Poker bonus strategy is all about finding the best plan of action to cash in on poker bonuses. In previous parts of this poker bonus guide, I’ve talked about poker bonus basics and how to clear poker bonuses. This article will concentrate on actual poker bonus strategies for Fixed Limit Hold’em, No Limit Hold’em, and tournament players.

Poker Bonus Strategies

By far the best strategy to clear poker bonuses, while lowering the risk to your bankroll, is to play $1/$2 Fixed Limit Hold’em full ring games. You should learn to play multiple tables and stick to extremely tight hand selection. Since you get credit for raked hands whether you call before the flop or not, there’s no reason to play a lot of speculative hands. By sticking to Sklansky’s hand ranking groups 1-4, and only going past the flop with good made hands (top-pair top-kicker, two pair, three-of-a-kind), or a good draw (open-ended straight draw or flush draw), you will risk less and win more while clearing bonuses.

Here’s a breakdown of strategies and hand selection for Limit Hold’em, No Limit Hold’em, and tournaments.

Full Ring Limit Hold’em Bonus Strategy
Here are the only hands you should play to maximize your bonus winnings and minimize any losses.
Group 1: AA KK QQ JJ AKs
Group 2: TT AQs AJs KQs AK
Group 3: 99 KTs QJs KJs ATs AQ
Group 4: A8s KQ 88 QTs A9s AT AJ JTs

If you’re a No Limit Hold’em player and can’t stand the thought of grinding out bonuses at the Limit Hold’em tables, there’s a different strategy to follow.

Full Ring No Limit Hold’em Bonus Strategy
Playing $0.10/$0.25 No Limit will lower your hourly rate for clearing bonuses, but allow you to make more from bad opponents. I suggest that, as a new player, you only play these hands. All pocket pairs(13 total), AK, and AQ – that’s it!

Again, this hand selection strategy applies to a full table of 9-10 players. Short-handed (6-max) No Limit requires a very different strategy. This group of hands is very restricted, but they should keep you out of many tough spots. Restricting yourself to these hands only will allow you to a) make money or at least b) break even while trying to clear a poker bonus.

The strategy is to play your big hands like AK, AQ, AA, KK, QQ, JJ and 1010, aggressively pre flop (and post flop if the board looks safe). With the rest of the pocket pairs, you should see a flop, even in a raised pot. Your goal is to flop a set and get all your money in the pot. If you don’t hit a set or have at least an over pair to the board, be prepared to fold to any significant action.

Tournament Bonus Strategy
If you are primarily interested in playing poker tournaments while clearing bonuses, you’re in for a long road. Instead of crediting you points for raked hands, poker rooms give you a certain number of points based on tournament fees. For example, PokerStars gives you 5 FPPS for each dollar in tournament fees. With their $50 sign up bonus, this translates to a 50% rebate for your tournament fees.

While I recommend you use cash games to clear poker bonuses rather than tournaments, tournament players can benefit from one poker room in particular. Bodog Poker has a bonus offer where tournament players earn 100% of their tournament fees back. If you’re determined to clear bonuses with tournaments, Bodog should be your first choice.

Conclusion

While you can use any of these poker bonus strategies to clear bonuses, the best and safest way is to play multiple tables of Low Limit Hold’em. No matter which strategy you adopt, a tight preflop hand selection is best. Tournament players should look for sites that give them the best percentage of their tournament fees back. Bodog has the best clearance rate for around for tournament players.

In my next article in this series, I’ll show you how to deposit at online poker sites so you can start cashing in on the best poker bonuses!

Do you have any questions or comments about my poker bonus strategy?