Homer's Bankroll Building For Newbies!

I have only been playing online poker for 2 months on Pokerstars but feel my game is coming on considerably. However, due to recent bad luck at 1/2 tables and my inability to avoid slight tilting, I am down overall about $150!

I just visited this site for the first time and found my way to Homer's bankroll building for newbies post. I have a few questions which I would appreicate help with!

1) Is this a complete wind up cos my dad always said "you don't get nothing for free in this life son" [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

2) I am from the UK and use my Visa card to make purchases, so will this prevent me from getting these bonuses; Do I need a Neteller account?

3) What is this Cryto network and why do they offer bonuses to the same person each month knowing they will be losing money overall???

It all seems random to me but everyone seems to be saying thanks and no one has posted a thread disagreeing with Homer!

Thanks for your time guys! I look forward to your responses!

[Harv72b]

I'll reply here rather than in the other thread. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

This site will tell you a ton about online bonuses, and how to make them work for you. They also have a continuously updated database of which bonuses are being offered where.

In answer to your questions...

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1) Is this a complete wind up cos my dad always said "you don't get nothing for free in this life son"

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You aren't really getting it for free--the online casino is still getting their money from every hand that's played on it, in the form of the rake they take. But if you intend to play the hands regardless, and especially if you intend to play them at that site, then using bonuses is an excellent way to increase your overall earn. And yes, they are very much real and on the up & up.

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2) I am from the UK and use my Visa card to make purchases, so will this prevent me from getting these bonuses; Do I need a Neteller account?

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Having a Neteller account makes it a lot easier to deposit & withdraw funds from the various sites (or at least, faster to withdraw), but it isn't necessary. For some reason that's never been explained to me, Neteller prohibits residents of Maryland (USA) from having an account with them, so I don't have a Neteller account either. I make all my deposits via my MasterCard debit card, and I've taken advantage of quite a few bonuses.

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3) What is this Cryto network and why do they offer bonuses to the same person each month knowing they will be losing money overall???

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You can find a lot of info on the Crypto network on the site I linked to above. As for the second half of your question, the answer is obviously that they aren't losing money. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

The online poker market is a very competitive place right now, and potentially an extremely profitable one for site owners/operators. As they are now starting to realize in earnest, however, the market of poker players is limited, so they have to come up with ways to get players to use their particular site. Most of the sites have come up with the same ideas: Regular deposit bonuses (all sites that I know of offer an initial deposit bonus, as well as fairly regular "reload" bonuses); some form of "frequent player points" system that players can use to buy merchandise, enter tournaments, cash in, or earn added benefits; guaranteed tournaments (where the site guarantees a prize pool of at least $X, regardless of how many people actually enter) and freeroll tourneys, and other assorted gimmicks which are of varying use to the players. Remember, though, that the site is taking a rake out of nearly every single hand played on every single one of their tables...and when you're talking about a site with hundreds or even thousands of tables open at a time, averaging around 60 hands per hour per table...that's a ton of money. And of course they also tack on a fee to every single tournament buy-in. They are banking on the increased traffic they get from these offers to lead to greater profits, and judging from the fact that they all continue to offer these perks, it's succeeding. Plus, most sites demand that you play a set number of hands in order to "clear" your bonus--in other words, before you are free to withdraw the bonus money from their site. Many players will not play that many hands within the allotted time, either because they just don't play poker that much or because they suck at poker & lose their deposit first. Many more players will clear their initial bonus and keep playing at that site, because it's familiar or "lucky" or whatever.

In the case of the Crypto network, they offer bonuses to players who are willing to sit at an empty table and start the action up there. Crypto is banking on making more from that table per hour than they pay to the player who "starts" it; and again, it's obviously working.

Remember, the house always wins--they have quite a few mathematical genuises who sit around all day & determine exactly how much money they stand to make from each one of these offers. If they didn't expect to make money in the long run by giving some away in the near term, they wouldn't. Just like a casino wouldn't comp free rooms & services to gamblers if they didn't expect to make more money from that gambler in the long run.

Hey, Thanks very much for your reply. It all makes sense to me now, although I figured this would be the type of answers but just needed to hear them from someone else [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] I am going to study my game for another few weeks and read some more before starting on my bankroll building and then play a conservative game to make sure i maximise my profit from the bonuses on offer. Then maybe I will have the bankroll to be able to play at higher limits, and I also like the idea of playing at many online poker tables to decide which ones I like! Cheers! Geoff!