Poker Bonuses and How to Clear Them

When new players enter the world of online poker for the first time, they can often be blinded by the vast range of first time deposit bonuses that are on offer.

Some don’t even reach that stage, and choose to go for a no deposit bonus that instantly put a small amount of cash into their account in the hope of building up a bankroll on somebody else’s money. More often than not, the bonus gets lost fairly quickly as there’s never enough in hand to cope with that early bad beat or lack of experience that costs you against the sharks.

A better option is to find a site that offers to match or even better your initial deposit and there are plenty of them about. On paper, this seems like a good idea. Some sites offer as much as 400% extra on top of your initial deposit, meaning that you’ll be getting $500 of poker playing money for just depositing $100 of your own,

Unfortunately, it’s easy to become blinded by the glossy advertisement on the home page of some poker sites. New players tend to rush into creating an account, they deposit their money and then sit there for several hours wondering why they’ve still only got the same amount in their account as they first deposited.

After losing the best part of an evening waiting for the credit meter to miraculously ping up their bonus money, the player eventually contacts the friendly girl on Live Chat and asks what’s happened to his free money. To his dismay, the friendly girl tells him that to receive his bonus money he has to play through a required number of hands to qualify for it. Even then, the bonus money will only be paid out a dollar at a time.

The friendly girl informs the new player that the play-through criteria was clearly explained in the terms and conditions on the home page and when the new player checks this out, he finds it to be true. To release his bonus, he’s going to have to play poker non-stop for the next 14 years. He switches of the computer, turns off the lights and goes to bed feeling as if he’s just been well and truly fooled into spending money that now sits in limbo in a virtual poker bank.

In fairness to the poker rooms, the play-through criteria on most sites has come into play because of those who joined multiple sites when poker rooms began offering big first-time deposit bonuses. Many just dropped in the maximum amount, played one hand in the 1c/2c room to make their bonus then disappeared forever.

The relative dishonesty of others spoiled it for the overwhelming majority who simply wanted to maximise their bankrolls to play more poker. Thankfully, honest poker players who want to play through to earn their bonus and beyond still have some great choices when it comes to making that important first deposit.

There are still some sites out there, like Full Tilt Poker, that continue to employ fairly modest play-through criteria. When looking for a site that offers a competitive bonus offer, take an extra minute or two to read through the small print or send them an e-mail asking them to explain the bonus in simple terms for you.

Just because a site is offering to throw you $1,000 for nothing, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a good deal. Some sites may offer a massive percentage on your first deposit but if the amount of rakeback needed to earn the bonus is ten times your initial deposit, you’re going to be there forever.

Rakeback is a small amount of money taken from each pot that pays for the poker room you are using. Every time you pay into a pot, computer generated data is stored against your account so that the poker company can keep a track on your rakeback level. This rakeback level is used to help you qualify for bonus clearance or receiving cashback and loyalty points.

When you’re looking for a site that offers you a first time deposit bonus, try to find one that doesn’t ask for more than an equal amount of rakeback to the money you first deposited. This way, you’ll get through to your bonus much quicker than you would at a site that asks you to meet ten times your initial outlay.

Be aware that the bonus criteria will change greatly from site to site, and the incremental level in which money is released is also extremely variable. As long as you are not being asked to produce completely unreasonable amounts of rakeback, you shouldn’t have too many problems.

For the new player that wants to take on poker as a long-term pastime, meeting a play-through requirement should be a fairly quick and simple affair.