Paradise Bonus finished. Off to Titan Poker

Things are going good again now. I finished up the bonus over at Paradise on a high note. I ended up there about $150, plus the $100 bonus. Not bad for 1000 raked hands. Also played a little bit at Martin's. There were more tables and players going at the 50NL and 100NL tables than just a couple weeks ago, so that is a good sign for B2B sites. And the players that I saw at 50NL are truly awful. Extremely weak passive. I was running over a couple tables yesterday.

I signed up through Poker Source Online at Titan yesterday. I deposited $500, which gives me a $500 bonus. I'll never see that, since bonuses clear pretty slowly. The bonus clears at $10 for every 1000 titan stars, so 50,000 stars for the whole bonus. The Poker Source Online requirements are only 3,500 stars, so that will definitely be doable. That will get me 9000 PSO points (basically $90). I played about 200 hands at $50NL and $100NL this morning, and received about 300 stars. I also made about $60 in the process. Tables so far are pretty loose. Lots of limpers, and none of my Pre-flop raises were getting any respect. Just how I like it :)

I received my Amazon.com orders yesterday from the gift certificate I got through PSO. I purchased Phil Gordon's "Little Green Book", "Harrington on Hold Vol 1" ( I already had Vol 2), and Matt Matros "Making of a Poker Player". I'm looking forward to reading them. I also got Gordon's "Tale of the Tilt Boys" for some fun reading.

My bankroll is just under $3000 right now! Exactly one month ago, I just went over $2000. Not bad for a months worth of playing!

Ugg, Pokerroom bonus finished

I don't think I will be going back to PokerRoom. I finally cleared the $90 bonus I had there. It took forever. I'll have to look in my poker tracker database, but clearing a bonus there at 50 NL and 100 NL is brutal. Do not try to clear a bonus there unless you play at least 200 NL or 3/6 limit.

With the bonus, I ended up down $0.45. that's right, I lost 45 cents. What a waste. It was very up and down playing there this past week. At one point during the past week, I was probably up $200 there. I'm not going to whine though. It was a combination of bad play by me, and being rivered up the ying yang.

I lost with KK against JJ with all the money getting in Pre-flop. Lost with a set of kings to runner runner straight. Lost with QQ against 55 when he flopped a set. Another hand, I had a open ended straight draw, with a flush draw. I hit the straight on the turn, but that gave opponent a inside straight draw. Of course he called my turn bet and hit his three outer the river. Lost with AK and TPTK (Top Pair Top Kicker). Dude rivered a flush with his 45 suited. And then got rivered again on another TPTK for me to a straight.

Oh sorry, I wasn't going to whine.

Oh, and whenever I got AA this weekend, it was always folded around to me, I make a little bet, and no one calls. I swear, it was almost like everyone could see my cards this weekend.

I have about 300 more hands at Paradise before that bonus is cleared. I then my try BetFred and also finish up the Martin's Poker bonus.

Letter to myself

We interrupt this poker blog for the following letter to myself. I am making myself read this every day until it is permanently in my brain.

Dear Pokerfool,

Sets (getting three of a kind on the flop with your pocket pair) are nice. We all love sets. Sets are one of the best ways to make money playing NL ring games. We especially love calling pre-flop raises with a pocket pair in hopes of hitting a set and trapping the raiser. It is usually correct to call a pre-flop raise with a pocket pair if that raise is not more than 10% of your stack or villain's stack (which ever is less).

But Pokerfool, you have to learn to let go of your sets on a scary board. If the board comes with 2 of a suit, and especially if there are three or more people to the flop, slow down if someone calls your flop bet and the third of that suit comes. If you get raised on the turn, it is definitely possible that someone has a flush. It's possible you are now drawing to 10 outs to a full house or quads.

So remember, sets can still be beat. Bet the flop hard on a draw heavy board, and let them make the mistake of calling you down, hoping to hit.

Thanks

Working on PokerRoom Bonus

I'm about half way done with the PokerRoom reload bonus. I put in $900 for a $90 bonus, and I am halfway there. I chose the Seahawks on their promotion, so I lost out on the double bonus. That's ok though, since clearing bonus at PokerRoom isn't the easiet.

I was running pretty well over their up until Tuesday. I was up probably $200 or so. But then I started losing again. I am still up, but not much. Maybe $60 or so. Some of those the loses were due to bad plays by me (Betting my trips on a scary board and then dude hit a straight, etc...), but I've had an increase in the suckouts. One hand, I pick up pocket Kings, I open raise from MP to 4x BB ($4). Button calls, BB raises it to $10. I just call, hoping to trap the button between us. If a no ace comes on flop, I'm betting big. Button does call. Flop comes J, T, 2 rainbow. BB goes all-in for his last $15. I just call hoping button calls too, but he folds. BB turns over pocket 9s! Turn 7, River 8. Nice hand sir, nice hand. Your pocket 9's are good.

Another hand where I raised PF, made a continuation size bet with middle pair, dude min raises me which turns out to be an inside straight draw. I call. Of course he hits his inside straight draw. This kind of stuff is fairly common at PokerRoom. Ya, ya, I know I want people to play like this against me, because in the long run, I will come out ahead, but it sucks that they are hitting their longshots.

I have some thoughts on slowplaying and playing AK that I want to get down, so look for a strategy type post from me in the next couple days. Wow!

Cheers!

Poker Source Online

I threw up a link on the right to Poker Source Online this weekend. For all my friends and visitors who are new to online poker or still newbies, I highly recommend going through them when signing up for the different poker sites they offer. Not only will you still earn the initial deposit bonuses that each site offer, you can get some really nice poker chip sets or PSO points which can be used for a number of things, including gift certificates to Best Buy, Amazon, Party Poker, Ebay, etc...

There are other gifts you can sign up for, but I would recommend signing up for the PSO points or the Nevada Jacks chip sets. Those two are the best deals. You will get either 6000 or 9000 PSO points, and $10 = 1000 PSO points.

I've earned 18000 PSO points from doing just two sites through them (Absolute and Poker Room). I cashed in those points this weekend and got a $75 Amazon.com gift cerificate, and a $100 gift certificate to Party Poker.

The promotions that are the easiest in my opinion are:

• Full Tilt
• Party Poker
• Absolute
• BoDog
• Paradise

If you haven't signed up for any of the sites they offer, I would definately sign up through them. Use the link to the right, or put my referral name in the refreral box when you sign up, and I get 1000 PSO points too!

My PSO referrel name: pokerfool

Cheers!

January 2006 Results

January was better than December. Not by much, but at least I was positive on the poker playing. I didn't make that much in bonus, but that is mainly due to the fact that I was working on the Martin's bonus, and that won't be paid out until April.

Total Profit: $813.44

Total Bonus Received: $575.65

• Party Poker Reload: $100
• Empire Reload: $100
• Casino.net: $100
• Martin's Poker Reload: $240 (200 Euro)
• Will Hill: $35.65

Total Poker Profit: 237.79

• PokerStars: -$1.13
• Party Poker: -$159.25
• Empire: -$42.43
• Casino.net: -$79.26
• Martin's poker: $377.65
• Will Hill: $142.21

No Limit Ring Profit: $192.92

• $10 NL: -$26.14
• $25 NL: -$66.35
• $50 NL: $87.28
• $100NL: $198.13

Limit Ring Profit: -$6.00

• 0.50/1.00 Limit: -$6.00

PL Omaha: $1.25

SNGs: $24.20

• $6 Turbo SNG: $81.20 (40 Total)
• $10 SNG: -$76.00 (23 Total)
• $15 Turbo SNG: $3.00 (15 Total)
• $20 SNG: $16.00 (2 Total)

SNG ROI: 3.04%

MTT: +$25.42

January's highlight was finishing 19th out of 607 in a $10 MTT. I was in the top 6 for most it, and made some errors towards the end.

Thank goodness for those crazy Europeans over at Martin's Poker. I made the most of money off of them. I have about 1000 or so VIPs to finish up over there.

I think I am now comfortable playing the 50NL tables, and even the 100NL tables on some sites. So that is where I will spend the most of my time now. I may try my hand at some limit poker again one of these days. And of course, I am going to continue to hit those SNGs. I haven't done well lately, but hopefully things will improve.

So, I've profited $465 in November, $513 in December, and $813 in January. Hopefully this trend continues and I can crack the $1000 mark. Bankroll is hovering between $2500 and $2600 now.

Bonus at Will Hill and Party Poker

I finished up my reload bonus over at Party Poker the other day. Ended down about $50 or $60 playing poker, so with the $100 bonus, only a $40 profit. Meh.

I also deposited some money over at Will Hill to take advantage of their 5 lb (about $9) per table hour bonus. I like this site, and will probably play there more. It's probably due to the fact that I am up $160 there the last 3 days from poker and bonus. I've hit some great draws. And if it wasn't for these two hands, I would be up a lot more. One where I lost with KK to JJ when they hit a set, and the other where I hit TPTK with AK, then hit another A on the turn, but dude hit a baby set on the flop to take my stack.

On the SNG front the last few days, I've made a whopping $1.00. yep, one whole dollar. I've played nine $10 +1 SNGs, won two of them, and placed out of the money in the other seven. I think I ran into aces in about 3 of those 7 losses. I'm just not getting the cards in these right now.

I'll have a January report up tomorrow. Make sure and check it out.

Cheers!