Poker 101: Making your first deposit at an online poker room
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In our Poker 101 article series, we tackle issues that are relevant to beginning players. In this installment, Robert covers the logistics for making your first deposit online, as well as some tips and tricks to help you get the most bang for your buck.
So, you’ve been playing free money games for a while and you think you’re ready to take the plunge into real money games. That’s great, but the first couple of things you have to decide is where you want to play and how much you want to deposit. I’m not going to spend a whole lot of time discussing different ways to deposit. That can be found by searching around and looking in the client of each of the poker sites.
Let’s tackle the first question of how much should you deposit. The short answer is it depends on what you can afford to deposit. I’m not going to try and convince you to deposit your entire paycheck on to a site. But, there are some other things to consider when trying to decide how much to deposit. What level games do you want to play? If you’re wanting to play $1 sit-n-goes you don’t really need to deposit $500. If you are planning on playing $27 sit-n-goes, then you might want to deposit more than $500. The reason I ask what level games you want to play is that it will help determine what dollar amount you want to deposit. The opposite of that is of course also true. If you can only deposit $50, the you probably don’t want to play $27 sit-n-goes right? So, let’s say you plan on playing primarily $11 sit-n-goes. Then I would recommend depositing at least 50 buyins at that level, or $550 minimum. If you plan on playing $1.10 sit-n-goes, then I would recommend depositing at leat $55.
Now another thing to consider is what bonuses different sites offer for first time deposits. If a sight is going to give you a 100% deposit bonus up to some dollar amount, you might want to consider depositing enough to take complete advantage of the deposit bonus. This first time deposit bonus can only be used once. So, if you only deposit $50 and you get a $50 bonus great, but if you could deposit $500 and get a $500 bonus wouldn’t that be better.
But wait, there’s a catch. Please read the details of a deposit bonus before depositing. Every deposit bonus that I know of requires a certain number of games to be played to “earn” the bonus, and there’s an end date on the bonus too. So, if you have a $500 bonus let’s say and you have 6 months to play however many games are required, you must get them done in time. If you don’t you might have to forfeit the bonus all together. So, do some math. Most sites work the bonus on some multiplier. They might say 10 frequent player points for each dollar of the bonus. So, if you have a $500 bonus, and the multiplier is 20x each bonus dollar, that would mean you have to earn 5000 frequent player points to “earn” the bonus. That could either take a considerable number of games, or you could have to play a higher buyin than you’re comfortable with to earn the bonus.
Most people fail to consider what is required to “earn” a bonus. They get excited about getting $500 free, but they fail to read what is required to “earn” that $500. So, let’s do some simple math. Let’s say to earn you $500 bonus, you do in fact have to earn 5000 frequent player points. Well, generally about $1 in “rake” must be paid to get 5 frequent player points. The math can change from site to site, but let’s go with the math I’m proposing. If 5 frequent player points are earned for every $1 paid in rake, you would need to spend $1000 in “rake” to earn your $500 bonus. $1000 in rake would require you to play 1000 $11 sit-n-goes. The important thing to consider is can you play 1000 $11 sit-n-goes in the period of time alloted without going broke. If you can, then you’ll earn the bonus. If you can’t, worst case scenario is that you go broke and have to redeposit to keep trying to earn the bonus. If you have to deposit another $500 to earn the $500 bonus, then you basically only break even at the end of it all.
All of these things should be considered before making your first deposit. You don’t want to deposit too much, but you don’t want to deposit too little either. You want to maiximize your bonus, but you want to ensure that you can “earn” your bonus in the time alloted. It’s always important to read all of the fine print on deposit bonuses and make sure you follow all of the instructions to the tee.
The second thing to consider is where to deposit. It’s important to shop around for deposit bonuses. The smaller the site, generally, the better the deposit bonuses. Let me try to explain this notion. If a site is huge, and they have millions of players, they don’t really need to entice players to play there. But, if a site is smaller, then they are trying to encourage players to “try” their site out, and those sites will offer huge deposit bonuses. Other things you need to consider about sites is how easy it is to withdraw winnings. Also, do you like the way the site design and the client used to play. If you think you might want to try one of the smaller sites, check around on the internet to see what others say about it. Or ask in the forums here on Part Time Poker as well. You never know. You could learn some great things from other members of the site before you take a chance on that first deposit.
But, be careful as well. Generally, if something is too good to be true, then it probably is. If you find a tiny site that is offering a 1000% deposit bonus with no requirements, you might want to ask around to see if anyone has heard of or played on that site before. I guess what I’m trying to say is to be careful. There are probably 6 to 8 poker sites that offer a deposit bonus that is worth checking out. If it’s a much smaller sight or a brand new site, you should consider the risks of depositing with them at all.
The most important thing to remember is to have fun. Don’t go broke trying to earn a deposit bonus. Read all of the rules and requirements of the deposit bonus to make sure you can meet all the requirements. And last but not least, even if you have already made a deposit, you might be able to earn a “first time” deposit bonus if you ask nicely. I had been playing for almost a year on a particular poker site, and I didn’t take advantage of my first time deposit bonus the first time I deposited. Well, I wrote their customer service department a letter, and they let me deposit again and use the “first time” deposit bonus code even though I had deposited once before almost a year before.
