Poker Bonus Hunting - A Step by Step Guide
I'm guessing your first question is probably something like: What on earth is "bonus hunting"?. Poker bonus hunting is a term that online poker players are using that essentially means signing up at many poker sites in order to collect the bonuses from each site. With dozens of online poker sites offering new players cash incentives and deposit promotions, poker bonus hunting is quickly becoming very popular with beginning poker players trying to build their bankroll.
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How much can I make poker bonus hunting?
A lot, actually. Many players turn their initial $50 into well over $2,000 through poker bonus hunting while still playing the $0.50/$1.00 game or $1/2 game. While it sounds almost too good to be true, many members of our own forum will attest to how easy it is. Bonus hunting is also low variance (meaning low risk) and simply requires more patience than anything, so it's easy for the beginner to do while learning the ropes of playing poker online. For experienced played, it's not uncommon to see players pulling in over $15/hr just through by the book poker and bonus hunting.
Why do the poker sites give so many promotions and sign-up bonuses?
Competition for new poker players is very fierce and as a result, the various poker sites are willing to dole out incentives and promotions in order to attract players. As a result, it often becomes a win-win situation for both the poker site and the player, as both sides can make money out of the arrangement.
Is poker bonus hunting the same as "bonus whoring"?
Yes. You'll find that many people refer to poker bonus hunting as "bonus whoring", which is the more popular but non-politically correct way of describing this way of making money.
The Step by Step Guide to Turn $50 into nearly $3000
Whether you are poker bonus hunting or not, it's obvious that you want to play tight, solid poker. Most of the time you'll be playing in the low limit games, so you'll want to play a fundamental game of betting with the best hands, only drawing to nut straights or flushes and folding everything else. If you are a beginning player, we recommend our texas hold'em guides if you need a primer on playing solid low limit poker.
In the below guide, you can make even more money than poker bonus hunting if you are a profitable player, but to be conservative, we will assume that whoever doing the bonus whoring is a break even player. So even if you are a terrible player, if you can just break even, you can still make a lot of money bonus hunting.
Note: You must use the links on this page in order to qualify for some of the bonuses, so be sure to bookmark this page and use the links here should you decide to become a poker bonus hunter!
Check the bonus forum for the latest updates about recent and new bonuses, as new bonuses can appear weekly.
Note that the bonus hunting guide is currently being updated, so while all the information is still accurate, you may see some discrepancies in totaling of poker bonus hunting time and also of bankroll.
- Sign-up at Party Poker and deposit $50. Use the Party Poker bonus code VIPCODE to receive a $25 bonus on your deposit. You are required to play 125 raked hands to get your bonus, which will take about 3 hours. You can check your progress by checking on your 'Bonus Account' through the cashier screen. Once your bonus is released, take your money out again.
Time: 3 hours --- Bonus: $25
- Sign up and create an account with PokerStars, PokerStars offers a 100% up to $50 sign up bonus. Deposit any amount $50 or more and use code "First2007" when you deposit to receive the bonus. It will take 5 FPPs (frequent player points) to release each $1 in bonus, which means you need 250 FPP points to get your bonus (about 12 hours). Once you have your bonus, withdraw to Neteller.
Time: 12 hours --- Bonus: $50
- Deposit $500 at Bodog Poker and get $50 with their automatic 10% deposit bonus. They require 135 points to release your bonus. The 140 points is worth approximately 420 hands depending on the limits you are playing at and should take about 10 hours to clear. Withdraw as usual when done.
Total time: 10 hours --- Total cash: $50
- By this time, you've logged over 100+ hours of poker and are hopefully becoming a better poker player and learning the ropes of the game. The reason I mention this, is because now that you have a sufficiently large bankroll, you can start hunting the big bonuses.
So far, it has been assumed that you have been playing at the $0.50/$1.00 or $1/$2 game, which clears bonuses very slow at the poker sites. If you are still playing these micro limit games when you want to clear the big bonuses, they will take quite a bit more time to do so. If you can start playing the low limit $2/4 or $3/6 game, your bonus clearing time will be reduced by half. So if you are a winning player, it is highly recommended you clear your bonuses playing at these limits.
- Deposit $400 at Pacific Poker to get a $100 bonus from their 25% up to $100 promotion; $2500 in money must be 'wagered' before your bonus is released, which is about 25 to 80 hours depending on your limits.
Total time: 389 hours (low) / 604 hours (micro) --- Total cash: $2035
- Deposit $200 at Royal Vegas Poker, getting a $200 bonus (100% match). Royal Vegas requires 2 times your bonus amount in rake to clear your bonus, which is a bit hard to calculate, but we'll estimate 10 hours to 30 hours depending on your limits.
Total time: 399 hours (low) / 634 hours (micro) --- Total cash: $2245
- Deposit $600 at Full Tilt Poker, getting a $600 bonus for their 100% match bonus. Requires 10000 points to release the bonus, which should take 120 to 240 hours. Use poker bonus code HREVIEW when signing up toreceive the bonus.
Total time: 519 hours (low) / 874 hours (micro) --- Total cash: $2820
- Deposit $200 at True Poker and get a $200 poker bonus from their 100% match promotion. The bonus will clear in $10 increments into your account for every 100 points. A raked hand with $1 in rake is equal to 1 point while a hand with less rake is worth 0.5 points. This means that if you're playing low stakes, this should take about 200 hands to clear every $10 in bonus.
Total time: 100 hours --- Total cash: $3220
- Now that you've played for over +500 hours, you are probably either broke (hopefully not!) or ready to play some real poker now that you have accumulated a decent bankroll. My personal suggestion is to pick the poker site that you were the most comfortable playing at and just stick with that site.
Another option is to take your money to a popular site such as Party Poker or Poker Stars, which is never a bad idea considering they are the largest poker sites on the internet. PokerStars routinely has 20% deposit bonuses which are very easy and straight-forward to clear, so you should create an account there just to get the bonuses, while Party Poker has the largest pool of fish on the internet, bar none. PokerStars has no sign-up bonuses (occasionally through this site), but with Party you can use bonus code EXTRA20 to get a 30% up to $150 bonus if you deposit there.
Tight Poker Recommendations: Once you are done bonus hunting, put your money into accounts at Party Poker, PokerStars, Poker Room and Full Tilt Poker. Party Poker has games going all the time, PokerStars has the most tournaments, Poker Room has pretty soft limit ring games and Full Tilt has a continuous poker bonus.
Advice on efficient poker bonus hunting
Poker bonus hunting can be viewed as a very tedious task if you look at it from a straight and narrow point of view. The truth is however, most bonus hunters are experienced poker players who are using all the edges they can to maximize their bonuses and hourly earnings. Here are a number of the tricks and tips they use.
Play at more than one table at a time
While this will seem very intimidating to a new player, many players are very comfortable with playing at multiple tables at one time. I personally play four tournament tables at one time, which feels slow to me after having done it so long. So, it isn't impossible or out of the world to play more than one table at a time.
The reason why poker bonus hunters play two or more tables at once, is because it doubles the amount of hands you are playing per hour. By playing two tables at once, you can cut down your bonus hunting time by half! This is extremely useful for clearing large bonuses at big sites.
Play at least at the $1/2 or $2/4 level
Bonus hunters usually don't have a lot to spend on poker to begin with, which is why they're hunting to begin with. As such, most start out at the micro limit games ($0.25/$0.50 or $0.50/$1.00) and work their way up. However, the problem is that you simply cannot make much money in these games playing poker or by poker bonuses. If you stay at this level, you are at best able to make around $5/hr, with most of your money coming from bonuses.
By moving to the $1/2, $2/4 or $3/6 game, you can substantially increase the amount of money you earn per hour. The average 'good' player makes about two big bets per hour, so if you were a $2/4 player, you could be making $8/hr playing poker and around $7/hr just on bonuses, which comes out to $15/hr, which isn't bad at all!
Hunt at sites which release bonuses the fastest
Poker is all about your hourly earning rate, so when it comes to poker bonuses, you want to take that into consideration as well. Thus, sites that let youclear bonuses relatively fast (1 to 2 hours per $10 of bonus) are going to be much more beneficial than a site that takes, say, 4 to 8 hours to clear$10 worth of bonuses. You can check out the current bonuses and promotions post on the forum to check out bonus clearing times at different sites.
Keep all of your money in Neteller when possible
Poker sites will often offer reload bonuses every other month, which are generally a 10% or 20% reload bonus up to $100. By keeping your poker bankroll in your Neteller account, you will always have funds available to deposit and clear these bonuses when they come up.
A lot of players make the mistake of keeping all their funds in one of their main poker accounts, but when a bonus appears on another site, they don't realize that it can take up to a week for them to be able to withdraw their funds from one site and transfer to another site. By that time, the bonus offer may have expired and thus, you are out of luck.
Pay attention to when your bonus expires!
Most promotions and reload bonuses have a stipulation on how long you have in order to achieve your bonus. Usually this is in the range of a week to 30 days, with months for the larger bonuses. It's very important to read the fine print and know how much time you have to clear a bonus. A good example is Party Poker, which often gives you one week to clear a bonus. This can take you by surprise if you aren't ready to spend 10 hours that week clearing your bonus. In addition, some poker sites like InterPoker and Caribbean Sun will require you to clear your bonus by the end of the month, so you want to make sure you do not start bonus hunting at the very end of the month, or it will be very difficult to clear! So, be sure to pay attention to this little aspect of bonus hunting!
Become a better poker player, period
I'll admit that I was very skeptical of the 'bonus hunting' mentality when I first saw and read about it, because I calculated it at about a $5/hr wage - which is below what you could be making in a burger joint. However, after hearing some feedback on the forums and from a particular friend, I was convinced otherwise and realized that it can be a very profitable, especially when used as a supplementary income on top of your poker earnings. So, the key is that bonus hunting itself isn't always worth it - but if you are able to become a good player, bonuses are just icing on top of the cake to your regular winnings.
Conclusion - Is Poker Bonus Hunting Worth It?
The answer is a big yes, especially if you are a novice player getting into the game of poker and texas hold'em. While you may balk at the step-by-step guide of turning your $50 into $2000, just remember that if you were to grind it out at two big bets per hour in the $0.50/$1.00 game, it would take you 1000 hours in order to turn your $50 into $2000 - and that's assuming you became a decent player.
With poker bonuses, if you are a good player as well, you not only cut down those hours by half, but it would be very realistic to make another $1,000 on top of your bonuses, which would turn your initial $50 investment into almost $4,000! By that time, if you have become a solid player, you can then play two tables at once at the $2/4 game and achieve a very decent hourly rate.
So, if you were going to play poker anyways and are serious about becoming a good player, take it seriously. If you have any questions, bug us on the poker chat forums on this site and we will be happy to answer your questions! Good luck at the tables.
