Taking Advantage Of Poker Room Bonuses

With so many poker rooms competing for your business there are a large number of bonus incentives available to those players who wish to take advantage of them. However not all bonuses are equal, the clearance rates, additional incentives and terms attached can vary widely from site to site. This article looks at how to best take advantage of poker room bonuses.

We start by looking at initial sign-up bonuses and how these are cleared. Next reload bonuses, ‘VIP clubs’ and additional incentives are factored in. Finally some of the practical steps involved in getting the most from these bonuses will be covered including depositing and withdrawing cash.

Initial Sign Up Bonuses

The ‘headline’ sign-up bonuses offered by poker rooms are seen all over the internet on flashing banners. The key is to make sure you investigate the clearance rates before going forward with any bonus. The bonuses usually match your initial deposit and often run into 4 figures – however some of these are so slow to clear that you will need to wager many times your bankroll, risking going broke before the bonus is completed.

Clearing poker room bonuses comes from contributions to the ‘rake’ in cash games and from tournament fees. For each hand (or tournament) played a proportion of your overall fee will go towards clearing the bonus. Your progress towards clearing will usually be measured in terms of the ‘points’ earned at a poker site.

In turn you can work out how quickly a bonus will clear by seeing how many points are earned for the games in which you wish to play and the total amount of points required. Some poker rooms release your bonus in increments of $5 or $10 while others require that you clear the whole bonus before releasing this in one lump sum.

Many poker rooms require that you use a bonus code or sign up code to receive the bonus.  Some examples of this are the Party Poker Bonus Code and the Cake Poker Bonus Code.

Other Incentives

In addition to the sign-up bonuses many sites offer additional incentives to join. These can include freerolls, access to ‘beginner tables’ and regular re-load bonuses. Taking advantage of these incentives can be boosted by not playing at a particular room for a period of time – the rooms will e-mail extra offers to encourage your return.

A key factor in taking advantage of poker room bonuses is the ability to deposit and withdraw cash into and from the sites. For players who are serious about clearing multiple bonuses this should involve signing up to one of the many electronic wallet services available. The initial setup may involve more work than a one-off transfer, however since you are likely to initiate many transactions the effort will pay for itself over time. Once set up you will be in a position to move your money around as new bonuses appear.

Since poker room bonuses often clear slowly, learning to multi-table can also help you take advantage. Playing multiple tables, each with a small proportion of your bankroll, will reduce the chance of a bad run of cards wiping out your initial deposit too.

To summarize, not all poker room bonuses are equal. The key factors are how quickly a bonus clears in your preferred games and the extra incentives offered by a particular poker room. Setting up an electronic wallet account will allow you to quickly move your bankroll to take advantage of the latest bonus offers, while multi-tabling will allow you to clear them quickly.

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