Sun Poker was an obvious choice for the next article in this series once I realized that, in addition to their easily cleared initial deposit bonus, they have an ongoing monthly bonus that you don't even need to re-deposit to clear. Monthly bonuses are great, especially those that don't require a redeposit. So, for the next few articles, I'm going to cover a few sites that offer monthly bonuses – this way, we can build up a shortlist of sites which we go through at the start of each new month and clear each monthly bonus.
In addition, from now on, I'm going to include some basic poker tips in each new article in the series for two reasons:
Firstly, we should all be trying to improve our games, no matter how comfortable we are when clearing bonuses at low limits. Poker is a game of small edge stuff, and Limit poker even more so. Every improvement translates into a higher bb/100 win rate, and while most of the value in bonus hunting is earned through the actual bonus, if you can increase your win rate whilst multi-tabling 1/2 and 2/4, the extra dollars really start adding up.
Secondly, I've always viewed bonus hunting as a means to an end – not as an end in itself, although there is absolutely nothing wrong with being a solid bonus hunter your entire life. It's comfortable and you can get into a simple, stress-free routine. However, odds are you'll get bored with bonus hunting sooner or later, and so we need to build up our skills to attack the mid-limits.
But first things first, let's cover the specifics of the Sun Poker initial deposit and monthly bonus terms. The Initial Deposit Bonus is 100% to $50 (perfect if you don't have a large bankroll yet) and the monthly bonus is $40. Just a quick point about Sun Poker – they use Cryptologic software, and all poker sites that use Cryptologic require you to enter a PIN before you withdraw. This PIN is sent to you by snail mail, but they get it out to you pretty fast – just a couple of days usually.
When you deposit for Sun Poker, the bonus money will instantly be credited to your Ecash account, however you will need to play through the raked hands requirement before you can withdraw the bonus money. You can withdraw your initial deposit at any time.
Clearing Rates:
To clear bonuses at Sun Poker, you will need to play through 5x raked hands for every bonus dollar. So it will be 250 raked hands to clear the $50, which is just about the lowest raked hand requirements in bonus hunting these days. As always, the best games to clear on are 1/2 and 2/4 Limit Hold'em, however you can clear this bonus on any game/limit, including the lowest limits. However, $1 or more in rake must be generated in the hand for it to count as a raked hand. So, as a generous gesture to the smaller limit players, each hand that generates at least 25c in rake will count as one quarter of a raked hand towards clearing your bonus. You'll find that this will be a very easy bonus to clear, both initially and each month.
As I already mentioned, the $40 monthly bonus at Sun Poker is great because you don't need to re-deposit. As soon as you've played through 5x raked hands (200 hands), the bonus money will automatically be credited to your account.
If you are liking the sound of this bonus, you're going to love this: For the first month, you can clear both the initial deposit bonus and the monthly bonus at the same time – concurrently. So once you've played through 200 raked hands, you'll get the $40 monthly. After another 50 raked hands, the $50 initial deposit bonus will be credited to your balance.
You'll clear this bonus at Sun Poker at around $7-$10/hour for each table of 1/2 Limit HE and at a whopping $15-$20/hour for each table of 2/4 Limit HE. As this bonus is so easy to clear, you can still clear it fast on NL HE or Omaha, however (as I keep mentioning), nothing clears a bonus like Limit HE.
Quality of Games:
The low-limit games at Sun Poker are average to soft. Sun Poker shares its players across the Cryptologic network. This brings in the casino and sportsbook punters into your poker games, which is good. However, as the bonuses are so easy to clear, you will find some solid bonus hunters in your games. This is nothing to worry about, as the bonus money you're all earning should eliminate any worries you might have about beating the bonus hunters and the rake.
Other Important Information about Sun Poker:
When bonus hunting, you should always be aware of extra value that might make one bonus more of a priority to clear than another. Here is what Sun Poker has to offer:
- Bad Beat Jackpot (quad Jacks beaten to qualify) and Royal Flush Jackpot.
- You can earn cash incentives to start new games (for example, $10 to start a new 2/4 Limit table and remain there for an hour).
- You can earn My Poker Points (MPPs) which you can use for large, guaranteed prizepool freerolls (including WSOP seats).
Support is lightning fast and of a high quality as Sun Poker support is based in the UK.
Once you have your PIN, cashout times are fast (1-3 days to NETeller).
Strategy Tip:
This will be the first of a series of tips aimed at improving your Limit HE game. We'll start with what might seem like basic strategy initially, but we'll progress to intermediate and even advanced strategy tips eventually.
Stealing Blinds
It's almost impossible to be a winning Limit player without learning how to steal blinds effectively. I've never really viewed 'stealing blinds' as stealing – when I am on the button or cutoff (seat just to the right of the button), I like to think of the blinds as rightfully belonging to me! I feel they belong to me on the basis of my position on the table.
Stealing blinds at low limits can sometimes actually be a little bit harder than stealing at mid/high limits, as players will often call, and call, and call you down. But this should not deter you from stealing, as if you fail to steal preflop, you can usually still take down the pot on the flop with a continuation bet if they check to you. Raising to steal also serves a number of other positive functions:
- It serves to disguise your game as it really expands your raising hand range. Of course, good players will quickly work out that your raising hand range is large only when you're stilling, but most players at 1/2 Limit won't pick up on this.
- It allows you to control the betting streets and pot size. Invariably, if you raise preflop and get called, the caller will check the flop to you. You then have all the options. You can fire out a continuation bet to try to take the pot down, or you can just check behind to take a free card.
- It serves to frustrate the players you're continually stealing from, and could well put them on tilt. This is very good for you! Even if they don't tilt, they may still target you specifically as they see you as a maniac, and will often play poorly out of position postflop against you as they feel they need to 'make a stand'. They are actually right, they do need to make a stand against aggressive stealers, however this is a lot harder to do successfully than it sounds, as playing out of position is always tough against aggressive players.
Very basic stealing strategy at low limits would go something like this:
1. When it's folded to you in cutoff or button, open-raise with a wide hand range. Personally, when it's folded to me in cutoff/button, I'll raise about 60% of hands. But when you're starting out, try raising with any Ace, any King-x suited, any two cards over 8 and, of course, any pair. You can widen or shorten the hand range as you like – remember, always do what you feel comfortable with.
2. If you get raised by the blinds, you pretty much have odds to call one bet with any hand you've got (as you have position for post-flop streets). If the blinds just call, but fire out a bet into you on the flop – you play the hand as you would a headsup (HU) hand with position. I'll talk about HU play in another article.
3. If the blinds check to you, I almost always fire out a continuation bet regardless of what I have to try and win the pot there. If you get called, you have to play some poker and decide whether you want to try stealing again on the turn/river. This will be opponent dependant and the texture of the board will help you make a decision, however, generally speaking, at low limits, if you get called, they have a piece and will be hard to move off. So, I rarely bet the turn with nothing if the blind/s call me on the flop. I check behind.
4. If they check to me again on river, I will usually try a final steal attempt. You'll get called more often than not, however you usually have odds to keep trying it.
Hope this gives you a starting point to begin stealing successfully if it's not already a strong part of your game.
Good luck and happy bonus hunting (and stealing)!!
Ed note: The bonuses are worth stealing at Sun Poker
