Most online poker sites have a minimum deposit amount that they will accept from real money players. Every deposit costs the poker site some money in transaction fees from the payment processor, so they enforce a minimum deposit in the hope that the depositing player will pay enough rake to cover the cost of the payment processing and they will make a profit from the deposit.

Fortunately, the minimum deposit amounts are usually quite low and won’t put much of a strain on your wallet, particularly if you’re using very common deposit methods like Visa or Mastercard. In most cases, the minimum poker deposit amount will be in the region of $10-25. Sometimes if you’re using an eWallet like Neteller or Moneybookers, or other methods like eChecks, Ukash, or Paysafe cards you’ll find that the minimum deposit can be a little higher.

Best Small Deposit Poker Sites for Players in United States

Are there any $5 Minimum Deposit Poker Sites?

While the minimum deposit for online poker is normally at least $10, a handful of sites offer a minimum $5 deposit option. For example Everest Poker offer a $5 minimum to players depositing by credit card, while players at VC Poker can deposit $5 by almost all of their available payment methods, with the exception of Paysafe.

$10 Minimum Deposit Poker Sites

Some of the big poker rooms have a $10 minimum deposit amount. PokerStars has a $10 minimum for every deposit option except bank wire transfer. Carbon Poker offers a $10 minimum deposit for players who deposit by ClickandBuy, but this is increased to $20 for credit card deposits. Party Poker also offers a $10 minimum for a wide range of popular deposit options including credit card, local debit card (e.g. Bancontact in Belgium, Instadebit in the UK, iDeal in the Netherlands) ewallet, and even PayPal.

Other big sites like Bodog and Cake Poker have higher minimum deposit requirements, typically in the $20 to $25 range.

What Games Can I Play with a $10 Deposit?

A $10 deposit will give you a good choice of games to play, depending on how much poker action you want to get out of your deposit. For example, many sites offer $1+$0.10 sit and go tournaments, so you could play 9 of these, or risk your entire $10 on a single sit n’ go. The same applies to multi-table tournaments, where some sites have buyins as low $0.10. You could of course use your $10 to enter a single big field tournament and a shot at some big money.

For cash games, $10 will give a single 100 big blind buy-in to a 5c/10c cash game, or if you like to play with a shorter stack, you could buy-in for 20 big blinds in a 25c/50c game and get involved in bigger pots more often. Most sites have a 20 big blind minimum and in some cases 30 big blinds. These limits are in place to stop the games being ruined by professional short stack players who use a mathematical formula to play with stacks of around 10 big blinds.

$20 Deposit Online Poker Sites

While some sites are happy to take $5 and $10 poker deposits, the majority of online poker rooms have a minimum deposit of $20 in place. In general, you can use any depositing method to lodge $20, including all credit and debit cards, ewallet services such as Moneybookers or Neteller, and prepaid cards or vouchers. The best way to get full value out of a $20 poker deposit is to play small stakes sit and gos and small buyin multi table tournaments, until you’ve built up a big enough bankroll to get to the cash tables where you can look to grow your bankroll even further.