Op-Ed: Where have the poker deposit bonuses gone?

Many of us online poker players recall fondly the pre-2006 world of online poker, when in the course of a week you could shuffle your money between three different poker-rooms, all offering an easy to clear deposit bonus, or reload bonus. Well unfortunately the lucrative deposit bonus has gone the way of the dodo for online poker players, replaced with a uniform model that virtually every site uses.

Regardless of the amount or match bonus, the current state of poker deposit bonuses is one where you clear $.06 for every $1 in rake that is collected. Compare this to a 30% rakeback deal where you receive $.03 per $1 collected at a 9-handed table and $.05 per hand at a 6-handed table. Basically, you’re deposit bonus is worth a paltry $.03 per $1 in rake collected, at best! Players who participate in short-handed often see their rakeback deal completely trump their deposit bonus! They actually make $0 from their deposit bonus.

First of all, in the past sites did not deduct your deposit bonus earnings from your rakeback totals, which is Standard Operating Procedure in today’s online poker world. Furthermore, the bonuses were much easier to clear; it was not uncommon for players to clear $50, or $100, in bonus money in a single session!

Recent reports have shown that PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker are not only dominating the online poker scene right now, but are likely to tighten their stranglehold on the industry, and honestly these smaller sites seem to deserve it!  They may play with the numbers a bit, but savvy poker players know their deposit works out to be exactly the same as Full Tilt or PokerStars, so why would a player ever leave those sites?

If these smaller sites actually want our business why not offer us an easy to clear $200 bonus, with monthly reload bonuses of $50? These were precisely the bonuses I used to take advantage pre-2006 -the Cryptologic Network was notorious for these.

It’s time for poker rooms to realize they have to spend money to make money, and they are not going to draw in more players with anything less than an easy to clear deposit bonus. We’re not looking for $1,100 in free-money -especially when it takes two months to clear the damn thing. We want an easy to clear deposit bonus that will bring in a bunch of loose players looking to make a quick $200.

The beauty of the easy to clear deposit bonus has to do with the bad players -players who plunk ½ or all of their deposit on one table. Under the current structure bad players are given $10 here and there, so even if they run good for a day or two they will only turn their $200 deposit into say $600 before going broke, and their bonus money is never fully cleared, so they have contributed maybe $250 to the poker community.

On the other hand, if they clear $200 in bonus money in a day or two in addition to running good this player is likely contributing $400 plus into the poker economy, not only does he lose his initial deposit, but also his entire bonus. The site doesn’t lose, because the money is now in the economy!

So I implore you poker sites, bring back the $100 or $200, easy to clear, deposit bonus!