I have tried to get bonuses twice now and have gotten hosed both times.First I deposited 50 dollars with pokerstars only to find that my bonus comes only after 500 playing points, Three days and 150.00 later I am only up to 250 playing points.The second bonus was carbon poker for the calculatem software, I made a deposit 3 days ago and still no program.I have contacted carbon poker and they say to contact the calculatem people and I have emailed the calulatem people and they will not respond.This after playing for 6 hours a day for 3 days so it`s not like I havn`t used the account.
Are there any real bonus promises out there or are they all like this?

40 % Rake Back every friday.100% up to $600 first deposit Bonus this is cleared with $10 per 1000FPP.and 35$free. noiqpoker.com Singup Code:

plenty of places offer the 50 free. and you do have to pass a certain number of points before you can cashout/transfer/ do anything besides play poker. you also can never have an account on the said site or played for real money.

Most bonuses are not really aimed at the low stakes players - they're just not the players rooms want to attract. I reckon this is a big mistake on the part of the poker rooms and they should make the bonuses easier to clear as every high stakes player was low stakes to begin with.

The pokerstars bonus is quite good (although low) because it gives you 6 months to clear the points requirement whereas alot of rooms only give you 30 days or so, which is too fast for most new players.

I won't mention any names but there are some sites out there advertising out of date or 'fantasy' bonuses (fantasy as in they don't actually exist but once you've signed up at a room it's too late to change your bonus). Choose your bonus from a reputable website and they will give you all the info you need about redeeming the bonus (if they don't give full info - don't sign up with that code). Also, try the email test (perhaps set up a new free email account to avoid the masses of spam you may receive from 'naughty' websites) - email the website with a question - if they don't get back to you within a reasonable amount of time (say 24 hours - allowing for time differences) then forget it and move onto somewhere where they value you and will answer honestly any questions you have.

Most of the sites (including mine) that advertise here are pretty straightforward and can be trusted to have 'reliable' bonuses.