Where’s My Bonus?

If you’ve just made your 1^st deposit to an online poker site you might be wondering where your bonus is, as it’s not very likely to be showing in your real money balance at this stage. Not to worry, it’s there, you just have to fulfill the conditions of the bonus agreement that you may or may not have read when you first found out about the bonus offer. Once you clear the bonus funds, you’ll be able to withdraw them, or use them to play poker or other games at the poker site where you’ve decided to make that 1^st deposit.

How to Clear a Poker Bonus

In order to clear a poker bonus, many rooms require that players meet eligibility conditions. To clear the bonus, you’ll need to play poker, it’s been determined that at most sites the best game for bonus clearing is limit Holdem Poker. The best stakes for the task are .50/$1.

As you play poker on most sites you’ll accrue loyalty points, each site will require a specific amount of loyalty points for clearing any bonus monies. Most sites, or at least the sites worth making deposits at will release your bonus in tiny increments (commonly $5 or $10) as you clear it. This is because bonuses generally expire and are forfeited if not claimed. So if after say 3 months or however long the bonus remains active on the site, you still have bonus money remaining in your account, that money just goes away. Not the money you’ve cleared just to be clear, once it’s in your real money account, it’s yours.

Types of Poker Bonuses Offered

The most common types of new player promotional bonuses offered are No Deposit bonuses and 1^st deposit match bonuses, both of these promotional offers are provided as incentives from poker sites marketing departments to entice players to try one poker site over the others available.

No Deposit Poker Bonus

A no deposit poker bonus is an offer provided by online poker sites to encourage players to sign up for a new account and check out the game. The money is theirs free without any deposit required; however, most sites will actually require a deposit be made prior to authorizing any cash-outs. So if a player were to claim a $10 no deposit bonus, and play that money up to $100 at the tables, the player would still have to make a minimum deposit before being allowed to cash out.

Poker sites also commonly require players to play a certain number of hands or meet other play through requirements before allowing the player to cash out any free money.

These requirements are in place simply to ensure that the player is actually interested in playing poker online, not just in claiming bonuses and taking advantage of offers that were created for actual poker players.

Where to find No Deposit Bonuses:

• PokerStars – 20 Free – No deposit Required
• 888Poker – $88 Free  – No Deposit Required

Deposit Match Bonuses

The most popular new player bonus offer is the ‘deposit match bonus’. New players are offered a deposit bonus that’s equal to their entire deposit amount, or a specific percentage of that deposit. Most often the bonus is valued at 100-400% of the initial deposit.

The way that it works is that a player signs up for a new account at any given poker site. The poker site will undoubtedly be advertising a first deposit bonus offer. Usually the bonus is automatic, but make sure that you read either our reviews of the poker site, or the poker sites terms and conditions and verify that there are no codes that need to be entered or other things that need to be done to ensure qualification for the bonus. Next the player will make their first deposit bonus, which the poker site will match per their terms and conditions.

The bonus money will not generally automatically appear in the players real money account however, the player will be required to somehow clear the funds; usually this is done by playing poker which results in the automatic accrual of frequent player or loyalty points. When a prespecified number of points are accumulated, chunks of the bonus money (usually $5-$10) is released into the players real money account.