Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Trial by Fire
What I'm Reading - Phil Helmuth: Play Poker Like the Pro's
What I'm Drinking - Sam Adams Light
I caught a Empire signup bonus from Grubby and bought in for their August special which is 100% match up to $100. It cost me $10 to deposit because I couldn't wait for the checking account to clear, leaving me with $110 in to hopefully break even and clear my bonus. This bonus is great, though you only have 10 days to clear 10x bonus dollar amount in raked hands. The good news is that the minimum $0.05 rake counts which happens anytime a hand goes to the flop in the $25.00 NLHE game.
I bought in for the $25 max and started to play. A few hours later I was down a buy in and had only 100 raked hands in my bonus account. Not too good of a start, but I thought that I would call it a day. 100 hands a day clears the bonus, if I could afford it. The next session I played a little bit of $0.50/$1.00 limit and broke even for a bit and cleared a few more hands. This is VERY boring when just trying to clear bonuses and lacks the speed and action to keep your attention for very long. After a bit more $25 NL I was down $40, 5 beers, and 200 raked hands. Hmmm... I need to rethink this strategy.
Day three I played 2 table $25 NL and was down another $20 for the session. I drank most of the rest of my beer and cleared a total of 400 raked hands. At the end of the session I chatted with a guy who only bought in for $5 every time and seemed to be doing all right. When asked he told me that he plays 4 tables at a time and only plays the strongest of hands. He also buys in cheap to not be afraid to go all in pre-flop, sinces his chances of getting one caller are decent and usually has better than a coin flip. I figured I'd try this approach in a few days, since I had other obligations.
Day nine. I sat down on my couch on football Sunday for the early game (which in California is 10am... Way too early). I set up four games of NL and got to work, $5 each, leaving me with a pathetic $20.xx in my account. I figured I had to make this work otherwise I would have to buy in for more just to get my bonus. Guess what? I did pretty well. I played 600 raked hands in less than 4 hours, drank about 7 beers, and went to the bathroom about 10 times without going broke! I actually finished up for the day and had about $45 in my account when I hit 1000 raked hands! Sweet!
Total Deposit - $110
Total Payout - $145
Total Profit - $35
Breaking even drunk when your football team is up and you can finally go the bathroom without pushing 20 buttons - Priceless!
I withdrew everything and banked the $35, waiting for my next chance to strike again!
What I'm Reading - Phil Helmuth: Play Poker Like the Pro's
What I'm Drinking - Sam Adams Light
I caught a Empire signup bonus from Grubby and bought in for their August special which is 100% match up to $100. It cost me $10 to deposit because I couldn't wait for the checking account to clear, leaving me with $110 in to hopefully break even and clear my bonus. This bonus is great, though you only have 10 days to clear 10x bonus dollar amount in raked hands. The good news is that the minimum $0.05 rake counts which happens anytime a hand goes to the flop in the $25.00 NLHE game.
I bought in for the $25 max and started to play. A few hours later I was down a buy in and had only 100 raked hands in my bonus account. Not too good of a start, but I thought that I would call it a day. 100 hands a day clears the bonus, if I could afford it. The next session I played a little bit of $0.50/$1.00 limit and broke even for a bit and cleared a few more hands. This is VERY boring when just trying to clear bonuses and lacks the speed and action to keep your attention for very long. After a bit more $25 NL I was down $40, 5 beers, and 200 raked hands. Hmmm... I need to rethink this strategy.
Day three I played 2 table $25 NL and was down another $20 for the session. I drank most of the rest of my beer and cleared a total of 400 raked hands. At the end of the session I chatted with a guy who only bought in for $5 every time and seemed to be doing all right. When asked he told me that he plays 4 tables at a time and only plays the strongest of hands. He also buys in cheap to not be afraid to go all in pre-flop, sinces his chances of getting one caller are decent and usually has better than a coin flip. I figured I'd try this approach in a few days, since I had other obligations.
Day nine. I sat down on my couch on football Sunday for the early game (which in California is 10am... Way too early). I set up four games of NL and got to work, $5 each, leaving me with a pathetic $20.xx in my account. I figured I had to make this work otherwise I would have to buy in for more just to get my bonus. Guess what? I did pretty well. I played 600 raked hands in less than 4 hours, drank about 7 beers, and went to the bathroom about 10 times without going broke! I actually finished up for the day and had about $45 in my account when I hit 1000 raked hands! Sweet!
Total Deposit - $110
Total Payout - $145
Total Profit - $35
Breaking even drunk when your football team is up and you can finally go the bathroom without pushing 20 buttons - Priceless!
I withdrew everything and banked the $35, waiting for my next chance to strike again!
