Guide To Poker Signup Bonuses
Online poker rooms have been giving away free bonus money to attract new players for many years. You can expect a bonus whenever you make your first deposit at a poker room. These online poker bonuses come in many forms though. Some poker sites allow you to play with the bonus right away and others make you earn it. I have found that the best signup bonuses are rarely the largest and I will explain why in this post. There are three aspects to a poker bonus that will change from room to room:
- Bonus size
- Bonus clearance requirements
- How the bonus is credited
The Size Of An Online Poker Bonus
Size matters for many things in life but poker room bonuses are not one of them, at least for most people. There are two variables in a standard poker site signup bonus; the match percentage and the maximum bonus amount. Most people think the max bonus amount is the important variable but it isn’t. The match percentage is what you want to look at. A 100% bonus up to $5,000 is just as good as a 100% bonus up to $50 if you only make an initial deposit of $50. Not too many people are comfortable making a $500-$600 deposit at an online poker site, especially when they have just signed up.
The typical match amount for a poker room bonus is 100% but I have seen some over 200%. Let’s see if you have learned anything yet. Which of these bonuses is better for the typical online poker player?
- Bonus 1 – 100% match up to $1,000
- Bonus 2 – 150% match up to $300
Hopefully your answer is Bonus 2 since it gives the vast majority of people the most bang for their buck. The only time that this logic doesn’t work out is when you plan on depositing a lot of money. You should never play at an online poker room just because they offer a nice bonus. VIP programs will provide 100X more value to loyal players than a one-time bonus offer.
Clearing A Poker Room Bonus
All online poker sites use fine print to explain their bonus policies. Sometimes they are reasonable and other times they are outrageous. Internet poker companies use clearance requirements to prevent people from abusing their deposit bonuses. There are huge online poker communities that are dedicated to doing exactly that. They go from one room to another and try to cashout the bonus money, as well as whatever they deposited, while playing as little as possible in hopes of making a profit.
You will usually have to earn a certain number of poker points per bonus dollar. An average small stakes player can clear $10 worth of bonus money per hour at one room and only $2 at a different room. You should carefully read the bonus policy before you make a deposit.
How The Bonus Is Credited
Bonus money can be credited to your real money account several different ways. The best is an instant credit but this is very rare these days. The second best and most common method used by poker rooms is to credit the bonus in small increments. Some rooms will do $5 installments and others will do $20 installments. The final method requires you to clear the entire bonus and they will give it to you in one lump sum. These should be avoided because if you do not clear the whole bonus before a certain amount of time you will not receive anything, even if you had cleared 90% of it.