Poker Bonuses

Poker Bonuses Explained

Many people especially the novice poker players have been deceived with such phrases/ advertisements showcased by many online poker rooms. Poker rooms will convince you to register and deposit funds in your account and promise to give you a bonus.
Is it true what they say?

Most online poker sites state that for each initial deposit made you will get to receive a 100% match up deposit bonus of up to $500 or more depending on which site you are registering.

Yes, it is true. As soon as you make your first deposit, you will get to receive your bonus.

But, does it mean you can use it to wager during ring/cash games or cash it out immediately?

In this guide, We outline everything you need to know about poker bonuses. As soon as you register and make your first deposit, you get to receive your bonus, but there are two sides of the story –

(I) Claiming your bonus
(II) Clearing your bonus

By claiming your bonus (registering and making your first deposit), it does not mean you can use the bonus immediately or cash it out. Once you have claimed your bonus, you will get to receive a bonus account. This means that you will now be having two balances – one for your actual funds and the other for your bonus.

For instance, if a poker room is offering you a 100% match up deposit bonus of up to $500. You proceed to register at that poker room and make an initial deposit of $100, your account will show two balances -$100 as actual funds available at which you can use the funds to play at any ring game /tournament and the other balance will show $100 as bonus available.

By claiming your bonuses, you now have to clear the bonus so as for you to use it or cash it out. Some poker room’s software will show you a bar meter on how you are clearing your bonus amount. In order for you to clear your bonus amount, you need to make use of your actual funds available by wagering at any ring game or by playing tournaments that require buy-ins.

By making use of your actual funds, playing ring games you will get to receive player points for each hand wagered / played and these player points enable you to clear your bonus amount. A certain number of player points are required to clear $1 of your bonus amount. For instance, other sites would require you to have 20 player points or more to clear a $1 of your bonus amount while others would require certain player points to clear your bonus amount in segments of $10 or more. Once you have cleared part of you bonus amount it is automatically transferred to your actual funds available balance.

A common mistake made by new online poker players is claiming a bonus that is too big for you to clear. Many new online poker players fail to clear their bonus because it will be too large and they do not have experience in acquiring player points. A good way to clear your bonus fast is for you to claim a small bonus and have it cleared quickly by playing tournaments that require buy-ins at which you get to receive more player points and much easier than acquiring player points through ring games.

One thing you should note is that each online poker room gives you a certain period such as 30 days or more to clear your bonus. Failure to clear your bonus during that period will result your bonus amount being forfeited.