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Poker bonus – what’s the catch?

An online poker player earns their bonus by playing in real-money cash games or tournaments and earning a designated number of Frequent Player Points (FPPs). Upon signing into a poker room and making the initial deposit, one’s FPPs begin to be tallied for every poker hand played. It should be noted that play money, satellite as well as freeroll tournaments do not constitute part of the FPPs. On earning initial FPPs, they are updated on one’s cash balance and poker rooms go one step further and send an e-mail to a player confirming that their bonus has been sent to the cash account.

Big bonuses aren’t always best!

Prior to signing up, it is prudent to look at the bonuses on offer. The biggest ones are not always the best. Most rooms require you to play a certain amount of raked hands in order to collect on the bonus e.g. a room may offer a $200 bonus to players making up their first deposit but the bonus is cashed upon playing 500 raked hands. Other rooms release the bonus in stages e.g. releasing $20 of the bonus for every set number of hands played until the whole bonus has been collected. As almost every online poker site offers a first deposit with 100% match, one gets an amount equal to their deposit but this money is not immediately cleared to one’s account so as to prevent a situation where a player would simply withdraw the deposit and leave the site. This money is put in a bonus account and to get it into a regular account, the bonus has to be cleared.

Bonus clearance restraints

Clearing a bonus involves playing the required number of hands as earlier stated and this is again dependent on individual sites. At times one has to generate a rake amount that is equal to the bonus by playing cash games. Clearing bonuses on some sites may be under time constraints so it is important to check the account to see how much time one has to clear the bonus. If time is at a premium, one may opt to play more quickly on more tables – even if the play is at the lower limits. Failing to clear the bonus in the time required may make one forfeit the bonus and this in turn leads to money wasted not to mention the time and effort that will have been wasted in earning it. It is also worth taking into account that even the best online poker bonus can only be as good as the site on which it is being offered.