Top promos for new players at Sky

One of the most appealing aspects of playing any poker site is when the owner of the site announced a new promotion that both existing players and people new to the site, can take qualify for. Sky Poker is no different in that it has a wide range of different poker promotions running at any time. Yet some of the promotions on offer clearly appeal more to one certain poker demographic than another.

In this article, we’ll take a look at the list of fabulous offers on offer from Sky Poker that are particularly suited to your typical low-stakes, weekend player, rather than your hardened poker player who plays religiously every day of the week.

Our criteria for the article was to ensure that the promotion was one that a new poker player, or a relatively inexperienced player who has limited time to play in the week, could qualify for, without having to make major changes to how they use the site, how frequently they play or how much they spend.

Sky Poker Promotions for New & Casual Players

New Player Rewards – The first promotion you will encounter when you sign up to Sky Poker is, clearly designed for new or  novice players who are very likely to play low-stakes games initially when they sign up. As a new member of Sky Poker you immediately qualify for two different rewards as part of this promotion:

  • £10 completely free (upon registering as a new customer and entering the promo code POKER)
  • Free entry into the next £10,000 New Player Freeroll tournament (once you have played your first real live game of poker on the site)

As beginner offers go, the £10 free is a welcome boost to your initial bankroll, while the free entry into the next New Player Freeroll Tournament is only dependent upon you playing your first game of poker in the preceding month. For example, if you join in January 2013 and play your first game in that month, then you will gain free entry into February’s New Player Freeroll event.

The Super Roller – With £30,000 up for grabs every month, the Sky Poker Super Roller is the main tournament event that attracts the real high rollers on the site. To buy into the tournament direct costs £110, which is beyond the means of most weekend players, however with a bit of luck and a lot of skill, you can qualify for the event much more cheaply by winning one of the daily satellite competitions that offers entry into the contest for the winner.

Buying into a super roller satellite costs £5.30 and these events are run daily throughout the month. One in five entrants into the competition are guaranteed to earn a place in the daily Super Roller Semi, which always takes place at 8.30pm each day.

All the qualifiers from the daily satellite, plus those players who pay a £24 buy in, play off again in the nightly semi final, with one in five of those qualified earning themselves a seat at the £30,000 Super Roller monthly event.

Happy Hours – If you are a weekend player who tends to play at certain times of the day, lunchtime, early evening, or late at night, then the Sky Poker Happy Hours promotion is a good way to quickly tot up some extra Poker Points, which you can use for a number of different purposes on the Sky Poker site (as well as converting them to cash if you earn enough!).

Each game played on either the Regular Tables or Action Tables in Happy hour earn a 50% points bonus for those players playing. So, for example, if during a game on a regular table you earn three poker points playing £0.05/£0.10 limits, the same play during Happy Hour times earns you 4.5 points.

The promotion runs each day, three times a day at:

  • 1 – 2 pm (Lunchtime Happy Hour)
  • 6 – 7 pm (Evening Happy Hour)
  • 11 – 12 pm (Late Night Happy Hour)

Early Bird – If you want to increase the amount of Poker Points you earn as a newbie then this is a relatively easy way to do this. Simply start up a new six-players maximum table and waiting for players to join. If you start playing short-handed with three or less players, then Sky Poker will give you an early bird boost! All players dealt into a hand qualifying for an early bird boost earn a 50% bonus on all points earned while the table remains populated with three or less players.

This offer is available at any cash game table and at any time of the day or night, meaning it is a great offer for new players or infrequent players who may not be able to log on at set times, or play for longer periods.

Timed Tournaments – Although listed as a promotion, I wouldn’t define this as such as it doesn’t give you a chance to win anything extra than you would playing regularly. Timed tournaments are simply games of poker that are played for a fixed time, after which any players remaining the game divide the pot up between them in proportion to the amount of chips they have earned.

These tournaments are great for infrequent players who only have limited time as it means you know you can reach the end of your tournament as how long the tournament will take is stated in advance.
Tournaments are available in a wide range of limits and also lasting for three different time periods, 15 minutes, 30 minutes and an hour.

Friday Freeroll – Using your accumulated poker points, you can enter the Friday Freeroll without spending any of your cash. Entry into the freeroll each week during the soccer season is limited to 1,000 players (though often there are fewer than that entering) with each player paying 100 Poker Points to play.

The tournament then progresses as a regular tournament, with the players eliminated until 20 remain. The 20 remaining are then ranked and allocated one of the soccer teams from the Premier League. How that team then performs at the weekend, will decide what kind of prize you will win!

The other Sky Poker promotions are generally aimed at players who play for longer periods as the qualification criteria either assume that they have a generous bankroll, or will have, or have already, accumulated enough Sky Poker Points to earn the reward or enter the competition. That said, all these promotions are a great way for the weekend player to learn their game and hopefully, earn a bit of extra money to help bankroll their play.

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