For us, promotions is a matter of providing great incentives for new players to join, as well as reward returning players with substantive offers and/or loyalty programs. This was not the most important section for us, but it is worth considering if you’re just starting out, or are interested in trying out other poker sites. Also, if it’s important for you to feel like your rake and business is appreciated, then you might want to look into this section a little more. We definitely feel that promotions can say a great deal about a poker site: not just about their marketing abilities, but also about their commitment to customer service and appreciation.
For this category, we considered the following factors: The amount of initial deposit bonus offered vs. the requirements for attaining the bonus; the frequency of reload bonuses; the amount of substantive freeroll and special tournaments offered; and the existence of other customer reward programs, such as loyalty or frequent player points systems. Of course, we hope that you will take advantage of all of the initial deposit bonuses offered through ThePokerResource.net by clicking on any of the download links on this site, or by using the bonus codes we’ve provided on this page, as well as in the Site Reviews section. We strive to keep the links and bonus codes updated, offering at least the best deposit bonus opportunities around. And by you taking advantage of the bonus offers here, it helps keep ThePokerResource.net up and running for free.
Earning your bonus usually depends on the amount of raked hands you play. Some sites, like Green Tie Poker and Ultimate Bet, will pay you a portion of your bonus as you earn them. Other sites, like Poker Stars (for reload bonuses) and PartyPoker, will credit the entire bonus amount once the raked hand requirements have been met. And while there are time limits on how long you have to earn the bonuses, we thought they were easily attainable with the higher scoring sites in this category. Pacific Poker provides you with your bonus right away, and allows you to play live games with the funds. However, they will withhold the bonus amount if you try and withdraw the funds before playing the required amount of raked hands.
Ultimate Bet and Green Tie Poker both get high marks in this category. Not only do they both offer a generous 40% up to $200 initial deposit bonus, but it also doesn’t take too long to earn the entire bonus amount.
The top score for overall promotions goes to Full Tilt Poker, which not only offers a whopping 100% up to $600 initial deposit bonus, but they also offer regular reload bonuses of 50%, a player points program, and consistent efforts towards new and exciting tournament promos. Earning the bonus does take some time to play the qualified number of raked hands, which would be easier if/when the site has more traffic, but we think Full Tilt (mostly due to the huge deposit bonus) still has the best overall promotions offering.
Noble Poker also just started a offering an amazing 50% (up to $250) bonus, but the very tempting offer loses its appeal with the extensive amount of raked hand required to earn the bonus. Also, with Noble Poker not offering any 7-Card Stud games, and tables are regularly low in traffic, it seems to take forever to earn the full amount of the generous bonus.
PartyPoker offers an average initial deposit bonus, but maintains a high ranking here because of regular reload bonuses throughout the year (Poker Stars, also). It’s nice to get this kind of reward for being loyal to a site. For us, reload offers are a more preferred form of an appreciation bonus than “Freeroll” tournaments are.
Participation in Freeroll tournaments are usually attained by earning a certain amount of player points, which are usually based on the amount of raked hands and/or tournament buy-in you pay. Poker Stars constantly offers Freeroll tournaments for points that aren’t too difficult to earn. DoylesRoom also offers a consistent schedule of Freerolls for up to a $1000 daily. Another nice loyalty program with player points is by offering players to cash in their points for t-shirts, poker books, etc. Not a must-have amenity for us to play on a poker site, but a nice customer appreciation aspect to have. |
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