Poker Articles

By Fox | Published Jul 26 2005, 03:22 AM
I get more and more questions about bonus whoring, and I really don't have time yet to write the whole article on going pro, but I'll get to it when I get back from this road trip. So....  Here's a quick and dirty guide to bonus whoring.

The list of bonuses is as long as the list of sites, and they are all fighting hard for new players these days. It costs a site an average of $225 to recruit each new player, so they don't mind giving you a generous bonus to get you signed up.  Be cautious though, some sites offer huge bonuses that come in at incredibly slow rates. A number of the large bonuses out there right now come in at about 3%  of the rake you pay. Not a great deal.

The sites change things  so frequently that giving you a whole list of bonuses and how to use and abuse them would be pointless. It would be outdated next week anyway. What you need to learn to do is break down the bonuses yourself. The first thing to do is get out your calculator and learn how each bonus works. Every site has a page on their web site that explains their player rewards system and how the points are obtained. Write down the pertinent information and then find the page that tells you about the bonus.

For example let's say site A requires 10 Frequent Fish Points for every dollar in bonus money that is released. Let's also say that those FFP's are awarded for every raked hand in which you are dealt cards. 1 FFP for any raked hand and another FFP if the pot is more than $20.

In this situation you are getting $1 for every ten raked hands at the  lowest limit tables. If you are playing NL or a higher limit game then you will get them at a faster rate depending on how often the pot gets to be $20. Assuming you have a small bankroll and you play Omaha8 fairly well, this is a very good bonus. Playing 60 hands an hour (a reasonable assumption online) at each table, and assuming 90% of hands are raked (also a reasonable assumption at a pot limit Omaha8 table) then you will be getting 54 raked hands per hour. That's $5.40 per hour, per table in bonus dollars coming in.

You could easily fold every hand and beat this bonus, as 60 hands will only cost you a little over $2 in blinds and will net you $5.40 in bonus money. When you add in the fact that some of the hands will be over $20 you probably make $6/hr with this bonus, and you can also add some winnings into the equation if you like. Assuming you play 4 tables at a time you are making $24/hr and you can then add your winnings on to that.

Also make sure to check and see if tournament entry fees help you collect bonus dollars, and read the whole explanation of the player reward system and the current bonus. Get organized, get yourself a calender and a saved file on your computer that contains all the information on different bonus policies and player points systems, so that you don't have to do the math and hunt for the web pages every time.

Once you do the numbers you'll see that Bodog rocks and UB sucks when it comes to bonus whoring. The other major sites are in between somewhere. Be careful with Bodog though, I know a number of people who have gotten emails about "abusing the bonus program". I suggest giving them some play in the ring games and waiting a few days between cashing out and redepositing.

Find ways to get in a lot of raked hands. Most sites count raked hands for their bonuses. On the Party network you will find that Pot Limit Omaha HiLo and NL Hold Em are the best games to collect your bonus dollars. At Bodog and Stars you will find that SNG's are the fastest way. At UB the fastest way is to play limit games for a million hours and then be thankful for the 6 dollars in bonus money you have collected.

Get a Neteller and an IGMPay account, because some sites will give you an extra bonus with one or the other.

If you need to get an account at a Party skin and it won't let you because you have an account at another skin, then you need to go to a new computer for the sign up phase. After this you can play all your accounts at home on the same computer with no problem.

Get accounts for each site and make sure they are all under the same email account. Most sites will email you about upcoming bonuses. I also post particularly good bonuses in my blog sometimes.

My favorite site for whoring is Bodog, followed by the Party skins, and Absolute. I probably move my money into ten different sites each month as various bonuses appear that are worth collecting.

Stars just announced a reload bonus by the way, which is great because they don't offer an initial deposit bonus. It comes in at a fairly good clip playing ring games, and an awesome rate playing SNG's or other tourneys. The bonus dollars come in at the same rate you pay tourney fees on Stars, so you can play 50+5 SNG's and they are really 50+0 while you have bonus dollars.

If you want to be a serious bonus whore get yourself a calender too, and plot out your bonuses. It's all about being organised. I make about 1k a month in bonuses, and people who are really serious about it probably make another three or four hundred. If you can show a significant profit on your play, then you can probably break $2500 a month between winnings and bonuses just playing 3/6 or $25 NL tables part time. It's how I built my bankroll.  These days I play higher and don't whore as much, but when there's free money I sure take it.

Well there it is, a quick and dirty guide to bonus whoring. I really sort of cobbled it together from other things I've written, but I think most of the pertinent information is in there somewhere.  The road trip is going well so far, I'll give a full report on it when I get home.

See you at the final table,
Fox