reload bonuses

[fluff]

For sites like Paradise, Pokerstars, Pokerroom or UB, the reload bonuses are merely "rake breaks", the value of the bonuses are approximately what you pay in rake anyway.

Party bonuses are worth more than the rake, but they are swimming in money, so to them it's probably cost of advertising.

Crypto is definitely throwing money away with their monthly bonuses, so it's doubtful that it will last for very long, especially now that their player base is increasing due to tournament and PL/NL games. Just today Intercasino send me an e-mail saying they "missed" me at the tables (well yeah, I cleared the $50 already for the month [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]), and they offered me $20 to play 1 (one!) raked hand.

Absolute is by far the most bizzare of them all. 100 raked hands generate probably $5 in rake per player at the lower limits. And they require you keep the money with them for 30 days. This to me really says that they're "borrowing" your money. I would like this bonus far better if they required 500 or even 1000 hands to clear, but no 30-day grace period.

But perhaps it is just rational players like 2+2ers that consider this. Maybe the rest of the universe gets a $100 bonus with 100 raked hands requirement and stays around and plays 10,000 hands, thus making these promotions all profitable for the poker sites?