Poker Bonus Hunting - A Step by Step Guide

I'm guessing your first question is probably something like: What on earth is "bonus hunting"?. Poker bonus hunting is a term that online poker players are using that essentially means signing up at many poker sites in order to collect the bonuses from each site. With dozens of online poker sites offering new players cash incentives and deposit promotions, poker bonus hunting is quickly becoming very popular with beginning poker players trying to build their bankroll.

How much can I make poker bonus hunting?

A lot, actually. Many players turn their initial $50 into well over $2,000 through poker bonus hunting while still playing the $0.50/$1.00 game or $1/2 game. While it sounds almost too good to be true, many members of our own forum will attest to how easy it is. Bonus hunting is also low variance (meaning low risk) and simply requires more patience than anything, so it's easy for the beginner to do while learning the ropes of playing poker online. For experienced played, it's not uncommon to see players pulling in over $15/hr just through by the book poker and bonus hunting.

Why do the poker sites give so many promotions and sign-up bonuses?

Competition for new poker players is very fierce and as a result, the various poker sites are willing to dole out incentives and promotions in order to attract players. As a result, it often becomes a win-win situation for both the poker site and the player, as both sides can make money out of the arrangement.

Is poker bonus hunting the same as "bonus whoring"?

Yes. You'll find that many people refer to poker bonus hunting as "bonus whoring", which is the more popular but non-politically correct way of describing this way of making money.

The Step by Step Guide to Turn $50 into nearly $3000

Whether you are poker bonus hunting or not, it's obvious that you want to play tight, solid poker. Most of the time you'll be playing in the low limit games, so you'll want to play a fundamental game of betting with the best hands, only drawing to nut straights or flushes and folding everything else. If you are a beginning player, we recommend our texas hold'em guides if you need a primer on playing solid low limit poker.

In the below guide, you can make even more money than poker bonus hunting if you are a profitable player, but to be conservative, we will assume that whoever doing the bonus whoring is a break even player. So even if you are a terrible player, if you can just break even, you can still make a lot of money bonus hunting.

Note: You must use the links on this page in order to qualify for some of the bonuses, so be sure to bookmark this page and use the links here should you decide to become a poker bonus hunter!

Check the bonus forum for the latest updates about recent and new bonuses, as new bonuses can appear weekly.

Note that the bonus hunting guide is currently being updated, so while all the information is still accurate, you may see some discrepancies in totaling of poker bonus hunting time and also of bankroll.

Advice on efficient poker bonus hunting

Poker bonus hunting can be viewed as a very tedious task if you look at it from a straight and narrow point of view. The truth is however, most bonus hunters are experienced poker players who are using all the edges they can to maximize their bonuses and hourly earnings. Here are a number of the tricks and tips they use.

Play at more than one table at a time

While this will seem very intimidating to a new player, many players are very comfortable with playing at multiple tables at one time. I personally play four tournament tables at one time, which feels slow to me after having done it so long. So, it isn't impossible or out of the world to play more than one table at a time.

The reason why poker bonus hunters play two or more tables at once, is because it doubles the amount of hands you are playing per hour. By playing two tables at once, you can cut down your bonus hunting time by half! This is extremely useful for clearing large bonuses at big sites.

Play at least at the $1/2 or $2/4 level

Bonus hunters usually don't have a lot to spend on poker to begin with, which is why they're hunting to begin with. As such, most start out at the micro limit games ($0.25/$0.50 or $0.50/$1.00) and work their way up. However, the problem is that you simply cannot make much money in these games playing poker or by poker bonuses. If you stay at this level, you are at best able to make around $5/hr, with most of your money coming from bonuses.

By moving to the $1/2, $2/4 or $3/6 game, you can substantially increase the amount of money you earn per hour. The average 'good' player makes about two big bets per hour, so if you were a $2/4 player, you could be making $8/hr playing poker and around $7/hr just on bonuses, which comes out to $15/hr, which isn't bad at all!

Hunt at sites which release bonuses the fastest

Poker is all about your hourly earning rate, so when it comes to poker bonuses, you want to take that into consideration as well. Thus, sites that let you clear bonuses relatively fast (1 to 2 hours per $10 of bonus) are going to be much more beneficial than a site that takes, say, 4 to 8 hours to clear $10 worth of bonuses. You can check out the current bonuses and promotions post on the forum to check out bonus clearing times at different sites.

Keep all of your money in Neteller when possible

Poker sites will often offer reload bonuses every other month, which are generally a 10% or 20% reload bonus up to $100. By keeping your poker bankroll in your Neteller account, you will always have funds available to deposit and clear these bonuses when they come up.

A lot of players make the mistake of keeping all their funds in one of their main poker accounts, but when a bonus appears on another site, they don't realize that it can take up to a week for them to be able to withdraw their funds from one site and transfer to another site. By that time, the bonus offer may have expired and thus, you are out of luck.

Pay attention to when your bonus expires!

Most promotions and reload bonuses have a stipulation on how long you have in order to achieve your bonus. Usually this is in the range of a week to 30 days, with months for the larger bonuses. It's very important to read the fine print and know how much time you have to clear a bonus. A good example is Party Poker, which often gives you one week to clear a bonus. This can take you by surprise if you aren't ready to spend 10 hours that week clearing your bonus. In addition, some poker sites like InterPoker and Caribbean Sun will require you to clear your bonus by the end of the month, so you want to make sure you do not start bonus hunting at the very end of the month, or it will be very difficult to clear! So, be sure to pay attention to this little aspect of bonus hunting!

Become a better poker player, period

I'll admit that I was very skeptical of the 'bonus hunting' mentality when I first saw and read about it, because I calculated it at about a $5/hr wage - which is below what you could be making in a burger joint. However, after hearing some feedback on the forums and from a particular friend, I was convinced otherwise and realized that it can be a very profitable, especially when used as a supplementary income on top of your poker earnings. So, the key is that bonus hunting itself isn't always worth it - but if you are able to become a good player, bonuses are just icing on top of the cake to your regular winnings.

Conclusion - Is Poker Bonus Hunting Worth It?

The answer is a big yes, especially if you are a novice player getting into the game of poker and texas hold'em. While you may balk at the step-by-step guide of turning your $50 into $2000, just remember that if you were to grind it out at two big bets per hour in the $0.50/$1.00 game, it would take you 1000 hours in order to turn your $50 into $2000 - and that's assuming you became a decent player.

With poker bonuses, if you are a good player as well, you not only cut down those hours by half, but it would be very realistic to make another $1,000 on top of your bonuses, which would turn your inital $50 investment into almost $4,000! By that time, if you have become a solid player, you can then play two tables at once at the $2/4 game and achieve a very decent hourly rate.

So, if you were going to play poker anyways and are serious about becoming a good player, take it seriously. If you have any questions, bug us on the poker chat forums on this site and we will be happy to answer your questions! Good luck at the tables.