Previous: Introduction
Next: Frequently Asked Questions Step 1: Learn to play solid poker. This may seem like a obvious thing, but believe me when I say that bad luck can be overcome (often thanks to the bonuses), but bad play can not. If you are not at least a break-even poker player, you will be better served by taking a break from bonus whoring and using the time to study up on the game of poker. There are countless expert sources available in the form of books and DVDs. See our review sections for the list of our recommendations. In fact, Poker Inc. will even provide you free copies of these poker textbooks in return for signing up for some of the online poker rooms referenced within. Click here for details.
Step 2: Establish your Central Bank. Neteller (www.neteller.com) and Firepay (www.firepay.com) are two transaction sites, similar to PayPal. Both are acceptable forms of funding at nearly every on-line poker site (PayPal is not). What is even better is that deposits from these two sources are instantaneous at the poker room and the cash-outs from the poker room to one of these two sites is usually much faster than the EFT to your bank. In fact, Party Poker and Empire Poker now complete their transfers to Neteller within hours, not days!! We are users of Neteller and find that source to be very reliable and fast, however, a couple of our poker colleagues use Firepay and are equally satisfied with that site, so check them both out. We recommend that you open an account with either one of these sites and fund it with your initial poker bankroll. You can do this instantaneously from your bank account for a small fee or through a normal electronic funds transfer that will take 3-5 days. The other benefit of using Neteller or Firepay is that you will only have to provide your bank account information to one site, not at every on-line poker site you wish to fund. Neteller and Firepay will serve as the go-between as you will ultimately find yourself wanting to move money from one poker site to another or you may want to use the site as a “holding tank” for your excess funds so you can quickly jump on the next good bonus offer you find or transfer to your bank account as needed. One useful feature that Neteller offers is a debit card that allows you access to you funds similar to your bank’s debit card. They do charge fees for these transactions, but if you ever found yourself in need, you could get access to your money faster through Neteller than you could the poker sites. Keep that in mind.
Step 3: Fund your account. The more the better, but you can start with as little as $50. That amount won't give you a great deal of cushion and it almost forces you to start at the $0.50/$1 tables which will take you longer to clear the bonus but it can be done. We recommend you start with at least $100 with $200 being better and $500 being preferred. The CMBP path you take will be dependent upon your starting investment.
Step 4: Select your CMBP path. Review the path on the following pages that is suited to your investment in time and money. You will start at the top of the path and work down, skipping any poker rooms where you may already have an account. Once you begin your trek, you will begin to receive reload bonus offers from some of the poker rooms with which you have signed. You may divert from your chosen path at any time to take advantage of any good reload bonuses and simply start back up again after the reload bonus has been claimed and cashed out. Reload bonuses are usually time-sensitive with regard to when you deposit your funds, while sign-up bonuses are not.
Step 5: Review the site's current bonus terms & conditions. Before depositing any of your money with a poker room, review their current terms and conditions to ensure they have not changed from whatever information we have posted on these pages. Poker rooms can change their terms at any time, and while we strive to stay on top of them all, we may be behind on one. If the terms have changed and you are not comfortable with the new requirements, simply skip that poker room and move to the next. Use the frequently asked questions section on the next page as a guide.
Step 6: Click the link and deposit the necessary funds. If you find the information in these pages useful, all we ask is that you click the links within these pages when you decide to sign-up for a poker room. It will in no way adversely affect the amount of your bonus and will help us keep this site up and running. Thanks!!
Step 7: Play solid poker! Earn the bonus! Cash out! See step 1 above. Once you have earned and collected your bonus, cash the complete sum back into your Neteller or Firepay account unless you have some compelling reason to leave money at the site. As your bankroll grows, it will afford you the opportunity to go after bigger (and ideally better) bonuses. View it almost like compounding interest in a bank account.
Next: Frequently Asked Questions | 
