine. Texas Holdem (the most popular poker variant) is a game of high variance, and it is highly influenced by luck. That doesn't only mean that rookies will have a good chance of upsetting pros too, it also means that you'll need a hefty bankroll to stand up to the variance. A meager one, like the one you'll get for free, just won't be able to absorb the amount of damage you're likely to experience. If you do manage to build up a considerable bankroll having started off zero, I'd sure appreciate your telling me about it too.