Is this online poker offer legit or not?

December 10, 2005 8:40 AM

A friend of mine told me about a site that will give you $50.00 on PartyPoker.com just for registering for a certain online poker forum. (mi) This is not advertising, I swear.

The website in question can be seen here. I've read through the "fine print" and such, and see that you have to play 500 raked hands before you are able to make a withdrawal from your account. Has anyone already signed up for this offer? Is this legit or some sort of scam?

posted by thatweirdguy2 to computers & internet (6 comments total)

Almost all poker sites have offers like that. They're legit, but you'll probably end up losing the money before getting a chance to withdrawal, along with all the rest of your money to the more experienced players.

Poker sites make their money by taking a rake, or percentage of the pot in a game. They make money wether you win or lose, though, and if you play well you'll make even more because of the bonus.

I played on ultimatebet.com for a while, they gave me my 'bonus' money in little drips as I played. By the time I had all of it, I'd blown through the $100 I'd posted on there. I'm not complaining though, I had $100 of fun on there, and you're not giving your money up to the website, but mostly to the other players.
posted by delmoi at 8:46 AM on December 10, 2005

Actualy, my guess is that how this works is that partypoker.com has an affiliate program that lets people offer $50 free dollars, and these guys are taking advantage of it.
posted by delmoi at 8:51 AM on December 10, 2005

there are tons of these bonus offers online, and most of them are legit. they're offered by 'affiliates' of the poker site. this one really isn't all that different from any other party signup offers, they're abundant.

it usually works like this: when you make a new account, you type in a code that the affiliate gives you. this activates your bonus, the site gives you free $50 or whatever, and it lets the site know who referred you as a new poker player - the affilliate. the affilliate gets money from the site for providing the site with new players. this is why they are anxious to get you your code.

the hope is that you'll bring more revenue then they're paying out if you continue to play. you can probably take the bonus money and run for a short term profit, but you'll have to know how to play poker to avoid losing your shirt as you play out the wagering requirement. 500 raked hands kind of a lot of poker. it's prob. about 800-1000 hands, which is something like 8-16 hours worth of play on one table. large range, because it depends on what game your are playing and how many are playing. and while you're playing you will pay money to the site in rake. so what you're getting is a rake discount.

i haven't really looked at this offer specifically. this is what i know about bonus offers and offers on party in general.

also, these offers are pretty much a one-shot deal for each site. after you make a party account you won't be able to do any other offers like this. some sites have reload bonuses, but these are different and don't involve affiliates.
posted by reishus at 8:52 AM on December 10, 2005

It's also lame that they're making you sign up for a forum account, and acting like it's not just a standard bonus that you can get anywhere.

There are actualy websites out there that will list diffrent signup bonuses for various sites. You can get a lot more then $50.
posted by delmoi at 10:51 AM on December 10, 2005

I have no idea where those websites are, however.
posted by delmoi at 10:54 AM on December 10, 2005

Thanks for the answers, guys. I actually play at a different online site, so I'm familiar with the rakes, reload bonuses, etc., but this offer struck me as a little odd. Like you said, delmoi, it is lame that you have to register for a forum account. I was really wondering if this was some kind of scheme to add people to some telemarketing list or something, or if was just a weird way to attract people to the poker site as well as the forum.

Eh, I don't really dig PartyPoker's interface anyway.
posted by thatweirdguy2 at 11:56 AM on December 10, 2005