Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Getting back into the grind of things

Things have finally started to slow down a bit when it comes to the 'work' I do in the evenings, so I've now got some time to devote to Bonus Whoring, and chronicling those adventures into something that hopefully our readers will come to find useful.

Most recently, those adventures have taken me to Empire Poker, working off their $150 reload bonus. Party skins are notorious for their bonuses, and how easy they are to clear - and this one (at least for me) proved to be no exception!

Those of you that have visited in the past know that I have a short attention span. So as soon as my Neteller funds made it over to Empire, I quickly loaded up four $1/2 shorthanded tables and started going to town. After an hour of playing I had cleared about 200 raked hands (of the 1050 required to earn the bonus) and had made a little over $75 from the tables (30BB/hr.). Quite a start indeed :)

When I came back the next night, I sat down at 6pm and said to myself, "Self, lets clear this stupid bonus ... tonight!" So again, I loaded up 4 shorthanded 1/2 tables and got started. The first 2 hours were very productive +$55 and cleared 350 raked hands. And that's when fatigue began to set in. Pretty soon I was seeing the flop with ridiculous hands, calling the river when I knew I was beat, and bluffing at pots I had no business being in. Oddly enough though, I was still winning. With 300 hands left to clear, I was showing a profit over a little over $200 (201.25 to be precise).

For whatever reason, I decided to leave the tables that I had been pretty much dominating (not sure if people were just playing scared or what) and start fresh at 4 new tables. My shoddy play continued, and now it started catching up with me. With 100 raked hands left to clear, I had given back around $50 of my playing profits, and looked to be on the verge of losing my $50 buy-in at a couple of the tables.

So I stopped. Took at 30 minute break to play with my dog and came back feeling somewhat refereshed. It didn't take long to get those final 100 raked hands, and in the process I managed to earn back $25 of what I'd lost.

Overall, I earned $178.38 in play, and a $150 bonus. I think I may hang around for a bit and earn some Empire Rake Rebate, as there are no other reload bonuses going on at the moment.

If you've made it this far through my rambling, God Bless You!