Bigger Party Poker Sign-Up Bonus

Party Poker has just released a modern new client, and has a bigger sign-up bonus to go with it. Now get 100% up to $500. Click on the Party image at left for more info.

Ring Game Bonus Clearing: Rakes & Pots

FL: Fixed Limit; NL: No Limit; PL: Pot Limit

B2B network: .40c contributed rake earns 1 VIPP; partial points awarded
FL .50/$1 tables : $8 pot
FL $1/$2 tables : $10 pot
All NL, PL & 1/2 PL: $8 pot

Cryptologic: 25c-99c rake earns .25 MPP, $1+ rake = 1 MPP
All tables: $5 pot ; $20 pot

Microgaming (Prima) Network: 25c rake to be counted as a "raked hand"
FL, NL & PL .05/.10 tables and up: $5 pot

Paradise Poker: 25c rake earns 1 FPP; now contributed
FL up to $1/$2 tables: $5 pot
NL & PL all tables: $5 pot

At Poker.com, any 20c pot is raked. Contributed Raked Hands get Comp Points based on table stakes.
FL .25/.50 & .50/$1 tables: 3 CPs
FL $1/$2 & $2/$4 tables: 5 CPs
NL & PL .10/.25 & .25/.50 tables: 3 CPs
NL & PL .50/$1 to $3/$6 tables: 5 CPs

Poker Stars: 40c rake earns 1 "base" FPP
FL .50/$1 tables : $8 pot
FL $1/$2 tables : $10 pot
NL & PL up to $1/$2: $8 pot

World Poker Crown Results

Congratulation to the World Poker Crown winner, Jack Hinchey!

"Almost Free"rolls to Saturday's $3 Million WPC

As 888 Pacific Poker's World Poker Crown gets closer, they're really bending over backwards to give away seats. As of now, 500-seat tournaments, with an entry fee of $0.01, are running every hour, with the winner getting a seat to this Saturday's $1000+$50 WPC tournament.

That's right: every hour is a chance to win a $1050 seat for only one penny. It might as well be free.

Pacific Poker Boosts Sign Up Bonus

If an upfront 25% up to $100 wasn't enough to get you at Pacific's softest games online, how's this? New players will now actually receive two bonuses on a first deposit:

1. An Instant Bonus equal to 25% of the first deposit up to $100, same as now
2. A Pending Bonus equal to 75% of the first deposit up to $400

This offer is guaranteed until May 31, 2008, but may change after that, so don't delay. Take advantage now using the spiffy new Pacific banner on the left.

PokerStars Launches Sit & Go Tournament Leader Board

Building on its weekly, monthly and yearly multi-table Tournament Leader Boards (TLB), PokerStars has introduced a Sit & Go counterpart, which they've called the Battle of the Planets. S&G players are grouped by both buy-in and number of games played, with weekly winners of each group splitting prize pools from $3000 to $10,000!

On top of that, every player that finishes in the top 10 of any weekly S&G Leader Board gets an exclusive ticket to a monthly $50,000 triple-shootout tournament!

Finally, a 20% up to $120 reload bonus is being offered to celebrate the launch.

Heads-Up Hosers!

888.com Pacific Poker is offering the chance to freeroll your way to a $7,500 prize package to the Heads Up event at the 2008 Canadian Open Poker Championship. This event is limited to 128 seats, and is being held at the Deerfoot Inn and Casino in Calgary, Alberta Canada from March 6th to March 9th.

UPDATE: Congratulations to Rfluid, who won the package on Feb 23. Enjoy your trip!

888 Pacific Poker's $3 Million World Poker Crown

888 Pacific Poker continues its attempt to grow its presence, this time by offering a US$3 million prize pool for its "World Poker Crown" tournament.

This $1000+$50 tournament starts online on Saturday, April 26, then pauses when down to the final 8. These remaining 8 players, and a selected guest each, will then be invited to travel to Barcelona, Spain, from May 6-10, to restart from where they left off. The top prize is the WPC title (including a real crown!) and $1,000,000!

Naturally, there are satellites leading to the Main Event; these start as low as $1.10+0.10.

See here for all the WPC details, and good luck!

PokerStars First Deposit FreeRolls

From February 14 to 23, PokerStars is giving away a total of $30,000 to those who make their first real money deposit. They're also offering a 100% first deposit bonus, up to $50.

Read all the details here, then sign up at PokerStars.

Updated Microgaming Rakes

It's been a while since I've played at a Microgaming skin, so I just noticed that their rake structure has changed. It's now 5% across games and stakes, with a $3 cap.

2008 WSoP Update: 8 World Championships

From http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/news/varchive.asp?aid=1900

"LAS VEGAS – December 11, 2007 – Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:HET) said today the 2008 World Series of Poker Presented by Milwaukee’s Best Light and televised exclusively on ESPN will – for the first time ever – begin and end with $10,000 buy-in World Championship events and feature a total of eight $10,000 championships."

Here is the full press release, which contains the complete schedule of events and some other important details.

The Dream has Died

Today I received an e-mail from Dream@Gnuf, saying DreamPoker had merged their player base into that of GNUF. Great. So much for a GNUF sign up bonus. I'm guessing that the rake back deal I had with Dream will die now too.

Paradise finally moves to BOSS; end of days for Bonus Whores

Paradise Poker migrated players from their former standalone (and dwindling) player base to the BOSS Media platform last Thursday. The good news is that there are now more players. The "it's up to you" news is what you think of the new software (who am I to say if you'll like it or not?). The bad -- ok, horrible -- news for us bonus whores is that they've completely gutted a once generous bonus system.

While pots still must be raked 25c, gone are the dealt "100 raked hands for $10" bonuses. To clear a bonus now, players must earn 100 FPP to clear only $5. If going from 10x to 20x isn't bad enough, to earn FPPs, players must also contribute to the pot.

If Paradise couldn't maintain their players with their great bonuses of old, watch for continued decline. It's hard to imagine why anyone wanting to play on the BOSS network would choose Paradise Poker to do it from.

PokerStars Celebrates 10 *Billion* hands dealt

Yes, PokerStars is getting ready to deal their 10 billionth cash game hand, and they're celebrating with the following:

• 25% deposit bonus up to $150
• Special added money tournaments, including an extra $250,000 in their Sunday Million
• Earn double the FPPs and VIPs from cash game play and Sit & Go fees
• Cash prizes just for being dealt into 100 milestone hands

See this PokerStars page for full details.

Party Poker updates Rakes

Party Poker introduced a new rake structure this week with its latest client. NL and PL pots are now consistently raked at 5%, starting at a penny dropped from a twenty cent pot. Fixed Limit games are also mostly raked 5%, but vary at the extremes. High Rollers now drop 2.5% or less, while the nickle/dime tables give up a whopping 10%, starting with a penny raked from a ten cent pot.

No flop no drop? Perhaps, but now, for those poor MicroStakes players, if only the blinds see a flop, Party takes a cut.

For the time being, the old rake structure is still available.

WSOP Bubble Insurance

HollywoodPoker.com is again offering "WSOP Tournament Insurance". If you win your way to the 2007 WSOP via HP's satellites, or you're going on your own dime and have an HP account, you can register for Bubble Insurance by clicking the link that is now on your Account page. Once you click, you'll have to earn 1000 Poker Points by the day before the WSOP starts; if you do, you're covered!

Your "policy" will pay you the final payout amount, which was $12,500 in 2006, if you bust out in one of the five (5) spots before the money.

Contributed Bonuses

When it comes to awarding player points, I'm finding that sites are moving from the "dealt raked hand" method to the "contributed raked hand" method. This means you have to be in a blind or join the pot to get credit for the hand. Some Microgaming sites are doing this now, and Ongame* has also recently changed to this method.

While this is clearly lousy for clearing bonuses playing flop games, such as Hold 'Em or Omaha, it does make it a good time to expand your skills and learn Stud. In Stud games, you pay an ante for every hand, so as long as the pot is raked, you can fold your trash hands without matching the bring-in, and still get credit for a contributed raked hand.

No wonder the pros always say "Learn more than just Hold 'Em."


*= The network behind HollywoodPoker.com, PokerRoom.com, Eurobet.com and the new Chanpoker.com, among others.

Why PokerSource.com is the Best

Hands down, the best sign up bonuses that I've found are at Poker Source. Not only will they start you off with free money, but then, on top of the regular cash bonuses that sites offer, you can also get free poker gifts, such as books, chip sets, gift certificates or even a poker table! If the stakes you play are better suited to Rakeback than to bonuses, well, they offer that too.

For my first (and so far only) sign up through them, I chose PartyPoker plus 9000 PSO points. Not only did I get PartyPoker's normal 20% up to $100 bonus, but it came at a reduced clearing rate of only 2.5 raked hands per bonus dollar (rather than the usual 5). For those same 250 raked hands, I got 9000 PSO points, which I then redeemed for merchandise with a cash value of $100. It was even shipped for free. Need I say more to demonstrate that these are the best sign up bonuses out there? They offer deals with 12 poker sites; I'll let you visit them to find out exactly which ones.

If you do check them out, please use me (goldboar) as your affiliate. You get the best bonuses I've ever found (have I said that already?), the poker site gets rake from you and all the people who happen to be at your tables, PSO gets affiliate $ from any rooms that you sign up at, and PSO gives me a little scratch for sending you to them. Isn't it great how all this money moves around? It's poker Amway style.

Two other great sites for sign up bonuses are PokerListings.com and BonusWhores.com.