The Bonus Hunter, Vol 11 - Paradise Poker

Bonus hunters, it's about to get hot here as we head to the sand, sun and surf of a glorious paradise in this episode of the Bonus Hunter series. This episode we take a close look at Paradise Poker – an old favorite and one time market leader in the online poker industry. In recent years the popularity of Paradise Poker has dwindled somewhat, but there is still plenty of value to be had by savvy bonus hunters!

The reason we are reviewing Paradise Poker is that their welcome bonus is very easy to clear, which is great for bonus hunters at all levels. It's prefect for beginners to boost your bankroll without too much risk. When you sign up through our links, use the bonus code "POKERNEWS" to receive the 100% up to $100 welcome bonus. Paradise Poker also have very soft games, so we should be able to make a nice profit to go with our bonus.

Clearing Rates

When playing at Paradise Poker you will earn 1 point for every raked hand you play (minimum rake of $0.25), or for every dollar in tournament fees you pay. Then for every 100 points you earn, you will release $10 of your bonus money into your real money account.

This translates to an excellent earning rate for a 1/2 Limit bonus hunter of $5.61 per hour at full ring play or $7.63 per hour when short handed. For 2/4 Limit players you will add an extra $6.29 per hour at full ring or $8.49 per hour at 6-max.

As always we recommend that you learn to multi-table in order to clear bonuses quickly and multiply your win-rate. So if you play 4 tables at once at 2/4 Limit you can effectively earn a massive $33.96 per hour while playing at Paradise Poker. These are excellent hourly rates and this bonus will also clear very well for No Limit players.

Paradise Poker also have regular reload offers and special promotions that you should look to take advantage of.

Quality of Games

One of the great things about Paradise Poker is that the quality of their games is very soft. You will find a lot of weak opposition here and by using a straight-forward basic strategy you should be able to make a decent profit from your game play. Don't worry about bluffing too much, just bet for value and these guys will throw their money at you!

However the one major concern with Paradise Poker is that there will not always be as many games available as some of the bigger poker sites. The amount of traffic at Paradise isn't large and sometimes you may be limited in your choice of games or level. Also at off-peak times you will struggle to find a game other than Hold'Em.

Added Value

One of the great joys of being a bonus hunter is that there is always added value that you can take advantage of in addition to your regular bonus hunting. Paradise Poker is no exception.

At Paradise Poker, you accumulate "Paradise Players Club Points" during your game play at cash game tables at all levels. The PPC points that you earn can then be used to enter various PPC tournaments at Paradise which have some good overlays. This is definitely worth utilizing as you can potentially turn your free PPC points into even more bonus cash.

The Paradise Poker League runs every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday, where the top 20 players in each round will win points that will go towards the monthly series total where the top finishers will receive part of the $5,000 prize pool. In addition, the series winner receives a seat to a live poker event.

Unfortunately Paradise Poker is not currently accepting US players, however if you are Canadian then you will love their current "King of Canada" promotion. Daily freerolls and weekly finals that are exclusive to Canadian residents will see one Canadian walk away with CAD$50,000 in the series finale.

You may also like to check out the "Monday Night Takedown" which is a weekly tournament featuring a minimum of $400 in added bounties.

Paradise Poker also have good support and excellent cash out times. Their software is not the greatest, but generally the game play is satisfactory. Paradise Poker is definitely a recommended addition to your bonus hunting arsenal – you should be able to clear the welcome bonus and boost your bankroll in no time at all!

Strategy Tip

One of the most meaningful lessons that you can learn in poker (and even in life) is that 'knowledge is power'. This is so true in poker that is worth strongly reiterating the point to you today.

In order to take your game to the next level you must give yourself the best chance of success at the tables. To do this you must understand your own game, work on problem areas and always continue to learn, refine and improve your game. However at the poker table this is only half the battle.

There is a common saying in poker that you may have heard - "play the player, not the cards". This saying has been recently dramatized somewhat by movies and TV poker where people think that this saying means you should try to pull a massive bluff on your opponent because you think you've spotted a 'tell' that indicates weakness. Although tells and bluffing are certainly elements of the game – their true significance in the game is minimal at best.

As a player who is learning the game, a better approach is to ignore the "Hollywood" aspects of poker and to concentrate on raw statistical information about your opponents. By analyzing the play of your opponents and watching their betting patterns, you can learn a lot more about your opponents which in turn helps in your own decision making.

When playing online you have a fantastic opportunity to easily gather statistical data on your opponents while you play, that is simply not available for live B&M casino players. A vital tool for all online poker players is Poker Tracker (pokertracker.com), which will automatically gather live statistics on you and your opponents while you play at online poker sites. It collects the raw data and outputs all the information you need to help analyze game play. You can combine Poker Tracker with a tool called PokerAce HUD (pokeracesoftware.com) which will actually overlay the stats onto the poker table so you can see the stats of each opponent updated in real time while you play.

Using these tools and having this knowledge gives you an edge over your opponents! It's as simple as that. Poker is all about taking advantage of small edges, and having this knowledge on your opponents will be a huge advantage and increase your chance of profit.

There are many stats and analysis that can be performed using Poker Tracker, but to keep things simple there are two key statistics that you should be looking at.

VPIP% stands for "Voluntarily Put In Pot Percentage" and will tell you how often a player put money into the pot voluntarily. This figure immediately tells you if a player is loose or tight which is generally a quick way to work out if your opponent is a good or poor player. Good players will generally only put money into the pot about 20% of hands, whereas poor players can have this value much higher. Anyone playing 30% of hands is considered loose and if you find anyone playing 40% or more then they are probably a very poor player.

PFR% stands for "Pre-Flop Raise Percentage" and reports how often a player will raise before the flop. An optimal amount is about 15-16%, but you will find some players raising more than this and some players not raising pre-flop at all! This stat instantly tells you whether a player is passive or aggressive. Poker is a game of aggression, so if you see a low PFR% on your opponents then you know they are probably passive, weak players.

So how can you use this knowledge during your play? Well say your opponent in early position raises the pot, and you take a look at his stats using PokerAce HUD and see a VPIP% of 12 and a PFR% of 4 (often written as 12/4). This indicates this player is very tight and seldom raises the pot pre-flop. But hang on…he has just raised us from early position!?! Alarm bells should be going off in your head at this point because you know that he definitely has a monster hand. Your play has just been made very easy as you should be folding most hands without too much thought whenever this guy raises from early position.

On the other hand if your opponent raises from the cutoff (seat to the right of the button) with stats of 45/25, then you know he is very loose and aggressive. If you are on the button you may consider 3-betting pre-flop to isolate this player in the knowledge that he is raising regularly with weak or marginal holdings.

Statistical information on your opponents is also very useful in table selection. Ideally you would prefer to sit at a table full of poor players than a table full of good players. Check your statistics and look for good opportunities to sit at tables where there are poor players to give yourself the best chance of success.

There are many other statistics which you can use to increase your knowledge even further but are beyond the scope of this article. Use of Poker Tracker and PokerAce HUD is perfectly acceptable at the majority of online poker sites. Most sites you need to be actually playing at the table in order to record the hand history data. However some sites allow you to record observed hands also where you do not need to be playing at the table. This process is called "data mining" and is a great way to record large quantities of statistics on your opponents in a very short time. Some sites do not allow data mining, so first check the terms and conditions of your poker site.

Knowledge of your opponents is a key element of being a successful poker player. By using these tools, analyzing your opponents and making good decisions at the table, you will be giving yourself an edge that you can convert into profit!

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