Absolute Poker Announces New Interest-Bearing Accounts

Here's a new gimmick that a lot of poker players likely didn't see coming.

Absolute Poker has announced the introduction of interest-bearing accounts for its 'Elite VIP' players, with interest paid daily, based on a 9% annual rate. The new program require a minimum account balance of $1,000 (and a maximum of $500,000... LOL to that), and also requires that players have earned enough player points, 5,000 to be eligible for VIP status.

It's interesting that AP has introduced a couple of interesting new concepts in same general timeframe as their new intersite transfer capabilities with UltimateBet. In addition, Absolute continues to end out frequent reload offers, while UB rarely does; it's as if the owners (the same for both Absolute and UB) are going to take two different philosophies with the promotional concepts for the sites, and see which generates more business over the long run --- all the while while allowing players to move funds back and forth between the two.

It'll be interesting, though, to see if UB announces at least some small reload bonus in the near future. Clearly, between the new interest-bearing program, the introduction of a bad-beat jackpot, and the frequent reloads, the owners are trying hard to drive traffic to Absolute and renew interest in what has been a sagging, moribund brand.

In a few months, we'll have a better idea as to how successful these programs have been. The site is not a personal favorite among blogging types for several reasons, but we'll see if they can straighten out their act.