When starting out playing online poker at Party Poker they offer a generous deposit bonus to help entice some new players and play money players to make their first deposit. Party Poker offers a deposit bonus to its players that is either a flat $25 or 20% up to $100. A lot of new poker players make a minimum deposit of 50 dollars when depositing at Party Poker and want to make sure that they are able to earn their deposit bonuses. Of course, deposit bonuses are not just released to you for depositing. You have to play a certain number of raked hands at the real money tables for your bonus to be released to you.
What is a raked hand?
Rake is the percentage of the pot that Party Poker keeps for themselves. The rake is 5% of any pot, and Party Poker never takes more than $3. Thus, a raked hand is any hand in which you were dealt cards and a rake (or money) was taken out of the pot. This money can be seen in a small dish located next to the dealer. In order to release your deposit bonus you need to play a certain amount of hands where rake was generated at your table.
Party Poker deposit bonuses get released when you play 10 times the bonus in number of raked hands, and you get exactly one week to do this. For example, if you signed up to receive a flat $25 deposit bonus, you would need to play 10 times the $25 in raked hands. In other words you would need to play 250 raked hands (10 X 25 = 250) in one week to release this deposit bonus.
To the new online poker player that makes his first deposit at Party Poker this may seem very intimidating. How on earth is a new player to the online game to play 250 raked hands with just a 50 dollar bankroll? While it seems very difficult to do it is not impossible, and it is important to be positive when playing to release your Party Poker deposit bonus. It is also important to be patient and intelligent when attempting to release your deposit bonus. It is of course not smart to hop right into a 3/6 limit table with just 50 dollars. Your bankroll may not last more than 10 hands that way.
Take Your Time and Play Smart
When playing to release your Party Poker deposit bonus, whatever it may be, ($25-$100) it is important to take your time and play break-even, smart poker. What this means is to start out at .25/.50 cent limit tables, and possibly .50/1 dollar tables. At these limits, you are able to see a lot of hands, and be patient at the same time, all while accumulating raked hands in order to release your Party Poker deposit bonus. It is also important to sit at full 10 person tables so you can see more free cards in between posting your small and big blinds. Also, with more people at the table, the larger the pots will be, so rake will be generated in almost every hand.
Points for Tournament Play
Playing in real money single table tournaments only counts for playing one raked hand. So it is important to stay away from tourneys when trying to release your deposit bonus. Playing no limit hold’em should also be avoided when releasing your Party Poker deposit bonus. At any given time in no limit, on any given hand, you can go broke. This is not ideal when trying to release a very large raked hand requirement like 250 hands.
When playing, your mindset should not be to play wreckless in attempts to win every possible hand. You need to play safe, and smart. That means folding roughly 75% of the time. Releasing your deposit bonus does not have to happen in one day. Party Poker gives you 7 days to complete the raked hand requirement so you should spread out your play accordingly. When playing for long periods of time it is very easy to lose focus, and begin to play wreckless and before you know it, your $50 will be gone.
Finding Out How Close You Are To Releasing Your Bonus
Party poker allows you to see your progress, and tells you exactly how many raked hands you have played. You can see this by going to the cashier at Party Poker, and clicking the “Bonus Account” button. Set yourself a number of raked hands you will play per day, and keep track of it this way. Goodluck and make sure you release your deposit bonuses before you start doubling and hopefully tripling your poker bankrolls at Party Poker.