Almost all online poker rooms offer sign-up bonuses for new players. These special offers are called deposit bonuses, and the amount you can earn typically depends on the quantity of money you deposit. For example, some poker rooms might offer to match up to 100% (or more) of the amount of money you deposit when you setup your account.
All Internet poker rooms have affiliates, which are people who help market poker rooms to new players. These affiliates are paid a one-time ‘bounty’ when they send a new real money player to a poker room. Depending on the poker room, an affiliate might earn a bounty of anywhere from $50 to $250 or more per player. Some of these affiliates kick back a piece of that bounty to the player in the form of free gifts or prizes.
One of the most popular one-time affiliate bonus services is operated by a website called Poker Source Online. The process works like this. First a new player signs up at Poker Source Online. Next, the new player selects a poker room that Poker Source Online is affiliated with. After that player follows Poker Source Online’s instructions to setup a real money account at the poker room, and plays the required number of hands, the affiliate (Poker Source Online) is paid a bounty. Poker Source Online then credits the player with points that the player can use to get free poker merchandise.
At Poker Source Online (and many other online poker affiliates) a new player might be able to get a free poker chip set, free poker books and videos, or even a free poker table. The prizes that are available to the poker player depend on how much of a bounty Poker Source Online (the affiliate) received from the online poker room. If the affiliate earns a bounty of $100, then the poker player might be able to get a free gift valued at somewhere between $50 and $75. This means the affiliate still earns a nice profit, and the poker player receives some cool poker merchandise for free.
In the above section we discussed how poker room affiliates are paid one-time bounties for sending new players to Internet poker rooms. But there is another option. Instead of a one-time bounty, affiliates can take a piece of the rake that the poker room earns from each new player the affiliate sends.
The affiliate will continue to be paid a certain percentage of the rake during the lifetime of that player’s account at the poker room. The percentage of the rake an affiliate is paid depends on the poker room and the volume of players that the affiliate generates for the poker room. In general, an affiliate can earn back 20% to 60% of the rake the player contributes.
Rakeback affiliates offer a portion of this rake back to the poker player. You can think of it as sort of a “rake rebate”. The rake that the poker room earns off each player can really add up over time, so affiliates can earn quite a bit of cash, and the best rakeback affiliates return a big percentage of this money to their players.
The best thing about rakeback is that it is not a one-time promotion. Online poker players who work with affiliates that offer this option can continue to earn back a percentage of their rake for the entire time they play at the poker room; whether that is just a few days, months, or even several years.
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We hope this article clears up some of the confusion involved in online poker promotions. Getting to the bottom of online poker offers can sometimes be confusing, so if you have a question please feel free to visit our forum and post a question. We’re happy to answer them! &nbs
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