The novice speaks

Bill Rini has had a stack of excellent posts recently.

He's got an interesting post about signup and retention bonuses, and the pros and cons in terms of profitability from the poker site perspective.

As a newbie, I view bonuses as a crutch. They provide a useful way to cover the cost of experimentation, levelling up, and in general catching enough of the learning curve until I can hold my own. Which I'm doing. Bonuses cover the cost of my incompetence. They're also a handy bankroll builder for the lower limit player.

As it stands, this type of bonus structure has several advantages. As a new player it mans I'm playing with a more limited liability. And that sense of security, whether it be ultimately real or imagined, is enough to keep a lot of new players still donating to the games, who would not do so if they had to face the risk unsupported.

The new player benefits, specifically, the new player who is willing to learn, benefits. The experienced player whose income comes, significantly, I suspect, from capitalising on their greater skill and knowledge, benefits from a site supported supply of limited risk learners paying for the priviege of experience.

And the site benefits from a customer retention and recruitment perspective. You can offer all the 20 dollar bonuses you want to someone with a 10'000 roll, but what really keeps them playing at your site, I think, is a stable supply of games that they can beat. The smart move for the skilled and bankrolled player, I think, is to trade off on bonus whoring and concentrate on hitting up the right games for an hourly rate. That said, my long term plans are aimed at getting me into a position where bonuses are almost completely irrelevant. A 90 dollar bonus for sitting on your site for a month is a pleasant gesture. But the real reason I should be sitting down is that your tables are tables I know I can beat. Bonuses come and go. Whether I have the skill to beat the game is something I'm stuck with.

A final word to sign off on this somewhat frothing rant.

I've lost count of the amount of posts I've read of people multitabling to clear bonuses. Sitting down and baking in the glow of several screens on a Saturday morning to hit up some site for a monthly comp. And a large percentage seem to run close to breaking even. Sitting down for a morning og 8 table grind doesn't strike me as a way to work on your game. And it sure as hell seems like a waste of a Saturday morning.

Wouldn't a paper route be more profitable? It would sure as hell beat the hourly rate.