et me take you through an example of a deposit bonus I recently completed at Hollywood Poker. It’s the largest deposit bonus I’ve ever attempted to complete but it was ultimately very worthwhile. Although the numbers involved seem large the same principles apply to smaller deposit bonuses.
I took advantage of the largest deposit bonus Hollywood Poker offer which is their Professional Player Bonus. You have to deposit a minimum of $500 to qualify but you are entitled to a $5000 bonus. The bonus also includes an iPod Shuffle and a $300 + $20 “Big Deal Ticket” if you complete the deposit bonus in full. With an iPod Shuffle retailing for about $80 I was set to receive a bonus worth $5400 if I could complete it within the 60 days it was valid.
The deposit bonus was released in very large increments of $1250. Each increment of $1250 would require me to earn 10,000 Player Points. This meant for every 8 Player Points I generated I would unlock a dollar of my bonus.
At Hollywood Poker you get 5 Player Points for every dollar in rake you pay. For example, if you played a $20 + $2 tournament you would receive 10 Player Points. As 8 Player Points are worth $1, for each dollar you pay in rake, you are earning 62.5 cents of the deposit bonus. Another way of looking at this is that you are getting a 62.5% discount on the rake you pay.
The games I intended to play were $100 sit ‘n go’s. The entry fee for these tournaments is $8 meaning I would earn 40 Player Points each time I played. 40 Player Points is equivalent to $5 in bonus, so essentially I was only going to be paying a $3 entry fee for these tournaments. This is a massive difference and had a huge affect on my earnings as I shall explain.
To unlock the deposit bonus in full I would need to earn 40,000 Player Points. Each sit ‘n go would earn me 40 Player Points so I needed to play 1000 of them.
I play 5 or 6 sit ‘n go’s at a time and play for a minimum of 5 hours a day. Hollywood Poker is on the Ongame network which is a large network. It is nearly always busy and I felt that if I played during peak hours I could comfortably average 25 games a day. This meant that playing 1000 games would take me about 40 days and at least 200 hours. I had 60 days to complete the deposit bonus so I felt confident that I could complete the bonus in time.
I became a new player at Hollywood Poker, and deposited $2000 onto my account. This would allow me to buy into the $108 sit ‘n go’s 18 times (if I failed to make it into the money). I was prepared to deposit more than the $2000 if I needed but that was unnecessary as I got off to a great start and never dropped below $1800 in my account. It took me 38 days and around 250 hours to earn 10,000 Player Points and thus the $5400 bonus. Here are my results (excluding the deposit bonus):
In total I staked $108,000 ($108 x 1000). I won $120,968 leaving me a total profit of $12,968. This gave me a return on investment (ROI) of 12.01%. This meant that I earnt $12.01 for every $100 I staked.
It took me about 250 hours to play 1000 games which meant my hourly wage was $51.87. I also had an average profit of $12.97 for every game I played.
Here are my results (including the deposit bonus of $5400):
The effect the deposit bonus of $5400 had is dramatic. It increased my profits by 41.8% from $12,968 to $18,388. It also took my hourly wage from $51.87 to $73.55.
This is why deposit bonuses are so important to my earnings - and why they should be important to you! Wouldn’t you like to get a pay rise of $22 or 41.8% per hour?
I can’t stress enough how important these deposit bonuses are. Whenever I play online poker and I’m not earning any form of bonus, I am losing money. The Hollywood Poker example shows this clearly. If I had been playing poker at an online poker room where I wasn’t earning a deposit bonus I would have earnt $5400 less, making my hourly wage $22 less!
How does this affect you?
Well, you may not play professionally, but you still need to take deposit bonuses seriously. They increased my profits, in the example above, by 41.8%. So taking part in a deposit bonus (even if you’re only earning $50) can have a major impact on your profits too.
The deposit bonus was released in very large increments of $1250. Each increment of $1250 would require me to earn 10,000 Player Points. This meant for every 8 Player Points I generated I would unlock a dollar of my bonus.
At Hollywood Poker you get 5 Player Points for every dollar in rake you pay. For example, if you played a $20 + $2 tournament you would receive 10 Player Points. As 8 Player Points are worth $1, for each dollar you pay in rake, you are earning 62.5 cents of the deposit bonus. Another way of looking at this is that you are getting a 62.5% discount on the rake you pay.
The games I intended to play were $100 sit ‘n go’s. The entry fee for these tournaments is $8 meaning I would earn 40 Player Points each time I played. 40 Player Points is equivalent to $5 in bonus, so essentially I was only going to be paying a $3 entry fee for these tournaments. This is a massive difference and had a huge affect on my earnings as I shall explain.
To unlock the deposit bonus in full I would need to earn 40,000 Player Points. Each sit ‘n go would earn me 40 Player Points so I needed to play 1000 of them.
I play 5 or 6 sit ‘n go’s at a time and play for a minimum of 5 hours a day. Hollywood Poker is on the Ongame network which is a large network. It is nearly always busy and I felt that if I played during peak hours I could comfortably average 25 games a day. This meant that playing 1000 games would take me about 40 days and at least 200 hours. I had 60 days to complete the deposit bonus so I felt confident that I could complete the bonus in time.
I became a new player at Hollywood Poker, and deposited $2000 onto my account. This would allow me to buy into the $108 sit ‘n go’s 18 times (if I failed to make it into the money). I was prepared to deposit more than the $2000 if I needed but that was unnecessary as I got off to a great start and never dropped below $1800 in my account. It took me 38 days and around 250 hours to earn 10,000 Player Points and thus the $5400 bonus. Here are my results (excluding the deposit bonus):
In total I staked $108,000 ($108 x 1000). I won $120,968 leaving me a total profit of $12,968. This gave me a return on investment (ROI) of 12.01%. This meant that I earnt $12.01 for every $100 I staked.
It took me about 250 hours to play 1000 games which meant my hourly wage was $51.87. I also had an average profit of $12.97 for every game I played.
Here are my results (including the deposit bonus of $5400):
The effect the deposit bonus of $5400 had is dramatic. It increased my profits by 41.8% from $12,968 to $18,388. It also took my hourly wage from $51.87 to $73.55.
This is why deposit bonuses are so important to my earnings - and why they should be important to you! Wouldn’t you like to get a pay rise of $22 or 41.8% per hour?
I can’t stress enough how important these deposit bonuses are. Whenever I play online poker and I’m not earning any form of bonus, I am losing money. The Hollywood Poker example shows this clearly. If I had been playing poker at an online poker room where I wasn’t earning a deposit bonus I would have earnt $5400 less, making my hourly wage $22 less!
How does this affect you?
Well, you may not play professionally, but you still need to take deposit bonuses seriously. They increased my profits, in the example above, by 41.8%. So taking part in a deposit bonus (even if you’re only earning $50) can have a major impact on your profits too.
An Example of a Deposit Bonus I completed at Hollywood Poker
|
Games |
Staked |
Won |
Profit |
ROI |
Avg.
Profit |
|
1000 |
$108,000 |
$120,968 |
$12,968 |
12.01% |
$12.97 |
|
Games |
Staked |
Won |
Profit
+ Bonus |
ROI |
Avg.
Profit |
|
1000 |
$108,000 |
$120,968 |
$18,388 |
17.03% |
$18.39 |