GuruPlay is an online poker room on the OnGame network, which is currently the 5th largest poker network in the world.  This article will investigate the GuruPlay poker bonus, looking at the bonus size, matching percentage, clearing requirements and expiration.

GuruPlay Poker Bonuses

GuruPlay offers two different poker bonus options for new players.  We will look at both separately and you can decide which would be better for you.

GuruPlay $1000 Sign Up Bonus

GuruPlay offers all new players who deposit at least $500 a sign up bonus equal to $1,000.  There is no matching percentage involved, simply make a deposit of over $500 and you receive the $1000 bonus.  It is also important to note that you must use bonus code BIGPOKER in order to receive this massive bonus.

Your bonus is initially placed in a pending bonus account and you receive $100 of the bonus for every 1000 Guru Points you earn.  Guru Points can be earned by playing at GuruPlay Poker cash games and tournaments.  In cash games you earn 3.25 points for every $1 that you contribute to the rake and 5 Guru Points are awarded for every $1 that you pay in tournament fees.

The bonus expires after 60 days and any amount that you have not cleared after that time will be forfeit.

GuruPlay $600 Sign Up Bonus

The $600 sign up bonus is best for everyone who isn’t looking to make an initial deposit of $500 or more.  The minimum deposit for the $600 bonus is just $25 and there is also no matching percentage so every deposit earns the full $600 bonus.  Use bonus code POKER100 to receive this bonus.

This bonus is released in $50 increments every time you earn 500 Guru Points, which are earned in cash games and tournaments at the rates listed above.  The $600 bonus also carries an expiry of 60 days.

Which Bonus To Choose

Basically you should choose the $1000 bonus if you are going to deposit $500 or more and take the $600 bonus if you are depositing less.  In tournaments you are earning $0.50 of the bonus for every $1 you pay in fees, while in cash games you earn $0.35 of the bonus for every $1 you contribute to the rake.  These are both very good ratios for bonuses, but obviously playing tournaments is a more economical way to clear the bonus, however in cash games you will often rack up points faster, which can result in you earning a greater amount of the bonus within the 60 day period.

Overall, the GuruPlay bonus is one of the best in the industry because you earn a massive bonus, regardless of the amount of your first deposit.  I suggest new players play through this bonus because the clearing requirements are fair and the bonus the ratio is better than the bonus or rakeback you will find at the majority of other online poker websites.

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!

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.