An online poker bonus is essentially a gift  that poker rooms give players when they put money into their account. Why?  Poker rooms do not make money by players losing money like casinos, but they  make money from “rake” which is the fee for every tournament or for each hand  played. This means that the more a player plays, the more the poker room will  make. So by offering a poker sign up bonus and offering the best poker bonus on  the internet, they have a much better chance of helping the player build a bank  roll and therefore, playing on a regular basis. 
The best poker bonuses are the ones that  are instant cash, that can be played with straight away. Almost all of the poker  deposit bonuses will require the player to play cash games and/or tournaments in order to  collect. For instance, a poker room might offer a $100 bonus for a $100  deposit, but they will need to pay $500 rake in order to qualify for the full  bonus. Many players will have lost all of their money before this actually  happens. In the right column are listed  the best poker bonuses on the web at the  moment. The "rake" column shows how much of the rake would go towards the bonus. 50% clearance ratio means that when players rakes $100 he will clear $50 of the pending bonus.      
A poker sign up bonus is extremely  important and useful, especially for new players. Players that are having a bad  streak, or simply have a small bank roll will be able to double their bank roll  in many cases, simply by depositing a small amount. The process is usually  fairly simple and all players need to do in order to qualify is to make deposit and then either use bonus code or the bonus is credited automatically.
Poker deposit bonuses are not without their disadvantages though. A lot of the time the requirements to “work” off the bonuses are sometimes so high, that many players fail to ever obtain their bonus. For instance, a 100% deposit bonus of $100 may require the player to actually pay $500 in rake. Generally, this will equate to around $3,000-5,000 worth of tournament entries, which is 7.5-10 times the amount of their actual bank roll. It is likely they will lose it all before they qualify.
There are a range of different poker bonuses to consider before choosing a poker room to play in. The worst of all is the pending bonus, which is explained above. That being said, this can be extremely good value for money for someone that plays and deposits and plays regularly, as they will be able to clear the bonus easily. Other bonuses include a deposit bonus and the instant bonus, which is credited to a real money account instantly, so that players can start playing.
Before choosing the best poker bonuses it is worth  considering which of the poker deposit bonuses is best suited. For example a regular player  might be able to get better value from a pending bonus, although they will not  get it instantly. On the other hand, a player that only players on an  in-frequent basis is much more likely to go for one of the poker rooms that is  offering the instant bonus. Remember to compare the percentages on offer as  some online poker sites will only offer as low as 50% match on a deposit, where as others  will offer up to 200% and in some cases; more. Some poker rooms even offer flat poker sign up bonus on minimum deposit. For examples player makes $5 deposit and gets $200 bonus.