Should/Could every deposit = a bonus?

[Phishy McFish]

Should I get a deposit bonus every time I deposit money into a site? Obviously I know people would withdrawal and deposit all the time for them if it were that easy, but the way it is talked about on here it doesn't seem to be much harder than that. Do the "bonus whores" just take their roll from site to site on a rotation as the bonus e-mails come in to them asking them to "come back and play with us"

[Thythe]

That's basically how it works. Also theres like 20+ different poker rooms out there all offering a bonus so a lot of people just fulfill a bonus, withdraw, then deposit into another site. Eventually most sites then start offering you come back bonuses. Let the good times roll.

[Cyndie]

Then you get to the CLEARING the bonus part...and that is with play and rake...Then you can eliminate the expensive deposit part...and just give bonuses for more play.

[Lori]

Then you can eliminate the expensive deposit part...and just give bonuses for more play.

or better still, you can eliminate the paying part altogether and just rip your players off by saying you are going to pay.

Lori

[Phishy McFish]

I know this is in regards to the entire affiliate program.....but your posts usually impress me.....can you answer my question now without taking shots (albeit possibly deserved) at the "vulture"?

[Lori]

I try to leave $600 in Neteller at all times, and my roll isn't a huge one as I play low limits and live from my roll as well.

When there is no promotion running, I play my normal schedule of games.

If a promotion pops up, I will go and clear the hands and bonus as quickly as possible to 'free' my floating $600.

I do try to give the site some value for their promotion (although clearly, I'm the one getting the value) by making sure I take a look at things they have improved since the last time I was there and maybe trying out a game I wouldn't normally play if it is something they are proud of.

After I've done the hands, I withdraw at least my buyin, and some of the profit, but I try to leave some of the winnings in the site, especially if I feel they have earned it.

I admit I do it purely for the money, but I try to give the site a genuine chance to impress me, and if they do then I'll give them some occasional action afterwards as well.
(My daily play allows me to play other games and other sites using the "change is as good as a rest" principle.

Lori

[eugeneel]

My opinion is that if you think that you may be capable of achieving real poker success, don't get too distracted by the bonuses, but focus on improving your skills. A "bonus whore" is never a great poker player but is usually a breakeven to good player. If one can get to the point where you are a great player (and have a solid bankroll) one will realize that the bonuses are almost worthless at this point.

So think what it really is that you are trying to achieve.

[Lori]

but focus on improving your skills

What better way to improve your skills than by using money given to you by the sites to do so.

You can then improve your skills AND your roll at the same time, until you are good enough, and rich enough to ignore the bonuses being offered.

Lori

[eugeneel]

You have a point Lori but I think that moving around from site to site for bonuses is way too distracting for a player with potential.

When I started on pokerroom for example I was playing similar people and writing messages about them and then figuring out their patterns etc. You can only do that kind of thing if you stay on one site for a long time. Besides that, pokerroom showed me my earnings/hr, % of flops seen, and other stats. It was easier to judge my game after I played there enough to have these stats accurately reflect my game.

Last thing about bonuses is that about half (maybe less or more?) of the +ev of the bonus is canceled out by the fact that you are not always playing the best tables when bonus hunting.
If party has a 1-2 table where 50% of the people are seeing the flop, and you take a 100$ bonus to go to a site where the players are much better and only 35% are seeing the flop, and it takes you... lets say six ten hours to clear the bonus, on because you are playing in the difficult game for that long.

-Eugene

[Piers]

Depends how much you play.

Middle of December I had collected all the bonuses I could. Middle of January and I find I have about another $750 worth of promotions with about 60 hours of poker need to collect them. (From memory something like UB=200, ParadiseNeteller=100, PtyDepositBonus(Not sure), Empier40, RoyalVegas140 Cryptologic sites about 300)

So for about 50 hours a month you can probably fix it so that you always have about $5 per hour added by the card room.

[scotnt73]

i only bonus whore the skins. i also stay at whatever the last one was that i was offered a bonus until the next one comes in. havent gotten any offers in about 5 weeks so maybe theyve changed something. i used to get offers every other week at least. i think its a great way for new break even players to learn and build thier bankrolls. i learned to tighten up by trying to keep my free 50-100$ after i cleared it.

[SkittleBrau]

I'm have been learning to play, and I think chasing bonuses has been very helpful. First, as you point out, I'm probably only a break-even player at the moment (1BB/100 hands for my 14k hands in pokertracker, though actually this would look better if I had my UB hands in there), so having a subsidy from the sites makes my learning process cheaper.

Second, moving sites helps me learn to play better for the exact reason you say it's problematic -- that is, every site has seems to have a playing style that is most common. So instead of only being able to deal with one type of player, I find that I have been getting better at adjusting to table conditions. For example, UB 6-handed 1/2 sometimes features people that are capable of folding too much, allowing you to run over the game and just get out of the way when someone shows strength. Conversely, you'd usually swear the fold button wasn't part of the interface on Party. When a weak-tight table shows up on Party, I have a better idea now of how to adjust.

The biggest annoyance of switching is adjusting to different interfaces and the fact that some sites don't work (or don't work easily in the case of UB) with Pokertracker.