Smart Ways to Clear A Poker Bonus

What’s the smartest way to clear an online poker bonus? While most of us would like to just get that bonus added to our accounts as soon as possible, it’s not always easy to do. If you’re collecting a big sign up bonus, you may have to earn quite a few player points to clear that money. If that’s the case, you want to do it the right way.

Online Poker Bonus Clearing Tip #1: Check Your Status Early and Often

Most sites will have a menu option that can take you to a page that lists your bonus status and how much time you have to clear the bonus. Watching your progress towards earning the requisite amount of points is not only encouraging, it also will give you a good idea of what’s required of you. Finally, you’ll always see how much longer you have before the bonus expires, which will let you know if you need to pick up the pace.

Online Poker Bonus Clearing Tip #2: Try to Favor Cash Games

If you enjoy tournaments and cash games equally, you may want to consider trying to focus on cash games a little more while you are trying to clear a bonus. Points are earned for tournaments only based on the buy-in/entry fee of the tournament. The software doesn’t care if you play 12 hands or 100, since the site already made their money on the game through the entry fee. On the other hand, you earn bonus credit for every single raked cash game hand you play, even if you fold before the flop, so cash game points can be earned much more quickly.

Online Poker Bonus Clearing Tip #3: Don’t Count Your Chickens

During the bonus clearing period is a bad time to play recklessly. Sure, you have that other money coming to you, but you don’t want to blow $2000 trying to clear a $50 bonus. Play the same, solid, disciplined, thoughtful game you always do, and not only will the bonus come to you in time, you may have also added a nice stack of chips to your bankroll.

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