With so many bonuses to take advantage of on PokerBonuses.com, how can you reap the maximum amount of value when you play? Each site requires a different level of play in order to release your bonus. Most sites require you to rack up player points in order to do so. How do you navigate the sea of bonuses? Check out the helpful hints below to help you make bonus whoring second nature:

1. Get yourself an e-wallet account. The popular companies you may have heard of include NETELLER, ePassporte and Click2Pay. Which e-wallets you have access to ultimately depends on which country you’re in, so check the cashiers of several of your favorite online poker sites for one they all have in common. After you’ve registered your e-wallet account, link it to your bank account so that you can easily transfer money. The ability to be able to transfer money on a moment’s notice onto an online poker site in order to take advantage of a bonus is ultimately the best strategy. If PokerStars is offering a special deposit bonus for a week only, you don’t want to be left out in the cold. Beware that the time it takes to set up an e-wallet and deposit funds may be a few days, so get started early.
2. Look for instant bonuses. These are bonuses that don’t even require you to play a hand in order to receive it. When I first started playing online poker, instant deposit bonuses were very popular. Now, they are less common, but still exist. Instead of calculating the number of points you’ll need in order to release your bonus, money will instantly be available to use to hit the virtual tables.
3. Play on multiple tables. It’s really difficult to clear your bonus when you’re sitting at one table and one table only. Oftentimes, clearing a bonus requires you to rack up quite a few player points, which is going to be difficult to do if you limit yourself to a single table. Keep in mind that bonuses are only valid for a pre-determined length of time, so if you limit yourself to just one table per visit to your favorite online poker room, the bonus is likely to expire before you can release it. Many rooms release bonuses in $5-$10 intervals, so you may be missing out on a big portion of your bonus. The bottom line is that you should play on multiple tables, at least until you clear your bonus.
4. Don’t play at the micro stakes. It’s extremely difficult to clear a bonus at the micro level. Since oftentimes the number of points you receive is based on the amount of rake you contribute to a particular pot, playing at the lowest level table means your rake is also limited. If you move up to play a $1/$2 or $2/$4 game, your bonus will be released a lot faster. Several sites don’t require you to contribute rake to the hand in order to accumulate points, so check the specific rules of the online poker site you’re playing on for more details.
5. Beware that bonuses expire. Many bonuses expire within 30-90 days of your first deposit, so watch out to make sure you don’t lose your entire bonus because you didn’t complete the playing requirements in time. If you have any questions, e-mail your online poker site’s support, who can help you determine when your bonus will vanish. There’s nothing worse than depositing on an online poker room only to lose your bonus a couple of months down the road.
6. Follow all instructions when signing up. Several online poker sites require you to enter a special bonus code upon signing up in order to be eligible for a bonus. Make it a point of writing down all pertinent information before you sign up for an online poker room. Then, you’ll have it in front of you when you complete the registration process. If you don’t enter the appropriate code, you likely won’t be able to become eligible for a special deposit bonus.
7. Note how your bonus is released. Some online poker sites release your deposit bonus in $5 or $10 increments. Some poker rooms release your deposit bonus all at once. Some poker sites release your deposit bonus at the end of every session. It all depends on the rules at that particular online poker room. If you don’t clear your bonus in time, you have the potential to lose some, if not all, of the bonus. On some sites, playing on cash game tables is emphasized for accruing player points. On some sites, playing tournaments is emphasized. The moral of the story is to pay close attention to how your bonus is released and play accordingly.
8. Poker is a game of skill. The beauty of bonus whoring is that you can rack up your bonus and win money playing at the same time. If you happen to lose money, the money you made as part of your bonus may cover your losses. As you play more online poker, you’ll inherently get better. There’s nothing like being able to make money at poker and rack up bonuses at the same time.
9. Start with the sites that release bonuses the fastest. If your goal is to build a bankroll through bonus whoring, you’ll need to start at the sites that allow you access to your bonuses in the shortest amount of time. You can identify which sites to play on by the number of points you’ll need to clear. For example, a site that requires you to rack up 7x your bonus in poker points may be a better bet to play on than a site that requires 10x your bonus, assuming both bonuses are cleared in the same time.
10. Understand cash outs. Each online poker site processes cash outs in a different amount of time. Understand how long it takes your site to get your hard-earned money to you. This will also depend on what cash out method – e-wallet, check, bank transfer, etc. – that you chose. The faster you can cash out some of your money, the faster you’ll be moving onto the next site to bonus whore.