Party and Empire must be feeling a little bit of pressure from some of the other websites. Yes, I know they have eleventy-billion online poker players at any one time, but both have sent me “Money for Nothing” during the last month. Party sent $15 and Empire sent $10. For nothing. There are some bogus rake requirements for withdrawal, but I will use the money for SnGs, trying to immediately parlay their largesse into a useful amount.

My Empire account has been largely dormant recently, with most of my focus on Party and Pacific. This little bump will stake me to a quick $5+1 SnG or perhaps a couple of quick orbits at $.5/1, just to try and quickly double up to $22 to allow two $10+1 SnGs. And I’m not one to look a gift casino in the mouth, but why give away money?

I mean, there are plenty of willing [whores] players who will deposit large sums of money chasing deposit and re-deposit bonuses. Are they assuming that free poker money is like crack, and we are all addicts desperate for a poker fix? Or are they simply trying to lure people back from FullTilt, PokerStars, Pacific, et al into the Party-skin tank? Hard to say, but I know I’ll actually be firing up Empire for the first time in months tonight. So, if they’re just trying to bump their traffic, it’s working.