Poker Bonuses

The Oddschecker Guide to Poker Bonuses is the most complete resource to find bonus offers to play online poker in 2020.

We have reviewed all the bonus offers available on the sites approved by the United Kingdom Gambling Commission (UKGC) to give you a comprehensive view of all the best poker offers available in the UK right now.

If you are already an experienced player and you know how to find the best poker bonus for you, scroll through the list of the poker sites with bonus offers and pick the one that suits your style of play.

But if you are new to online poker and you are not familiar with all the different sign up bonuses out there -- continue reading.

Learning how to identify the different types of poker bonuses is as important as to know how to use each offer to the fullest.

In this comprehensive guide to UK poker bonuses, you'll learn:

• How to recognise the best welcome / sign up bonuses
• How to use no deposit bonuses to play poker
• How to analyse the different type of poker offers
• And a lot more.

In other words, if you want to play games online with the best poker bonus in 2020, you'll love this guide.

Welcome and Sign Up Bonuses

All the poker offers you find on this page are welcome / sign up bonuses for UK players.

Sign up bonuses are the most common type of poker offer. In fact, we haven't found a single UK poker site that did not include one.

From a marketing perspective, welcome bonuses are one of the most powerful tools online poker sites have to bring you in and convince you to give their platform a chance.

Rather than telling you complicated stories about their poker software, their network, the games they offer, or the level of the players you can expect to find at the tables, UK sites prefer a more straightforward approach.

• You sign up for a free account
• You get a bonus to play poker
• You see for yourself if you like the site or not

That's a great opportunity -- provided you know how to use a poker welcome bonus.

You can stay on and continue playing if you like the site, or you can hop onto the next bonus and play on a new one if you reckon you still haven’t found what you were looking for.

The Terms and Conditions

All poker bonuses come with separate 'rules' (aka. terms and conditions) that specify how to access them, how to use them, and how to withdraw your winnings from the poker site of your choice.

A lot of poker sites hide the terms and conditions or make it very hard for players to find them. That's where we like to be different.

Here on Oddschecker we add all the the relevant T&C's even in the bonus list. This way, you can see what the bonus rules are already before you open an account on a poker site.

We believe this is the right approach. Knowing the rules that apply to each offer is the only way to find the best poker bonus and to evaluate each poker sign up bonus offer correctly.

In general, all poker welcome bonuses share a few traits:

• You can claim only one welcome bonus on each site.
• You can't claim more than one signup bonus per IP address / household.
• You can't cash out the bonus money right away.

Remember: the poker sites give you a bonus to play poker, not to add some cash to your bank account. The only way to withdraw the money is to win and meet the wagering requirements.

Different Types of Poker Bonuses

As you can see from the table above, there are different types of poker bonuses on the market. Some give you a no-deposit bonus to play online poker games right as you open an account on a website, others are triggered by your first real money deposit.

These different type of poker bonus offers target two very different types of players.

While a free poker bonus with no deposit required is perfect to play a game or two on a website, it is not the type of offer most poker players look for.

In the next paragraphs, we will explore the differences between the different types of poker bonuses in order to find the best poker bonus for you and the type of games you would like to play online.

Deposit Bonuses

Deposit bonuses are the most common form of sign up offer you can find on UK poker sites. These bonuses often come as 'match offers' and are calculated on the size of your first real money deposit.

Whenever you find a deposit bonus offer on a poker site, you see two numbers:

• The percentage of the match bonus
• The maximum bonus you can claim (i.e. ‘the bonus cap’)

The percentage of the match bonus indicates what percentage of your deposit you will receive as bonus money on your account.

A 100% match bonus offer (one of the most common offers in the United Kingdom) indicates that you’ll receive the exact amount of money you deposit as a poker bonus.

If you add £50 into a poker account on a site that offers a 100% welcome bonus offer, you receive an additional £50 in bonus money. This leaves you with £100 to play online games.

Some websites offer even more generous promotions, reaching the likes of 200% or 300% match bonuses. While these numbers are great and the higher percentages are always welcome, you need to read the terms and conditions before claiming any of these bonuses.

Very big bonus offers can be connected with difficult wagering requirements, making it hard for you to withdraw money from your poker account.

At the same time, you need also to look at the bonus cap. This is the number that indicates the maximum amount of bonus money you can receive on a website, regardless of the match bonus’ percentage.

You can never receive more bonuses than what is indicated as the bonus cap.

Let's see an example.

You sign up on a website that offers UK players a welcome bonus of 100% up to £100.

As we have seen earlier, an offer like this allows you to play with twice more money than you deposit. As long as you don't deposit more than £100, of course.

Any amounts that exceed the bonus cap (i.e. anything over £100) is not included in the promotion.

If you deposit £100, you receive a bonus of £100. If you deposit £130, you still receive the same bonus of £100. That's because the match bonus included in the welcome offer applies only to the first £100 of your deposit.

Why Choose a Deposit Bonus?

Deposit bonuses are the best poker welcome offers for those who plan to stick around for a while and enjoy more than just a couple of real money games online. These bonuses offer the best value and give you plenty to play.

No Deposit Bonuses

A no deposit bonus to play poker is something completely different. While it is hard for us to say whether no deposit bonuses to play poker for free are better (or worse) than the match ones -- some of the main differences between the two push us to consider the former the best type of bonuses for a very specific audience.

The way no deposit bonuses work is very simple:

• you register an account on a gaming website
• you claim your free poker bonus
• you use the no deposit offer to play

It couldn't be more straightforward than this.

No deposit offers, however, come with a few significant limitations when you compare them to the other type of bonuses available to play poker in the UK.

First, there's the size of the bonus. As you can see on the list of the best poker bonuses in 2020, some of that deposit offers give you as much as £500 in bonus money to play. You will never find and no deposit offer like that.

No deposit bonuses are smaller in size. You can think of them as tasters, something a poker site would give you to register and try one or two games -- not more.

Also, no deposit offers almost never give away real money to the players. And this is why it's important you read the terms and conditions before you play free poker with a no deposit bonus.

Most of the websites that promote a no deposit offer to play online poker give away tournament credits or tokens. Whether you can use these tokens and free credits to play all the games on the website or only a selection of them is specified in the offer's terms and conditions.

One part that is always shared by all the types of no deposit offers, is that these are the only free bonuses you can get to play poker online. When you claim and no deposit offered on a UK poker site, you receive your bonus without the need of adding any money to your account nor to give away your debit card or bank details.

Why Choose a No Deposit Bonus?

The answer is simple. If you want a few bucks (or tournament credits) two play a couple of quick games of online poker on a new website -- these are the best poker offers for you.

How to Use a Poker Welcome Bonus

Now that you know how to recognise the different type of poker bonuses and how to find the best offers for you, let's end this guide with some tips on how to use all the offers published on this page.

1. All the bonuses are for new players, meaning you cannot claim them if you already have an account at the poker site that offers a bonus you like. And no, opening a second account email address is not allowed.
2. If it's not specified on this page, you do not need a bonus code to claim a specific offer. The links on Oddschecker replace the bonus codes.
3. You can never get more bonus money then what is specified as the bonus cap. In light of this, your first deposit should never exceed the amount indicated as the bonus limit.
4. If you want to deposit more money than indicated in the bonus cap, save that part for your second, third, and fourth deposits. Most websites will give you extra bonus money on more deposits than just your first one.
5. Consider playing freerolls instead of claiming free bonuses. If all you want is to play free poker games, no deposit bonuses may not be your best choice. Have a look at the freeroll tournaments available on the best poker websites to see if those could replace the no deposit bonus you have your eyes on.
6. Claim more than one bonus. While it is true that you can claim only one bonus per website, nothing stops you from claiming one bonus on every poker website out there. If you are all about value and you really want to play poker with bonuses -- go ahead and claim all the bonuses on this page. You can do that!