This post won’t be about comparing the poker bonus of two different online poker rooms.  Instead we are going to be looking at how you can win a trip to the NHL awards in Las Vegas, courtesy of PokerStars and the Dallas Stars.  Just before you get reading to far into this post, this promotion is only for American residents (I know it’s rare that poker is only for Americans and not the other way around).

How To Qualify

Freeroll Route

Every Monday – Friday at 8pm EST you can play in a freeroll qualifier to a semi-final.  The top 90 players in each of these freerolls will qualify for the semi-final, which takes place every other Sunday until March 28th.  In these semi-finals the top 50 finishers will qualify for the grand final on April 4th.  There will also be Dallas Stars gear as prizes for the top 10 finishers in each of these qualifiers.

Buy-In Route

Every Tuesday and Thursday at 7pm EST there will be a $1+$0.10 buy-in tournament with the top five finishers qualifying for the grand final on April 4th.

Grand Final

The Grand Final is set to take place on April 4th at 9pm EST.  The winner will take home the NHL awards prize package, while the top five finishers will all receive Dallas Stars merchandise.

The Package

The prize package consists of tickets to the NHL awards, airline tickets, accomodation and spending money for you and 3 of your friends.

Conclusion

If you are a hockey fan and have some time then you should definitely try your luck at these PokerStars freerolls.  The easier route is definitely the $1 buy-in route, but even if you don’t have money in your account you can qualify for the trip!

PKR has decided to give an early Christmas present to each and every one of their current players.  Any player that makes a deposit between now and December 31st will receive a 100% matching reload bonus up to $600.  In order to receive this bonus you must use PKR bonus code MXAS09!

This reload bonus will clear at a rate of $1 for every 250 PKR points earned.  The reload bonus will be released to your account as a lump sum once you have earned the required number of PKR points.  You have 60 days to clear your entire bonus, so you should make a deposit amount that you are confident you can clear or you could be left with nothing.

This offer is only available to existing players.  If you are a new PKR player than you can receive the new player initial deposit bonus of 100% up to $800 with the use of PKR bonus code NEWBONUS.  If you have a rakeback account you are still eligible for this bonus, but the bonus money you earn will be deducted from your gross rake for the month.

Take advantage of this reload bonus and enjoy your Christmas at PKR!  This bonus can be cleared easily by playing in the variety of Christmas Cracker tournaments running at PKR.  Don’t wait, get your free money today.

Doyles Room Bonus vs Aced Bonus

In this comparison we will look at two relatively small, up and coming rooms and compare their new player bonus offers.  Doyles Room recently joined the Cake Poker network, whereas Aced is a new room on the Merge network.  Both rooms are relatively small, which means they are trying to attract new players and initial deposit bonuses are a great marketing tool for this.  Let’s check out, which room you should choose for your next poker bonus clear.

**These rooms are both much smaller than pokerstars.net, but unlike PokerStars, both of these sites offer internet casinos for USA players.

Size of Initial Deposit Bonus

Doyles Room’s first deposit bonus is a 110% matching bonus up to $550.  This is a pretty typical size, with the industry average being between $500 and $600, so Doyles Room is spot on.  To get the full bonus at Doyles Room you need to deposit $500 and you will receive the full $550 sign up bonus.

Aced offers a 100% up to $500 initial deposit bonus.  This is still pretty average, but as you can see it’s a little worse than Doyles Room.

We will have to give Doyles Room the point from this category, by an edge.

Player Friendly Clearing Conditions

The Doyles Room bonus has very fair clearing requirements.  At Doyles Room you must earn frequent player points to release your bonus.  In ring games you earn one point for every $1 that is paid in rake from a table you were participating at and seven points for every $1 that you pay in tournament fees.  Every point you earn is worth $0.06 towards clearing your bonus.  This means that you clear $0.42 of your bonus for every $1 that you pay in tourney fees.

Aced Poker, on the other hand, has horrible clearing conditions for their bonus.  At Aced you must earn VIP points to clear your bonus.  In Aced tournaments you earn 10 VIP points for every $1 that is paid in fees and you need 1250 points to clear $5 of your bonus.  This means that every $1 that you pay in fees only clears $0.04 of your bonus.  This is probably the worst ratio in the industry.

It is clear that Doyles Room wins another point from this category.

Pay Increments

Doyles Room pays the bonus in $10 increments every time a player earns 166.67 FPP’s.  Aced Poker pays out in $5 increments every time a player earns 1250 VIP points.

The Aced increments are small, which is nice, but a player could clear $100 at Doyles Room before the first $5 at Aced.  For this reason we will not give Aced a point here.

Expiry

At Doyles Room, you have 90 days to clear as much of your bonus as you can.  At Aced you only have 60 days to clear your bonus.

Point Doyles Room.

Conclusion

The Doyles Room bonus is far and away better than the Aced bonus.  The Doyles Room bonus is solid and is definitely above the industry average.  Whereas, the Aced Poker bonus is probably the worst the industry has ever seen.  Doyles Room also offers 33% Doyles Room rakeback, which can be combined with their great bonus offer!

PayPal has always had a strict no gambling policy, but it seems like more and more online poker rooms are starting to accept PayPal as a deposit option.  There are of course restrictions, like in order to deposit with PayPal players must reside in only a handful of European Countries, such as Denmark, Finland and Spain to name a few.  Also, there are only a few poker rooms that are currently being dubbed PayPal poker rooms because they are one of a few that accepts the convenient payment option.

Some of the poker rooms that do accept PayPal as a deposit option include Ladbrokes Poker , Pacific Poker, Betfair Poker, Paddy Power Poker, William Hill Poker and Party Poker.  One correlation that you can immediately see for these poker rooms is that they don’t accept US based poker players.  This is likely a very big reason why Paypal has decided to work with them and allow the deposits to their gambling site.

Poker rooms aren’t the only ones adopting Paypal as a payment option though.  There has also been an emergence of PayPal casino and PayPal bingo rooms as well.  Some rooms that fall into these categories include Paddy Power Casino , William Hill Casino, 888 Casino and Betfair Casino, Ladbrokes Bingo, William Hill Bingo, Paddy Power Bingo and Tombola Bingo.

It is great to see ties emerging between Paypal, one of the best e-wallets online today, and many of the best poker, casino and bingo rooms for European players.  Hopefully this trend can continue and the Paypal gambling relationship can continue to branch out giving more players the easy Paypal deposit option.

Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars are the two online poker rooms that constantly draw comparisons because they are the biggest and best poker rooms online.  PokerStars has the most traffic in online poker and Full Tilt Poker is a not so distant second.  The third most traffic belongs to the iPoker network, but this network has all kinds of rooms so you can’t really point your finger at one and compare it to Full Tilt or PokerStars.  So since, these two poker rooms are running away with the online poker industry we are going to do an in depth bonus comparison.

Size of Initial Deposit Bonus

PokerStars initial deposit bonus is only a 100% matching up to $50 which is one of the smallest initial deposit bonuses in online poker.  Some say that PokerStars keeps the bonus this small because they don’t need a big bonus to attract players, while others say that it is part of PokerStars strategy to attract new players who aren’t planning on depositing any more than $50 anyways.  Then once these players play at PokerStars they enjoy it so much that they decide to stay.

Full Tilt’s initial deposit bonus is a 100% up to $600 matching bonus which is much larger than the $50 max at PokerStars.  This bonus amount is pretty much the industry standard that all other poker rooms try to match or exceed.  The amount is solid because players will rarely deposit over $600 anyways.

Point Full Tilt Poker

Full Tilt definitely has the better size of initial deposit bonus.

Player Friendly Clearing Conditions

PokerStars initial deposit bonus is very easy to clear.  To clear your bonus you must earn PokerStars frequent player points by playing in Stars cash games or tournaments.  Each frequent player point you earn is worth $0.10 of your bonus.  In cash games you earn 1 point when $0.40 or more rake is taken from a $1/$2 or below cash game and in bigger games 1 point is awarded for rakes of $1 or more.  A second point is awarded when 6-max tables reach $2 in rake or when full tables reach $3 in rake.  Then a third point is awarded when the rake reaches $5.  In tournaments you earn 5 points for every $1 you spend in tournament fees.  So this means that you clear $0.50 for every $1 that you spend in tournament fees.  Partial points are not awarded.

Full Tilt Poker’s initial deposit bonus is also very easy to clear.  You must earn Full Tilt Points by playing in cash games or tournaments to clear your bonus.  Every FTP you earn clears $0.06 of your bonus.  In cash games you 1 point for every $1 that is raked from a cash game hand.  For example if the rake is $0.50 you earn 0.5 FTP’s.  This means that if you are playing a 9-max table and $1 is raked then you earn 1 point which clears $0.06 of your bonus.  On average you would have contributed $0.11 to the rake for each point you earn at a 9-max table which means that you clear about $0.55 for every $1 that you pay in rake in Full Tilt cash games.  In Full Tilt Poker tournaments you earn 7 FTP’s for each $1 that you pay in fees, which equals out to you clearing $0.42 of your bonus for each $1 that you pay to the house.

Therefore, it is safe to assume that if you are cash game player it is easier to clear Full Tilt Poker’s bonus because you receive points regardless of how much rake was taken each hand and it is much easier to earn multiple points in the same hand.  If you are a tournament player then PokerStars bonus is slightly easier to clear because you clear at a rate of $0.50 per $1 paid, which is better than Full Tilt’s $0.42 per $1 paid.  Therefore this category is a tie.

Pay Increments

At PokerStars you don’t receive any increments; instead you receive your full bonus after you have cleared the entire amount.  At Full Tilt Poker you receive increments of either $20 or 10% of your bonus whichever you reach first.

The Full Tilt Poker pay increments are better because you will receive at least a portion of your bonus if you don’t clear the entire amount by the deadline.

Point Full Tilt Poker

Expiry

PokerStars gives you 6 months to clear your bonus whereas Full Tilt Poker gives you 120 days.  Both of these time frames are very long and are much longer than the majority of online poker rooms.  However, since PokerStars is long they receive the win.

Point PokerStars.

Final Tally.  Full Tilt Poker 2 – PokerStars 1

We have proven that Full Tilt Poker’s initial deposit bonus is better than PokerStars’.

Make sure you sign up at Full Tilt Poker using Full Tilt referral code “THEFULLTILT” in order to receive your initial deposit bonus.

PKR has recently added a new initial deposit bonus option.  This bonus is a 100% matching bonus up to $800!  PKR has also changed their minimum deposit to only $10 and all deposits from $10 right up to $800 will be matched using this bonus option.  The PKR bonus code to receive this bonus is NEWBONUS.

Compared to other PKR bonuses this new first deposit bonus is by far the best.  The only other bonus you may want to use is the $50 free bonus for deposits of $50.  This is because the $50 fixed bonus is easier to clear requiring only 150 PKR points per $1 of the bonus compared to the 225 PKR points you need to clear each $1 using the new initial deposit bonus.

Now that PKR offers this new initial deposit bonus they have one of the best initial deposit bonus options in all of online poker.  The $800 max is more than the typical $500 bonus and the PKR bonus is not that difficult to clear.  For every $1 you pay in tournament fees you earn 100 PKR points.  This means that you receive $0.44 back in cleared bonus for every $1 in tournament fees you pay.  This is better than both Cake Poker and Full Tilt poker because their bonuses clear at a rate of $0.42 for every $1 paid.

This new PKR bonus is similar to the one Full Tilt launched a month or so ago.  Full Tilt also lowered their initial deposit minimum to $10 and allowed players to receive a matching bonus for this amount.  To receive your Full Tilt bonus use Full Tilt referral code THEFULLTILT.

Full Tilt Poker

At Full Tilt you earn 7 FTP’s for every $1 in tournament fees you pay.  Every FTP you earn is worth $0.06, which means for every $1 in tournament fees you pay, you earn back $0.42 back in cleared bonus amounts.

Use Full Tilt Referral Code – THEFULLTILT when signing up at Full Tilt today to start clearing your bonus.

Cake Poker

Cake Poker is the same as Full Tilt.  You earn 7 FPP’s for every $1 in tournament fee you pay and every FPP is worth $0.06 of your bonus.  This means that, just like Full Tilt, every $1 in tournament fees you pay, you earn $0.042 back in cleared bonuses.

Use Cake Poker sign up code – CAKEBC500 when signing up at Cake Poker today to start clearing your bonus.

CD Poker

At CD Poker you earn 15 CD Points for every $1 paid in tournament fees.  Every 10 CD Points you earn is worth $0.08 of your bonus.  This means that for every $1 paid in tournament fees at CD Poker you only earn $0.12 of back in cleared bonus amounts.

Use CD Poker coupon code – THECDBONUS when signing up at CD Poker today to start clearing your bonus.

PKR

At PKR you earn 100 PKR Points for every $1 paid in tournament fees.  If you get the 100% up to $600 bonus then every 225 PKR points you earn is worth $1 of your bonus.  However, if you choose the $50 fixed bonus you must earn 7500 PKR points to clear the entire bonus, which works out to only 150 PKR points for every $1 of the bonus.  Therefore, if you get the 100% matching bonus up to $600 at PKR every $1 paid in tournament fees earns you $0.44 of your bonus.  Whereas, if you take the $50 fixed bonus then every $1 paid in tournament fees earns you $0.67 of your bonus.

Conclusion

From this information you can easily conclude that CD Poker is the worst poker room to clear bonuses at through tournament play.  PKR’s $50 fixed bonus is the easiest to clear with $0.67 of your bonus being cleared for every $1 in tournament fees paid.  The problems with the PKR bonus is that the bonus amount is only a maximum of $50 and you do not receive increments of the bonus, but only the lump sum once the total amount of PKR points is accumulated.  Also, if you aren’t able to clear the bonus in 90 days you lose the entire amount and all the PKR points you have up to this point were pointless.

The Full Tilt Poker and Cake Poker bonuses are both fairly easy to clear from tournament play, with each clearing $0.42 of your bonus for every $1 in fees paid.  The Full Tilt bonus is a little bit better though, just because you have 120 days to clear instead of the 90 days that Cake Poker offers.

In conclusion, if you don’t have a lot to deposit and are just looking for the easiest to clear and best value poker bonus to build your poker bankroll, without the size of the bonus really being of concern I would go for the PKR $50 fixed bonus which you can get by entering PKR bonus code PKRFREE50 when making your first deposit at PKR Poker.  If you are looking for a larger bonus that is still easy to clear through tournament play, go with the Full Tilt bonus, by entering Full Tilt referral code THEFULLTILT when signing up as a new player at Full Tilt Poker.

One of the easiest, quickest and most often used ways to distinguish between poker bonuses is simply looking at their amount.  For this reason I felt it was best to be the first comparison of poker bonuses done by us here at comparepokerbonuses.com.

For this comparison we are looking at the maximum possible bonus the poker rooms are offering to you.  That is if you were to deposit a large enough sum to earn the entire bonus available.  The size of the bonus is of the most importance to high roller players who can get through the clearing requirements easily and have the available cash to deposit a large amount into their account with their first deposit.

Biggest Poker Bonus Amount goes to PKR.  At PKR you have the option to choose from 4 different deposit bonus options and the highroller option, which is a 100% matching bonus up to $2K gives the biggest bonus available on the internet today.  There is a specific PKR bonus code for each different bonus.

Smallest Poker Bonus Amount goes to PokerStars who is still only giving a $50 initial deposit bonus to new players.  PokerStars obviously does not feel they need to give a larger bonus and players are proving this as PokerStars continues to be the biggest poker room online and it shows no signs of slowing down.

Most Poker rooms will offer about a $500 first deposit bonus.  This is true with two of our featured rooms, CD Poker and Cake Poker.  Full Tilt, our other featured room, is close to this amount, offering up to $600 as an initial deposit bonus.

**I want to stress that the size of the bonus should not be the only factor when looking at poker bonus offers.  The truth is very few new players will deposit enough to take advantage of the entire bonus anyways, so this comparison should really only be of help to the big money players.  In the future we will look at clearing requirements and matching percentages, which will be of more use to the typical player.