Back to Business ( II )

Another thing that should not be overlooked is ways in which you can maximize profit from your invested capital. In poker, this can be done by looking out for several things: bonuses, rakeback and advertising.

Bonuses are available from any good poker site (like the Poker Stars bonus) and provide a means of getting additional money when depositing funds to that site. Usually a poker site will credit your account with bonus dollars as a specified percentage of your deposit, and these bonus dollars are then released (either incrementally or in total) after some target amount of play has been reached. There are even helpful sites which will give you a list of all poker sites and available bonuses so you can get the maximum reward from every deposit you make.

Rakeback is the term given to the money that is reimbursed to a player from the total amount of rake that the player generates on a given site. This money comes not from the site, but from a 'rakeback affiliate', any one of which usually cater for a broad range of poker sites with different rakeback percentages. Rakeback is an essential financial aid for a pro, and there is no reason not to be receiving it.

Advertising as a means of generating revenue is only available to those people who have a webpage, or are fortunate enough to be so amazingly famous that companies will pay them to wear their merchandise/logos when they attend live tournaments/games. If (like me) you only belong to the former group, if your page has enough traffic certain sites may ask you to include a link to their site in exchange for some nominal compensation. This may not ever generate huge financial reward, but every little helps.

So if you see poker as a business, hopefully you are now a little better prepared to make the most of your chosen profession. As a poker player though, I'm sure you are already used to exploiting every possible opportunity. So may your edge be big as possible, and may the poker force be with you.....