"10 Vital NL Hold'em Tips"
Get this free short ebook when you sign up for the monthly strategy newsletter.
Poker Bonuses
This poker bonuses page is for players looking to find the most profitable rooms to play at by combining the bonus money on offer with the rakeback and/or VIP deals at each of the rooms.
The total rebate shows how much of your rake you receive back to your account during the bonus period.
Poker bonuses.
| Room | Rakeback | VIP | Bonus | Bonusback | Total Rebate | Visit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | 20%  |
$2,000 | 62.5%  |
82.5% | Visit | |
| - | 20% |
$2,000 | 62.5% |
82.5% | Visit | |
| 33% | - | $600 | 42% |
75% | Visit | |
| 15% |
- | $600  |
42% |
57% | Visit | |
| 30% | 19% |
$500 | 4% |
53% | Visit | |
| 30% | - |
€5,000 | 20% |
50% | Visit | |
| 30% | - | €1,000 | 13% |
43% | Visit | |
| 25% |
- | $1,100 |
17% |
42% | Visit | |
| - | 5% |
$600 | 29% |
34% | Visit | |
| - | 3% |
$500 | 30% |
33%+ | Visit | |
| - | 18% |
$500 | 15% |
33% | Visit | |
| - | 6% |
$500 | 25% |
31% | Visit | |
| 5% |
- | $1,500 |
25% |
30% | Visit |
Tower Poker is the top poker bonus room right now. You can get 82.5% of your rake back as a new player.
See Tower Poker bonusback for further information.
What is "bonusback"?
Poker bonuses are never totally free. You always end up paying more through rake to redeem the bonuses than you actually get back. It's not a bad thing, that's just how they work. However, some bonuses are more friendly than others when it comes to their redemption requirements.
The bonusback % is the amount of the rake you have paid that you get back through bonus money.
Therefore, the higher the "bonusback" percentage, the better the bonus is for your bankroll.
What does this table show?
This bonus table aims to highlight how much rakeback in total (total rebate) you can get from the combined rakeback, VIP programs and sign up bonuses at each room.
The total rebate shows the maximum percentage of money you can get back to your account during the bonus period at each room.
This table is most useful for players looking to work out how much money they can save/earn by signing up to new poker rooms to take advantage of their bonus offers (along with any rakeback and VIP programs on offer).
- Room bonuses total rebate example.
-
Lets say Greg decides to sign up to Tower Poker and work off the 500% up to $2,000 bonus.
This bonus clears at 62.5%, which means that for all the rake Greg pays, he reduces the rake by receiving 62.5% of the total rake he pays back to his account through bonus earnings.
In addition to this, there is also the VIP valueback program at Tower to factor in, which will work out as an extra 20% rake that Greg can earn back to his account whilst clearing the bonus. This is less than the maximum 40%, as 20% is the most you can get during this bonus period.
Therefore, in total Greg will effectively receiving 82.5% (62.5% + 20%) of the rake he pays back to his account whilst he takes advantage of both the bonus money and valueback deal.
How to use the poker bonuses table.
- What does the total rebate column show?
-
The total rebate column highlights how much of the rake you pay you will effectively save through the; rakeback, VIP programs and new player bonus combined at each room.
So, if you can get 30% rakeback along with 20% bonusback, your total rebate will be 50% during the bonus period at the room.
- What is bonusback?
-
Bonusback is what I call the percentage of rake you save through bonus money.
For example, at PokerStars you will end up paying around $100 in rake to receive the full $50 bonus amount. Therefore you are effectively saving 50% in rake (bonusback) through bonus money.
- How is bonusback calculated?
-
To work out bonusback, I use:
- The points you earn per $1 paid in tournament fees.
- The amount of points needed to get the full bonus.
I get this information from the VIP and bonuses sections of the poker rooms' websites. I use tournament fees as a measure of rake paid as it helps to make the calculations as straightforward as possible, but it should translate pretty accurately even if you only play cash games.
This allows me to work out a fairly accurate estimate of how much rake you pay to get the full bonus amount. Therefore I am then able to work out the bonusback percentage.
- What are the VIP percentages?
-
The VIP column shows the percentage of rake you receive back to your account by trading player points for cash rewards using each poker room's VIP program.
The percentages in this VIP column may vary from the maximum percentage you can get back in general, as these figures only show the maximum you will be able to get back during the bonus period only.
For example, you can get up to 40% of your PokerStars rake back by trading your points for cash. However, during the bonus period you will not be able to earn enough points to trade for cash, so no percentage figure can be added to your total rebate during this bonus period.
- What is bonus whoring?
-
Bonus whoring is where you sign up at a poker room, play until you redeem the bonus and then move on to the next room.
The advantage of bonus whoring is that you earn/save more money through the bonuses you collect than if you play online poker without redeeming any bonuses whilst you play.
- Is it worth bonus whoring?
-
Bonus whoring will help you to increase the amount of money that you add to your bankroll.
The downside to bonus whoring is that it takes effort to shift your bankroll around and get used to the software/players at different rooms. I personally find it a little more effort than it is worth, but many players can happily move from room to another to collect bonuses.
Whether or not you bonus whore is completely up to you. There is nothing wrong with sticking with one room and collecting your regular rakeback if that's what you prefer.
Which rooms are the most profitable for new players?
As a new player, the most profitable rooms to play at are Tower Poker and Betsafe Poker. When you combine their valueback deals with their very generous bonuses (it does not matter which bonus you choose), you can expect to save around 82.5% on the total rake you pay.
The second best room for new player bonuses is Cake Poker. Cake offers a good bonus with a high bonusback percentage of 42% in addition to their solid 33% rakeback deal. This leads to a combined rebate percentage of 75%.
Want to find out more about these poker bonuses?
If you want more information on any of the bonuses, please don't hesitate to contact me or to make a post in the forums.
If there is anything I haven't been clear about when it comes to these new player poker bonuses, I am more than happy to try my best to explain things further for you.
Go back to the Texas Hold'em rooms.