HUNT THE BONUSES DOWN!
A bonus hunter is someone who hops from site to site discharging initial sign up bonuses. Because the online poker market is so competitive poker sites will bribe players with large incentives. Sign up bonuses are most common. Online poker players take advantage of all this incentivized money going around by doing what was informally named “Bonus Hunting”. New poker sites offer more bonuses like what we’re seeing with the Carbon poker bonus that was released not too long ago.
The basic premise is simple. You deposit your money in your online casino account – for example $100. The sports-picks you signed up at will give you an equal bonus of $100, and your account now jumps up to $200. You are required to play a certain amount before you can withdraw your funds. This is called the “wagering requirement”, which you’ll find on the Terms and Conditions page of each online casino. Say that at a particular casino you have to wager the amount of your deposit and the bonus money combined multiplied by 12 before you can withdraw any money from your account. Using the above example figures, this means you must place a total of $200 X 12 = $2,400 in bets before you can withdraw any funds. If it exists, wagering requirement is strictly enforced in all online casinos. If you withdraw any funds prior to meeting this requirement, you will usually lose the full amount of the bonus and any winnings from your play.
Some years ago bonus hunters would make a few low-risk wagers, let’s say $1/hand in a blackjack table, and then withdraw the bonus plus the deposit after the wager requirement is achieved. It was an easy and sure way to make a profit, but usually takes more than 8 hours of playing. Also, today most online casinos develop methods to stop people from hunting their bonus, such as by greatly increasing the wagering requirement and introducing “sticky” bonuses (these “sticky” bonuses cannot be withdrawn; you can only withdraw your deposit and your winnings).
You need to know at first the basic blackjack strategy. (E.g. when to hit, stand, and double down). Next, deposit $100 and you will receive a free $100 sticky bonus (now you have $200 in your account). Enter a single hand blackjack table and start wagering $3. If you win, start a new hand with the same amount. If you lose that hand, double your wager ($6 now), and so on. Since most of the casino set their blackjack table’s limit to $100, you can only double your wager 5 times.
As blackjack is one of the quickest games in casinos, after 15 to 20 minutes of playing without losing all six consecutive hands, you should win around $200, and the wagering requirement will almost be achieved and you can cash out (wager requirement is pretty low with sticky bonus). You might think this strategy is pretty simple, and that’s the beauty of it; it works, and works amazingly well with you having to do minimal mental work, winning in a short amount of time. Only one out of four times would we lose six consecutive hands before winning $200.
But it should be kept in mind that this strategy doesn’t work at each casino. But you should not lose heart! That’s the spirit the game requires.