I think you're right. The only point I was making is that for players like you and me who are regular players, it's nice to be rewarded and get the maximum amount of kickback from the sites for playing, and the prospect of lots of players descending on sites like vultures to clear bonuses and then leaving instantly, while fair enough and no bad reflection on those players, is liable to make the games a bit tighter and more importantly make sites less likely to give generous bonuses in future.

There's nothing wrong with bonus whoring or trying to grab something for nothing; any monetary advantage I can get playing poker I gladly take, although I guess I also generate thousands of dollars of rake for online poker sites every year.

Whilst there's nothing wrong with it, I was just making the point that "career" bonus whores like that Kfellmy guy who got booted from here, who chase every last $ of freebies they can find whilst not really concentrating on the main point (playing poker) ultimately cost everyone else in online poker money. Again, I'm making no judgement on that sort of behaviour as I don't think there's anything wrong with it, just making a point that perhaps I think people might not always realise!

I make a ton of money every year from bonuses so I'm not being facetious and saying that "poker bonuses are wrong", or anything, that would clearly just be dumb!

Monk
xxxxx

FM, I take absolutely no offense at what you're saying and somewhat agree with you.

It was the 2+2ers that really got it going, esp on the Crypto sites. The first of the month they would come in droves. The games were squeaky tight. I waited until the end of the month, when the games loosened up, a lot. You could tell when the first came. They were there again.

I was only saying that the Golden Age is over. Not good or bad, but just a reality. I used the bonuses to shore me up while I was learning the game. I'd often get the $90 Interpoker bonus and double or triple my deposit...of $90. Whether that was good or bad for Interpoker, I do not know. It was good for me. That I DO know.

A year ago, or maybe Sept or Oct, the fish came in like a school of sardines. (I was one of them.) For awhile, it was just almost too easy to make money. A lot of us got very spoiled. My $10 from Royal Vegas and Pacific grew very quickly, due in large part to the bonuses. Fortunately, I learned how to play poker, instead of learning how to clear bonuses.

Bonus schemes were just a form of rakeback, anyway.

FWIW, I hear the Crypto sites still clear at the same rate if you play $2/$4. I am not playing FL, anymore, so I have no interest in finding out. (At 2/4, you better play winning poker because that $90 is not going to hold you up.) In this way, they really are rewarding loyalty, which is understandable.

I don't know about bonuswhores hurting anyone. Most people who play aren't aware of good starting hands, much less the intracasies of bonus chasing. No more than micro-limits hurt poker. Good players will move up. There's got to be a minor league where people can make their bones--to mix metaphors.

Are the Good Times over?

CJ

Thanks, Monk.

If the "good times are over," then they must have been VERY good tmies. The times we're in right now are pretty darned good, IMO. I just hope things don't go downhill from here.

Bobby:

What I meant by sometime bonus whoring doesn't work out is how some sites calculate what a raked hand is or how many "points" it takes to clear a bonus.

With most rake back plans whether the rake is $.20 or $1.00 or more it's all rake. That's why I feel rake back is better than some sites bonuses.

Is a bankroll of about $200 too small to start bonus whoring? What is the ideal amount to start with?

200 would be sufficient to start with playing 4 of the cryptos with 50.00 in each one (start with William Hill as there is no wait for a PIN number to cash out. Then do UKBetting, TotalBet, RitzClub and Littlewoods. That should give yoiu an additional 235.00 if you can break even. By then hopefully the PIN numbers have arrived and you can cashout to do PokerPlex for another 50. If you do this before the end of August then you can redo it at the beginning of September for the same amount and should have you roll ready (ca. 770-800) to do some other site deposit bonuses with sufficient $$ to maximize them.

So $50 would be enough to clear the bonuses with? At what limits do I need to play in order for it to clear?

Good to know, thanks.

FWIW, I keep seeing people state that you need to sign up with a clean computer if you want to sign up at more than one skin of a particular network. This isn't necessarily true if you have Windows XP. This is how I was told to do it and it worked for me with the Party Network. First go into control panel and create a new user account. Then clean the registry of the UCID key (like was mentioned before, google for it because it's well explained elsewhere) and sign up from the desktop of the new user account you just made. Then make your initial deposit from that account also. Now go back to your normal user account desktop and go to the poker website that you just signed up from and download the software and install. Put in your "new" player screen name and password and away you go.
It worked for me but your mileage may vary. I'm also told that this may only work about 85% of the time. So if it doesn't then you have no choice but to use a different and clean computer.

I forgot to mention, You do NOT need to use a different email address for each skin AND you can use the same NETeller account for each one.

How will you know if it didn't work? Will it just refuse to run the new program? Or will you not know until they refuse to cashout the money you won, for violating the terms & conditions?