Playing the bonus game
Tuesday, April 20th, 2010Poker room hopping
Though it’s good for a player to stick to one poker room, many players will occasionally have other poker rooms on the side which may help them in accessing their bonuses of choice because it’s not always or for that matter ever that a poker room will offer all the good bonuses being offered out there. A poker room may have an outstanding bonus but from poker room to poker room, the bonuses differ and may suite different people and serve them in different ways.
Match your bonus to playing habits
A poker player’s level of action and expertise could be used as a benchmark on the best bonuses to target. Full Tilt poker recently offered a bonus to a group of people who won in different small tournaments they held in the month of January. This poker site is known for having pros and as such, new players would in no way be able to make it to the final stage. This type of bonus was only suitable for established players.
Clearing your bonus
As for newer players, though a bonus may be a sign-up bonus or a no deposit bonus, the means of clearing this bonus may be different. Most poker sites will not automatically deposit the bonus to the player’s account. Some will require that a player attain a certain number of FPPs before the money is deposited. Others may require one to play a certain number of raked hands before being able to access the deposit. Players who are new to poker and pick up slow should look for a no deposit bonus from a poker room which will be immediately deposited to the account. Though it may be ‘locked’ for withdrawal until a certain numbers of raked hands is attained, this type of bonus to be released as a whole is better for the new players because it helps them access the real money and play real cash games. If new players to poker who are slow learners were to pick a no deposit bonus with strict requirements, it would be hard to access the real money. For example, take a player registers with a new poker room and gets a no deposit bonus requiring them to attain a minimum number of points. Such points require one to play constantly and commit a lot of time in the poker room. If this new player is only an occasional visitor playing for recreational purposes, it would take an extremely long time for him/her to have the bonus deposited into their account. One the other hand, a sign-up bonus should be carefully assessed from room to room. Take for example one poker room offering a 100% match up to $200 and another offering 110% match up to $50. If a player were to sign up with $100, which poker room would best suite the player? The one with the higher percentage or the one with the lower one? In the room with 100%, the player would bag $100, while in the other, the player would get a maximum of $55 and thus in this case, it would be better to go for the room with the lower sign-up bonus as it has a higher match up.