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Let’s face it: the online poker market is extremely tight these days. There are just an amazing number of online gambling rooms trying to lure you in, and they all seem to have something worthwhile to offer. How the heck do you decide where to sit down and play? The astronomical number of options is enough to give a NASA engineer the kind of migraine that keeps him home under the covers in a dark room for days on end. Well, don’t get too stressed out. After all, poker is supposed to be a fun hobby, and there are more than enough competing priorities in life that are actually worth getting tense about. And, besides, you should look at the bright side. Having too many viable options to choose from is a good thing, right? Sure it is – just ask any polygamist and he’ll tell you. On second thought, that might not be the best example, but hopefully you get the point. Bottom line: it’s always better to have too many good choices than not enough. So the challenge now becomes establishing a system for choosing which online poker rooms are of sufficient value in which to spend your time (and, perhaps, your money). Once you’ve ascertained that the selection of games, quality of graphics, and general ring game traffic flow is up to snuff at a particular site, you can move on to a final aspect of evaluation: what kind of bonus does the site offer? Before answering this question in an intelligent way, it’s critical to understand the difference between various types of bonuses. They are not all created equal, but they generally fall into two categories: sign-up bonus and loyalty bonus. The sign-up bonus is immediately applied to your account when you join a site. Kind of a “welcome aboard” token, like when you step off the plane in Hawaii and a tanned, pretty gal wraps a lei around your pale, sweaty neck. The loyalty bonus comes later, as a way to entice you to extend your membership at a site after you’ve already done a bit of gambling there. You can sort of compare this to the free tequila shot a bartender might offer you as an inducement to stick around the local saloon for just a while longer, despite the fact that you’ve been planted on a stool for six hours and have been trying to strike up a conversation with the juke box for the past twenty minutes. Anyway, both of these bonus types can really add a lot of value to your online poker experience, so here’s a quick list of some sites offering competitive bonuses: Noble Poker This site offers a type of loyalty bonus called a "crowns system" (in keeping with the theme of nobility, presumably) whereby players have access to a number of special free rolls and can receive high value reload bonus offers. CD Poker Here you’ll find a special sign-up bonus offered strictly to those who access the site via PokerListings.com: a $500 first deposit bonus, and $2,000 of free rolls for first time depositors (applicable from March through May, 2006). The first free rolls will be played on April 9th then followed by the second and third one in early May and June. Poker Room This site features a solid points-loyalty bonus program. You will receive these points for each raked hand you play. You can either convert the points (100 will get you $1) or use them as buy-ins for one of numerous free roll tournaments. Hollywood Poker You will find five standard signup bonus options here, up to $1,000 (plus an additional bonus if you access the site from Poker Listings). Bear in mind there is a 30-day time limit in which to take advantage of this offer.
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