Bonus Whoring

word type: poker slang

  1. Depositing and playing at an online poker room simply to collect a deposit bonus, then cashing out and repeating the process at another online poker room.

Origin

The point of playing poker is to actually play the game to win. Bonus whores compromise the principles of a poker player and play to earn a bonus, not to hone their skills and win money from the actual game play. They have no intention to play any more hands than what are required by the terms of the bonus. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, though.

Then and Now

In the early-to-mid 2000's, bonus whoring was extremely easy. Online poker rooms typically gave large bonuses and made the playthrough requirements low. Many deposit bonuses could be cleared within a day. Thousands upon thousands of online poker players built their bankrolls through bonus whoring.

Unfortunately, the poker rooms have gotten smarter and have made it very difficult for the players for whom bonus whoring is important, the low stakes players, to whore. Nowadays, it is not realistic for a low stakes player to make much money bonus whoring, as the requirements make it too long to clear most bonuses.

Resources

The appropriately named website, BankrollMob, is regarded as the go-to resource for poker bonuses. Wannabe bonus whores can read up on information about initial deposit and reload bonuses at tons of online poker rooms to see how easy or difficult it will be to whore the sites. BankrollMob also has many exclusive bonuses that cannot be found directly from the poker rooms themselves.