Lock Poker has emerged as a solid and legitimate online poker room over the past couple of years, so I felt it was time that I investigated the Lock Poker bonus to see if it is a viable option for players looking to clear welcome bonuses.  Lock Poker is one of the main rooms on the Merge Gaming Network, which is the biggest network of poker rooms that are still accepting United States residents.  Let’s take a look at the Lock Poker bonus:

Lock Poker Bonus Details

Lock Poker currently offers a sign up bonus of 150% up to $750 on first deposits.  You must use Lock Poker bonus code LOCK150 when signing up in order to receive this bonus.  For example, if you open an account and deposit $100 using LOCK150 as the Lock Poker bonus code, then you would receive a bonus equal to $150 that would be added to you pending bonus account.

In order to clear the bonus into your real money cashier you must earn VIP points by playing in Lock Poker cash games and tournaments.  Every 75 VIP points you earn gets you $1 of your bonus, which is released in $5 increments every time you accumulate an additional 375 VIP points.  You earn 10 points for every $1 that you pay in tournament fees or contribute in rakeback to Lock Poker, which equals out to about $0.13 of your bonus being released for every $1 that you pay to Lock Poker.

Lock Poker Bonus Compared to PokerStars Bonus

PokerStars is by far the largest online poker room in existence today and although they do not accept US residents at the site we will compare the Lock bonus to the PokerStars bonus to see how it shapes up.

PokerStars currently offers new players a 100% matching bonus up to $600.  This bonus is also placed into a pending bonus account and clears at a rate of 17 VPPs for every $1 of the bonus.  The bonus is then released in $10 increments every time you earn an additional 170 VPPs.  In tournaments you receive 5.5 VPPs for every $1 that you pay in fees and in cash games you earn VPPs at the same rate depending on how much of the rake you have contributed.  This means that at PokerStars you receive about $0.32 of your bonus for every $1 that you pay in fees or rake.  This is more than double what you earn at Lock Poker playing the same games.

In conclusion the PokerStars bonus is still quite a bit better than the Lock Poker bonus.  At Lock you receive a larger bonus with a better matching percentage, but the clearing requirements aren’t nearly as good as at PokerStars.  If you plan to play at Lock Poker a lot regardless then the full $750 bonus may be more appealing even if it takes triple the time to clear than the $600 bonus from PokerStars.  Be sure to use a reputable PokerStars Marketing Code if you sign up at PokerStars to get the $600 bonus!

 

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.