| Mini review | Bonus, and how to get it |
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| Full Tilt Poker | |
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This is the standard offer for new players. If you follow this coded link, you will receive the sign-up bonus and our site will benefit from your referral. The bonus is huge but the release conditions are somewhat tighter than other sites; at medium limits it will typically take 8-10 hands per dollar of bonus. Offer details and fine print. (Use the bonus code FAQ if the signup screen lets you; if the bonus field is grayed out that means you will get the 100% deposit bonus automatically and don't need to enter the code.) |
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| Ultimate Bet | |
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The maximum deposit bonus varies from time to time, but is usually at least $650 and is sometimes $1100 (see the offer details). If you follow this coded link, you will receive the sign-up bonus and our site will benefit from your referral. You have to earn 10 UltimatePoints for each $1 of deposit bonus (or 30 points in SNGs). This works out to be a pretty slow rate compared to other sites. |
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| Absolute Poker | |
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The standard deposit bonus is only 20%, but if you follow this coded link and use bonus code AP500, you will receive a 100% bonus up to $500 and our site will benefit from your referral. Must earn 20 points per $5 bonus; you earn 1 point per flop you see with $0.50 rake or more; bonus is released in $5 increments; 60 days to earn your bonus. Offer details and fine print. |
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| Poker Stars | |
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PokerStars offers a 100% sign-up bonus up to $50. This is quite small but they do offer frequent reload bonuses, typically adding up to around $1000 per year or more, and have many freeroll tournaments. Offer details and fine print. |
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| Poker Room (non-US players only) | |
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There is no need for a sign-up code. If you follow this coded link, you will receive the sign-up bonus and our site will benefit from your referral. Must play 7 fully raked hands per $1 bonus (or more hands if the rake is less than $1/hand). Offer details and fine print. |
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| Party Poker (non-US players only) | |
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Enter the sign-up bonus code RGPFAQ when you open your account. Best if you plan to deposit more than $125. Must play 5 raked hands per $1 of bonus. Offer details and the fine print. |
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Enter the sign-up bonus code RGPFAQ25 when you open your account. Best if you plan to deposit less than $125. Must play 5 raked hands per $1 of bonus. Offer details and the fine print. |
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| Pacific Poker (non-US players only) | |
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This is the standard offer for new players. If you follow this coded link, you will receive the sign-up bonus and our site will benefit from your referral. Pacific bases their bonus release conditions on the total amount of your bets rather than hands played, but it works out about the same. For offer details, click here and then navigate to the "Bonus" section and click "Your Welcome Bonus". See also the fine print. |
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A relatively new
site promoted by a dozen famous professional poker players.
WSOP champs like Howard Lederer, Erik Seidel and Chris
Ferguson play on the site at special (real-money) tables and
discuss the hands with their opponents. The software is good:
easy to use with fun 3-D avatars. Customer support is
acceptable.
US players welcome.
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Don't sign up without one. The online poker referral system gives you the chance to get generous sign-up bonuses for yourself while helping the referring site of your choice. You're throwing away free money if you sign up without a bonus. The only question is which bonus to use. The bonus codes and referral IDs on the left are the best promotions that we know of being offered by each poker site. By using them, you can be sure of getting the best possible bonus while helping keep the poker FAQ site that we sponsor a great resource. Why let some random banner ad get credit? What's the catch? Every bonus has some strings attached. Usually the site requires you make a minimum deposit and play a minimum number of raked hands. The details vary so we provide a link to the fine print for each offer. Since you can only sign up once for each site, make sure you understand the offers and choose the one that's best for you. And since the offers change over time, be sure to check the latest fine print on the poker site (they're the authoritative source, not us). I saw some other affiliate offering a bigger bonus. Each poker site generally has only one sign-up bonus that's the same for everybody. But some affiliates kick in a bit of their own cash to sweeten the bonus. When you strike a bargain with such a person, you have to trust them to make good on the deal. The poker site won't help you if you have a complaint. A few of these affiliates have good reputations, but many of them are spammers who are just looking to make a quick buck. Before you go for one of these deals, be sure to do your homework by searching for satisfied customers on rec.gambling.poker. Or, you could use the bonus codes here and be assured that the referral fees are sponsoring the rgp FAQ site. Can I be my own affiliate? It would be nice to cut out the middleman and collect the referral fees associated with your own account. It would be especially nice for those affiliate programs that share a percentage of the rake you generate over the lifetime of your account. Unfortunately, all of the poker sites prohibit you from referring yourself. The affiliate agreements call this "fraud traffic" and the site will refuse to pay. The sites give special attention to affiliates who refer a small number of new accounts, considering them most likely to be fraudulent. How can I get a rake rebate? To get around the restriction against self-affiliates, some affiliates have offered to rebate a portion of referral fees over the lifetime of the account. Most of the poker sites frown on this and some have taken measures to prevent it; for example, see this official prohibition notice from Party Poker. So if the affiliate doesn't honor the bargain, the site won't give you any help. What's more, the poker site would be within its rights to seize the entire balance of your real-money account due to your violation of the site's Terms of Service. A practical problem is that most of the affiliate reporting systems don't provide the level of detail needed for the affiliate to know how much to rebate to each player. But I already have an account. Can I get a reload bonus? All of the bonuses listed here are limited to new players making their first deposit. Sometimes poker sites offer a "reload bonus" for existing players, especially during holiday weekends. The best ways to find a reload bonus are to search recent posts on rec.gambling.poker or the 2+2 forums and watch for promotional email from the poker site. Some players have reported that after letting their account sit idle for a few months they received a reload bonus offer, but others have said they received nothing, so there's no guarantee. Need to contact us? If you have any questions, or experience any trouble with the links below, or find that a bonus listed here is out of date, please send email to info@onlinepokerfaq.com. |