Sloe Times

So last month I made a large part of my bankroll gains from bonus whoring and since it's something I tend to keep an eye on I figured I'd share what I know for those of you who have asked. Ok, those of you who didn't ask can listen too. Now, frankly Poker Grub gets the credit for pointing me in the right direction and based on things that I've read at sites like Bonus/Casino Whores I started doing my own research and tracking down the best deposit bonuses that I could find and then plotting out the best way to maximize acquiring them without locking my bankroll down to a single site for too long.

Here's the breakdown on the sites that I've looked at. The qualifier that I use when looking at sites is that they be big enough/populated enough that I have a reasonable chance of playing whenever I want. The site must be well established since I don't want to wonder if I'm ever going to see my money back, as opposed to an indefinitely delayed cash back or out-right stolen. The the client/server performance is good because I play for limited periods of time and don't want to have to deal with getting dropped from the games I'm in due to some failure on their part. For these reasons some of the other popular sites like the Belle Rock poker rooms (The Gaming Club, River Belle, etc) and Pacific are not in my review/play list. The Bonus Whores web site tracks these and more and for the most part seems reasonably up to date. So, here are my current favorite places to play.

Poker Stars: I don't believe I've ever seen a deposit bonus, first time or otherwise here. They do however have a frequent player bonus which gives you points for play to be used on tournament entries or trading for real items (Books, chips, clothing, etc). So if there are no deposit bonuses, why play here? Two reasons, the first is that their client is the best of the breed, and on top of that I get to use my lil' muerte avatar as my player picture when playing there and that's just plain cool.

Paradise Poker: They just had a purchase/reload bonus over the holiday weekend, but now only have a 25% first time deposit bonus with a max bonus of $50. To release the bonus money you have to play raked hands. Every 100 raked hands releases $10 of bonus money. The games here are not quite as fishy as Party/Empire or UB so I'm actually not playing here right now. I'll go back the next time they have a reload bonus that I can take advantage of.

Party Poker: Party's first time deposit bonuses are generally provided through their affiliate program. The affiliates get to choose the type of bonus they want to incent you with which can be a flat $25, 20% up to $100 max bonus, or a free entry into a Party Poker Millions qualifying tournament. Party also has a refer a friend program that is cumulative with the first time deposit bonus. If you are new to Party and a friend refers you, you can pick up $25 on a min $50 deposit and your friend gets $50. If you do the max deposit, you can basically pick up a $125 bonus for a $500 deposit. If you follow my Party link or use the signup code SLOEJACK you can pick up the 20% deposit bonus. If you want to get the extra $25 on top of that I'd obviously be happy to refer you. Going the tell-a-friend route requires a little coordination but is well worth it IMO drop me a line if you're interested. As on paradise, to release the bonus money you have to play raked hands. The release requirement for the tell-a-friend bonus is racked hands 5x the bonus ($25) or raked hands worth a total of $125. The release requirement for the 20% is 10x the bonus so for the max of $100, your looking at raked hands worth $1000. My friend Steel_Rain went through this process and was able to clear both bonuses within a week so it's not too daunting.

Party will occasionally promote a reload/purchase bonus for existing players but there is not one currently to the best of my knowledge.

If you already play on Empire and want to score the Party bonus, you may need to un-install the Empire client before you install the Party client since the install process does some basic checking to try and actually prevent you from having an account on both sites. The nerve.

Ultimate Bet: UB has a 20% first time deposit bonus up to $100 max. The bonus dollars are released based on the number of "Ultimate Points" you collect from raked hands. As you collect the points, bonus dollars are released, even in fractions of a dollar. For every 10 Ultimate Points you collect, you release $1. Like Poker Stars, the Ultimate Points can be used to enter tournaments or trade for schwag... I'm thinking of getting some UB playing cards myself just because. Heck, collect a few million UPs and you can trade it for $10,000 cash. The nice thing about the UPs you gain while releasing your bonus is that you get to keep them to spend on the stuff from their players club store. On top of that, this month they're doing a promotion called sit-n-go crazy which pays you back half your buy-in to SNGs in bonus dollars that you can then free up by playing. And if that's not enough, UB also gives you bonus dollars at the end of the month for the amount of time you play on UB. Obviously it's a bit of a vicious circle because there's always bonus dollars to be freed up, so they win :) Last, but certainly not least, UB also has a refer a friend program which is NOT cumulative with the first time deposit bonus. The refer a friend IMO is actually a little bit better, at least for those folks who don't have a $500+ bankroll. The RAF program at UB gives you a 50% deposit bonus up to $50, so a max deposit of $100. Like Party's program, this is a nice boost to the referrer who picks up $50 or $100 bonus dollars (note that it is bonus dollars to both the referrer and referee) depending on the deposit. If you're interested in going this route, I again would be more than happy to help out :)

UB had a reload bonus up till the beginning of this month. I'm sure there will be more in the future, but nothing today for existing players.

Empire Poker: Empire is like Party in pretty much every respect, this is because it's a Party skin, the same ring tables are available via both sites, so the same fish are available :) This also means that the bonus system works similarly. Empire is offering a 20% signup bonus which you can get by following my link, or using the bonus code BONUS589. Empire is also running the same tell-a-friend program as party so you can pick up the same $25 bonus there as well. Again, if you're not on empire and want to take advantage of this, I'll offer my assistance in this as well.

One difference between Party and Empire is that Empire also has a VIP program similar to Poker Stars and UltimateBet that gives you points for play. You can then use those Epoints to enter special tournaments or get Empire gear. The gotcha to this is that to get into the VIP club you have to earn 5000 Epoints first. Once you're in you actually start earning Epoints at double the normal rate.

Empire will occasionally promote a reload/purchase bonus for existing players but there is not one currently to the best of my knowledge.

If you already play on Party and want to score the Empire bonus, you may need to un-install the Party client before you install the Empire client since the install process does some basic checking to try and actually prevent you from having an account on both sites. The nerve.

Absolute Poker: Is currently offering the best first time deposit bonus that I'm aware of at 35% for a max bonus of $210 ($600 deposit). This is good through July. The bonus is cleared like on Paradise, for every 100 points you collect $10 is freed. You get 1 point for each raked hand ($.25 or more rake). Absolute also has a refer a friend program that's will get you $15 on top of your deposit bonus. It requires some extra hoops for the referrer to jump through, but can be worth it if you want the extra money. Like Stars and UB, Absolute also has a rewards program that you can use to enter special tournaments and pick up Absolute schwag.

Absolute will periodically have a reload/deposit bonus for existing players, but there currently is not one that I am aware of.

Check n Raise Poker: is a new site that is opening in September. I stumbled across them because someone followed a link from their site to my blog. This site is the only exception to my 'established' rule only because they're offering a 50% deposit bonus if you pre-register (no deposit required up front, just the intention to do so) up to a $250 max bonus. Their story seems compelling in that they claim to have interviewed players (quantity unknown) to identify the things they like and dislike about online poker play and have/are building a product that gives the players the things they want. So we'll see. It's a ways off but, the 50% deposit bonus just for pre-registering is appealing. They have a referral program that offers $25 to the referee. It's not clear yet if this is cumulative with the deposit bonus or not, but if you're interested in pursuing this, let me know.