Poker Bonuses - Overview

There are over 400 online poker rooms available and there is big competition between the poker rooms.

Therefore almost every room is offering promotions for it's players.

These promotions are for example:

First deposit bonuses
Reload Bonus
Loyalty Program
free tournament tickets
special tournaments with big guaranteed prize pools
Jackpot tables
.....

Our collection of the best poker bonuses you will find online:

Pokerstars.com - $50 first deposit money and $90 on top
Fulltilt Poker

First Deposit Bonus explained

You open a new real money account at a poker room. After registration of your new account you need to deposit money so that you are able to play.

Almost every room is offering a first deposit bonus.

Lets's say your room offers a 100% up to $500 first deposit bonus. The question of many beginners now is:

What's all about such an offer?

Just a trick of the poker room to make me deposit?

Not at all.

In the example above, after depositing for example $500 you will have $500 in your real money account and $500 in your bonus account.

To get the money in the bonus account, you need to "clear" the bonus.

Clearing a bonus is done just by playing and collecting points. Points are collected for example by playing a number of hands in real money cash games.

After clearing x points ( conditions depend on the poker rooms), they will automatically transfer n dollar of your bonus account to your real money account.

And after clearing all money in your bonus account, you will of course be able to cashout all the money of your real money account to the cashout options your room is offering. ( (including bank wire, cheque, credit card, Neteller, Moneybookers, etc.)

The Bonus money is really free money you get from the poker room. Why are they giving you a gift ??

Well, the poker rooms make their money by taking a rake from every hand reaching a minimum pot size. 5% (capped at $3) are a common number for rake.

Let's say you play a hand and the pot is $10 at the end. Then the poker room will pay $9.50 to the winner and take $0.50 for themselves.

They earn big money when many hands are played at real money tables in their room.

Therefore they like to see as many players as possible playing in their room. To attract players, they are offering promotions.

Last update : 12-07-2008 02:05