Choosing the Right Poker Bonus Offer
Poker banners aren’t hard to spot, but they don’t tell the full story. When you’re looking to make a deposit somewhere, you need to shop around a little. Obviously, you shouldn’t choose a room just based on their deposit bonus offer. You want to consider other factors such as the reputation of the room, the quality of the software, the traffic, the promotions, etc. Assuming you’ve done that narrowed down your options now is the time to look at bonus offers.
Most poker players go for the biggest bonus offer and are often disappointed when they end up with nothing. How is that possible? Because bonus offers usually have play requirements and time limits to meet these requirements. What should matter to you the most is not necessarily “how much”, but just “how”. How do you earn your bonus? Here’s an example of how poker banners can be deceiving:
Poker room XYZ offers a 100% up to $600
Poker Room ABC offers 100% up to $500
Which of this has the best offer? Most players will answer that room A has the best deal, but that may not be true. If you look at how you earn a bonus, most poker rooms base it on their point system. In this case, Poker room XYZ earns you a $1 bonus every time you accumulate 10 player points. Room ABC will only release $1 once you earn 20 points. So clearly, room ABC is not giving you a great deal. You need twice the points to get the same $1 bonus. Right? Not necessarily…
Although in our example the point requirement 꽁머니 is much lower at room XYZ, the next question you need to ask yourself is how those points are actually earned. There is no standard system in the gambling industry, and that’s why things get so confusing when it comes to . A bit of research might reveal that for every $0.15 rake you generate, you earn one point at room XYZ. Meaning, every time you rake $1.50, you earn the 10 points you need for $1 bonus dollar. If your deposit was for $200, then you would need to rake $300 to earn the free $200.
Let’s assume that you earn points faster at room ABC. For every $0.07 in rake you get 1 player point. This means you’ll rake $1.40 to get the 20 points required to earn a $1 bonus. With a deposit of $200, it means you’ll actually need to rake $280 to earn the free $200 so which room has the best deal after all? You can only compare the bonus offers when you factor in what is required to earn a bonus dollar. Then you’ll comparing apples with apples.
Another factor to take into account is the time limit. Some rooms will give 30 days, 60 days or 90 days to earn a particular bonus. Others will not have a deadline. It’s always different from room to room, and rooms that let you choose amongst multiple bonuses will typically have different requirement per bonus offer. After factoring how much rake you need to earn to get the bonus, factor in the time. If you can’t manage to rake the better bonus in a 30 day period, then perhaps you would be better off with the second best offer if it gives you more time to clear it.
The last thing to consider when it comes to bonus codes is how the bonus is released. Some offers only pay the full bonus once conditions are met. If you fail to meet all conditions, then you get nothing. In other words, if you have 90 days to clear a bonus but fail to meet the requirements by just 1 point out of the required total, you get nothing. Other rooms have a better system where your bonus is gradually released as you earn it. For instance, your account could be credited with $20 every time you accumulate so many points. What good about these bonuses is that you gain money as you earn and if you don’t manage to earn the full 100% by the deadline, you keep what was already paid. Maybe you only get to clear $180 in 60 days instead of the full $200, but at least you got most of it. Beats getting nothing, right?
