From Cardplayer's August 23, 2005 issue:

"Bonus whoring is the practice of jumping from site to site, earning bonuses by meeting the minimum requirement, then moving your money to another site for a new bonus. It takes away game selection from your poker game and seems like a lot of work for not much money to me, but lots of people do it. Obviously, this type of customer is not what the site is looking for when offering bonuses."

Gee fox looks like im not the only one out there who thinks there is something fundamentally wrong with this practice.

My entire point is that its meant to bring FISH to the site so that players like you ncgopman1 can take advantage of them and win their money in ring games.. NOT meant to be taken advantage of by players like FOX

"seems like a lot work for not much money to me"

who wrote this? it makes all the difference.

obviously people with large bankroll don't need the $100 that a site will give out. They can make enough per hour that it wouldn't be worth their time.

For a low limit player like me, however, adding $50 to your bankroll or $5 to your hourly rate means something.

as for the bolded statement:

if it wasn't for bodog's bonus, i would have never played there. now it's my home for sngs and mtts.

Seps- it sounds like you are serious, if you are being sarchastic and it went over my head then please ignore this.

"Something fundamentally wrong with this practice" ??? You mean the practice of making money? Why would I play on site X when I can play the exact same game on site Y and make extra money for doing it. You wouldn't work at a job for $7/hour when you could work the exact same job for $17/hour would you? Nobody would.

People chasing bonuses aren't exactly hurting these poker sites either. The amount of money taken in rake far exceeds the bonus that is being given out. The bonues chasers increase the number and selection of games played for all of the customers at that site and increase the poker sites revenue. Just because the editor/ writer of a magazine has the personal opinion that this type of customer is not what the site is looking for doesn't mean they're right. If a site was that concerned about bonus chasers and all the extra revenue they bring in the site wouldn't have a bonus.

-phidelt799

Also you'll note if you go to a site like bonuswhores that many poker sites are giving promos away to bonuswhores "members" exclusively. Right now I've noticed interpoker and UB are giving deposit bonuses that are slightly better than the norm for using a bonus whores promo code, and party is having a $1500 freeroll for people that sign up through their site. I can't imagine that too many fishies would even know about a site like bonuswhores, and obviously the poker sites feel that advertising there and giving away exclusive promos there is to their benefit.

"im not the only one out there who thinks there is something fundamentally wrong with this practice."

Hmmm...

I dont think anything in the quote from cardplayer suggests the writer thinks that "there is something fundamentally wrong with....". He just states that it seems alot of trouble for nothing to him (i imagine he has a big bank roll!!!!) and that the sites arent neccesarily offering the bonuses to attract these people (of course they arent!!!!).

Now if he had said something along the lines of "F BONUS WHORES, THEY SUCK BECAUSE OF......" then that could be entrepretted as saying its fundamentally wrong. but if he had said something like that i doubt he'd be writing for cardplayer, more likely to be spouting his ungrounded words in a poker forum........

Bonus whoring is one of the best ways if not the best way to built up a bankroll. I see nothing wrong with it.

I personally also find it sad that after a line had apparently been drawn with regards to negative posts etc... the very next day this is posted. This had no other purpose but to needle fox and continue an argument from a previous thread...IMHO

F Penguins

Seps, I disagree with you on some things & agree with you on others.

On the bonus collecting, anyone would be dumb not to take advantage of getting a bonus when it's offered by the site. Most sites do have a requirement of hours to be played to collect them.

On the other hand, (probably a bad analogy, but here goes) Anything can be abused. Take our welfare system. It's designed to help those in need, but we all know that if you "work" it just right, you can live forever on the taxes of others. While this may not be illegal (but sometimes is), it's certainly not what was intended when it was begun.

I think Seps's point about bonus collecting being meant to lure new players to their site is correct. The sites I'm sure didn't intend for it to be a "welfare" system for those already playing & winning. That said, there is nothing to stop anyone from collecting these bonuses and it's up to each person as to whether it's profitable for them to do so.

I collected the bonus from Bodog because I was trying out a new site & was grateful for the bonus, but to go from site to site is not my thing because I don't play ring games which is usually a requirement for the bonus.

The difference between poker bonuses and welfare is that when I am collecting a bonus the site is still making a profit on me. If they were actually losing money on their bonus programs then the comparison would be fair.

To be honest I haven't used bonus programs in the last 6 months because I have other things going on and the bonus programs aren't worth it. I'll still happily teach anyone how to do it though.

Coming soon: The Economics of Bonus Whoring