Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Martinspoker Bonuses

I've been playing at Martinspoker the last few days, and thought I'd share some info, as I hadn't heard of them before and they're offering some pretty crazy poker bonuses.

The site is part of the B2B network, which caters largely to European players. It's got decent traffic, but keep in mind the time difference, and what peak hours for Euro players would be as opposed to us monkeys here in the US. You'll usually find many more NL games but they usually have a decent number of limit HE tables running, although 5/10 is about as high as it goes. Everything is denominated in euros, including deposits and withdrawals, so keep that in mind, too.

The site markets itself in the "play with the crazy Europeans" vein, and boy howdy, it doesn't disappoint. I've had some pretty crazy swings here, because many players not only play aggressively, but they simply won't fold. Seriously, strap on your anti-tilt flak jacket, as I've had some absolutely huge pots pushed to people who kept capping with their gutshot and finally getting there, or calling 4 bets cold pre-flop with 95o and hitting.

The bonuses are kind of a slow grind to clear, but they're pretty hefty. They're also a little unique, especially the initial signup bonus. I'll basically walk through the steps below to get the three big bonuses they're currently offering, along with terms.

1) The initial signup bonus is a 100% match, up to 600€. That's right, kiddos, it's a $726 signup bonus. To get the signup bonus, you have to accumulate 3000 VIP points, which is the system the B2B sites use to track and reward bonuses.

Here's the catch. Even if you accumulate 3000 VIP points in a week, you won't immediately get the signup bonus. It's awarded 90 days after you create your account, assuming you've met the 3000 VIP point requirement. So if you signup today and somehow clear 3000 VIP points in one night (you won't), you'll get the 600€ signup bonus on April 11, 2006..

Yes, I know, that's really weird. But bear with me, as there's more that offsets the weirdness and makes this a really good deal.

So to maximize the value of the bonuses here, create an account and deposit 600€ using bonus code novdeposit. (I know that looks odd, with the "nov" part, but it's on their website now and it works.) The cashier will confirm that your bonus is valid, show you the terms, and then you'll click submit again and make the deposit. You can also deposit less, if your bankroll won't support the full amount to maximize the bonus.

2) They also have a reload bonus running, which you can deposit for immediately after signing up. It's a 100% reload, up to 200€. So make a second deposit for 200€ using bonus code novreload. (Again, ignore that it seems to be a November promotion, as it works fine, and the cashier will always confirm that your bonus code is valid before you deposit. If it doesn't confirm it, then assume it isn't valid anymore.)

This one is a little different. Once you clear 600 VIP points, the 200€ is credited to your account. No waiting, nothing like that. I got mine credited automatically in a little under two hours after clearing the 600 VIPs. For reference sake, I two-tabled for a couple of hours and cleared the 600 VIP points in one afternoon. Not bad at all for a $242 bonus.

What's extra special nice is that the bonuses clear concurrently, so the points you accumulate for the reload also count towards the 3000 VIP point total you need for the signup bonus.

It also should be pointed out that you can withdraw at any time, and you don't have to leave any funds in the account to receive the signup bonus 90 days later, after you've cleared 3000 VIP points. While you don't get the big signup bonus immediately upon clearance, you can withdraw at any time, so there's no risk involved in tying up funds in the account for a long time. They allow you one free withdrawal every 30 days, and charge a nominal fee for withdrawals after that.

The site's apparently well-known in Europe and is completely legitimate, so I wouldn't worry too much about sticking the large deposits needed for the bonuses in there. Remember, too, that you can withdraw the bulk of it anytime you want, and only leave what you need in the account to clear the 3000 VIP points. You'll get one bonus of 200€ immediately when you clear 600 VIPs (which you can do pretty quickly), and then another bonus 30 days later, and the big signup bonus 90 days after creating your account.

So yeah, sort of a weird bonus structure, but pretty damn juicy. I'm up the 200€ from the bonus you get immediately plus a little over 400€, just from playing with the crazies at 5/10 and 3/6 limit tables. It does take awhile to grind the VIPs out, though, so don't expect to bang this one out in an evening.

If you do give this one a whirl, feel free to put "frogalog" in the referral field when you sign up, as that'll give you an extra 25€ bonus, plus I'll get a wee bit of money in my account and you'll reap the rewards of all sorts of good karma and assorted mojo.

9 comments:

DuggleBogey said...

Great piece and very interesting bonus information.

How are VIP points calculated?

Unknown said...

Is it worth it for a .50/1, 1/2 PLO8 grinder?

I'd hate to play LHE anything higher then 2/4.

ScurvyDog said...

duggle and drizz,

You basically get 1 VIP point for every pot that is raked at least .35, which equates to a pot of about 7. You don't have to have contributed to the pot to get credited the VIP point, which is nice.

People apparently clear this one at .50/1 and 1/2, so it's not tilted much towards higher limits. With some many people playing so badly and aggressively, most hands get raked enough to get you a VIP point.

Not sure about the PLO traffic but I think it's pretty good, given the Euro lean of the site.

actyper said...

Surprisingly Not much PLO traffic there

ScurvyDog said...

doughboy,

Not a dumb question at all, as some sites handle it differently. At Martinspoker it's pretty easy, as you go to the cashier to deposit, and it's all denominated in euros, so you simply say you want to deposit 600 euros, complete the deposit, and that's what ends up in your account.

They do the conversion on the back end, so that when you go to your Neteller account, you see a withdrawal to Martinspoker for $726, or whatever the conversion works out to.

If you want to see what the conversion rate might be beforehand, you can find a decent free Web-based currency convertor here:

http://www.xe.com/ucc/

Sean said...

Scurvy,

Thanks for the info -- I deposited both novdeposit and novreload (for 200E each -- how the hell do you make a euro sign?) using your referral. I won't get a chance to actually play until tomorrow, but seems like a decent site and both bonuses are currently working...

I'd be concerned that they'll wake up to the fact people are double dipping and turn one or more bonuses off (if they even have the capability).

Is there any way to see bonus progress? (I didn't go too in depth looking yet)

BTW, using info from http://www.bonuswhores.com/ I calculated the bonus out to be 7.64 /hr at 1/2 for the deposit bonus, and 12.73 /hr for the reload bonus. Two tabling 1/2 I should be able to clear 40.74 E an hour... OMFG! This means I'll clear the first bonus in 8 hours... Can't believe these numbers, we'll see how it works out. The three-month delay for the deposit bonus is a small price to pay.

ScurvyDog said...

Sean,

Yeah, I was a bit concerned myself at the prospect of them getting hammered when all the signup bonuses come due, especially since the Bonuswhores crew hit this one pretty hard, all at the same time.

If it was just the signup bonus involved, I might not have done this one, for fear that I'd never see the money months down the line when they have to pay tons of whores 600 euros each. But the reloads are still good, and I've already banked one and I'm still making money from just playing on the site, so I'm willing to give it a whirl and trust them to honor the bonus 90 days down the line.

As far as double dipping on the current bonuses, they're aware it's going on apparently, as someone emailed support and the response was basically "Yeah, we didn't intend for you to clear all the bonuses simultaneously, but that's the way the system is set up, and until we can fix it, that's how it'll be."

From what I gleaned on various forums, I think they know and expect the bonuses will cost them quite a bit of coin but they're willing to try it to get traffic to the site.

Sean said...

I've been watching the site this morning (8 - 11 am PST) and they've only got 2-3 1/2 tables and 1-2 2/4 tables going but a whole bunch of 6 max NL tables.

I'm thinking Martin's is still flying under the radar so they probably welcome the traffic even if they have to pay out bonuses. Plus, it probably is an advantage for them to keep the bonus money for 3 months to earn some interest. I would expect, even in the North American morning, there would be more traffic at those low limits if it was really being abused.

Again, thanks for the pointer -- never would have found this one on my own.

kurokitty said...

I've also signed up with "frogalog" referral. Thanks for the heads-up.