Guide to Online Poker Bonuses

One selling point a poker sites uses are their bonuses. In fact, it’s really the only angle they use in their marketing efforts. There’s just something about getting $600, $1000 or $2500 free that captures someone’s attention.

But before you jump at the first bonus that catches your eye, you’ll want to learn more about them. What they are, how bonuses work and how to get the best (and preferably biggest) bonus possible.

Beginners Guide to Poker Bonuses

What is a Poker Bonus?

A poker bonus is a promotion that site operators offer to customers. An incentive.

The most common offer is the first time deposit bonus. This is reserved for players who are new to the poker site and have not yet made a deposit. The idea is to encourage these players to make a deposit so that the poker site can generate revenue from you. Usually the way poker bonuses work is that the player will pay more into rake than the poker operator will pay out at any given time. So seemingly, the player is earning free money, but it’s much less than what you eventually pay to the operator to play, not only during the course of your bonus, but over the course of your lifetime as a customer.

There are several types of bonuses that you’ll come across:

• Deposit – These bonuses are reserved to players who have yet to make their first deposit.
• Reload – These bonuses are for existing players. They are usually smaller than deposit bonuses.
• Match – This is the most common type of bonus (for deposit and reload offers). The poker site will match a percentage of your deposit up to so many dollars. For example, 100% up to $600. Every dollar you deposit the poker site will give you a dollar back up to no more than $600.
• No Deposit / Free Bankroll – This is free money that the poker site gives you, usually as soon as you create your account. These bonuses are much smaller, less than $20, and in the majority of cases are for playing only (you can’t withdraw them, just the money you earn with them).
• Banking – These types of bonuses are given when you use a certain banking method.

The size of bonus offers vary, but I’ve seen offers from $5 up to $10,000. In the case of match bonuses, the highest match I’ve seen is 300%.

How Do Poker Bonuses Work

The process of deposit bonuses is simple. Here is how they work.

As you go through the pages or reviews on our site (or any site for that matter), you’ll see our top recommendations, along with the bonus. In some cases there will be a code. If so, you’ll want to grab that code.

Once you visit the site, download it and create your account, you’ll want to make your deposit. Choose your option, fill out the details and how much you want to deposit. If you have a deposit code, enter that, then hit submit.

From there the bonus will be automatic. It’ll either be put into your account right away, or in the case of a match bonus, once you start to play real money games and clear it.

Clearing requirements are important to understand. Poker operators put these into place so that people cannot game the system and rip the sites off. In other words, to earn your bonus you’ll need to play real money games, pay into rake and after so many dollars in rake, the site will release your bonus into your account. The most common increment is $5, but that will vary from site to site. Most offers have expiration dates, too. In most cases if you don’t clear the entire bonus, you’ll get to keep what you did earn, and the difference will expire.

Be aware that if, at any time, you break the terms of the clearing requirements, the poker sites reserve the right to retract their bonus, as well as any money you’ve won with it. So they’re important to read and understand. We try to cover these in our reviews so there are no surprises once you sign up.

Finding the Best Deposit Bonus

Finding the best deposit bonus isn’t the easiest thing to explain. That’s because it’s relative to your needs, wants, bankroll and time.

One thing you don’t want to do is sign up to a poker site just for their deposit bonus. The deposit bonus is just that — a bonus — it’s not going to define your experience at the site like their games, software, customer service and integrity will. Those are all more important traits of a site than their promotions.

Once you’ve determined the site is worth playing at, and you want to compare bonuses in more detail, this is what I recommend you think about:

• The match. The higher the percentage the operator will match you, the further each dollar of your deposit goes. For example, find a 150% match bonus and you’ll receive $1.50 for every $1 that you deposit. In most cases I’d rather take a higher match than a higher bonus amount. You just get more bang for your buck. The exception is that if you can take full advantage of the deposit amount.
• Clearing requirements. You need to figure out if you’re capable of clearing the bonus fast enough before it expires. Also ask yourself if the clearing requirements are reasonable. The average is around $20-$30 of rake for every $5 of your bonus.
• How much money do you have? If you have $20 to deposit, a free (instant) bonus is much better than trying to clear a match deposit bonus. You get the money instantly, the clearing requirements are better and you don’t have to worry about going broke and missing out on the rest of your bonus.

Once you find the best deposit bonus, then just go sign up.

If you find several bonuses you like, another option is to bonus hunt. That’s too big a topic to discuss here, but the idea is to start out at the site with the lowest and/or easiest bonus to clear. Once you clear that, take your money to another site and do the same thing. Keep working up the chain until you’ve taken advantage of several bonuses and build a huge bankroll for yourself. This can be done with pretty much any size bankroll, so long as you make a plan beforehand.