The whole ECD free chip deal has seriously gotten me back into online poker (remember to put metsfan as the user who referred you on the comp form!) I decided the best thing for me to do is to follow Chris’s strategy of some serious bonus whoring.
I’ve continued my streak for December where every hand of poker played is counting toward a bonus. So far this month I’ve cleared $800 worth of bonuses. Wow! I wish I didn’t suck so that I could actually make money on top of the bonuses. Looking into options like trading 212 invest vs isa seems like a smart move for actually making money through investing.
So, to start off, I cashed out my money from Absolute, and deposited $600 into Stars, for a 25% bonus of $150. I played the required 750 raked hands at 1/2 6 max, and finished down $60 after the bonus. Off to a wonderful start. I couldn’t withdraw the money from there for 48 hours after my deposit, so I played 2/4 6max and got back even (including the bonus, so I was actually down $150 at the poker). I played pretty badly, but also got sucked out on a whole lot. I suspect the two were related (damn tilt.) The number of runner runner straights against my two pair or underpairs hitting their set on the turn or river was insane.
The bonus really helped soften that blow. It was just a waste of time, not money. Plus, I do have about 800 more FPP to let sit there because I can’t figure out what to do with them.
I withdrew that money from Stars, and put it back into Absolute. They had a promotion for three days where you could get a $100 bonus each day (15% bonus on any Neteller deposit up to $100, and you could do it for three days straight.) Anyway, I only had $656 in Neteller, so I only got a $98.40 bonus. 🙂 Absolute has a much looser definition of a raked hand than most places (you only had to be dealt cards, not contribute to the pot). You have to play 100 raked hands to unlock each $10 in bonus, and three tabling 1/2 6 max, I usually play 100 hands in less than an hour. Plus, the players are bad. I’ve unlocked $40 of that bonus, and I’m up $125 on top of that. It would be $31 more, but I accidently clicked fold instead of raise on a $31 pot when I had the nuts on the river. Oops. To give you an idea of the play: One hand, I was dealt JJ in middle position. There was a raise before me, so I reraised. I called the cap, and we were heads up. Flop was J73. Capped. Turn 9, capped again. River 7, one more cap. I put in the last raise, so I show first. Instead of mucking, the other guy shows his… QTo? WTF? Of course if that river was an 8 instead of a 7…
Anyway, I think for a while I’m gonna be sticking to 1/2 6 max tables and be looking around for bonuses. It’s actually a lot of fun, and the bonus generally makes up for the time the poker doesn’t go so well.
He’s got a ton of money, and now plays poker for a living, but he still cares that a web server he wrote in college is used to serve slashdot images.
In other poker news, I got my chipset from eCasinoDeals, and it kicks ass. See a crappy picture here.
I haven’t posted much about poker in a long time. Last time I played live, I spent all night at the $100 NL game and lost $30. Exciting, huh? I hadn’t really been playing online much, for various reasons. Mostly, I had just gotten bored of it. About a week and a half ago, my brother told me about eCasinoDeals.com, and asked me to sign up and refer him to get him some free stuff. I decided to do it, to get some free poker chips for myself, as well.
So, I signed up at eCasinoDeals.com. I clicked through their link to Sporting Bet Poker, deposited $100, and quickly played the 250 raked hands I needed for the free chips, and another 250 hands for the $100 deposit bonus. I lost about $30 doing it, so with the bonus, finished +$70. Not bad. I played the really low limits for the first time in a long time: .50/1 limit. After I completed the comp, I made the mistake of playing the .25/.50 NL for the rest of the raked hands for the deposit bonus. That’s where I lost the money. I signed up and played my raked hands just in time, though. Sporting Bet reports to eCasinoDeals every two weeks, and I finished my hands the day before they did it. They shipped out the next day.
Playing out that comp and bonus got me hooked again. ECD currently has a total of four poker rooms that they offer comps for (and are adding two more soon), and somehow they managed to pick four that I had never played at before. So this weekend, I signed up at Absolute, Golden Tiger, and Royal Vegas, and completed the raked hand requirements for those three as well. At Absolute and Golden Tiger I was three-tabling .50/1 limit, so it went really quickly. I’m amazed I ever had trouble playing at this limit. It’s amazing what just a year’s worth of experience will do. I was pretty much on autopilot, and pulled in about 12.5 BB/100 hands (or $25/hour, three-tabling), over around 2000 hands (lots of extra hands to clear the Absolute deposit bonus, as well). At Royal Vegas, I played 1/2 and 2/4 and broke even, but they have $10 free and a $100 despoit bonus as well. Overall, I’m getting lots of free chips, or something else from the Comp Store, and I made $466 including poker and bonuses while doing it. Plus, I made about $450 playing .25/.50 NL at the same time. A pretty good week.
Of course, that’s never enough. Here’s where I try to get other people to sign up for it as well. 🙂 It’s really easy:
- Sign up at the ECD Forum.
- Sign up a one or more of the casinos on the ECD Casinos page, clicking through their links to get to the casino and following all the instructions there.
- Deposit the minimum required amount ($100), and then fill out the ECD Comp Form, before playing your raked hands. Please put “metsfan” in the Referred By box. 🙂 If signing up at Sporting Bet, don’t forget to use one of the upgrade codes found on the home page
- Play the required raked hands, and then wait for the casino to report to ECD.
- Get your comp, and hopefully make money playing poker and get lots of deposit bonuses as well.
That’s it. From what I’ve heard, the Las Vegas Pro chips are great. I should have mine Wednesday, according to UPS.
First, the good news. I made the money. I finished 16th out of 133 for a whopping $31.92 payoff on my $22. If I had just limped along barely, and folded my way into the money or something, I might be happy with that.
I only got “lucky” once in the pikakasinot tournament, and I’m perfectly happy with the way I played the hand. I called a minimum raise from the small blind with A4s. Of course, I flopped a flush draw, and immediately pushed all in. Obviously, I was pretty sure my ace high wasn’t the best hand, but there was a decent chance I would just take the pot, and if called I had outs. Pretty typical semibluff, for all my chips. I was called by KQ (for a pair of kings, with the one on the flop), and hit my flush on the turn to double up. A bit later, I raise with 22 and get one caller. I flop my set, and push all in. I get called by AK, who paired the ace, and I double up again. At that point, I was the chip leader with 45 remaining.
For a while, I get nothing, steal a few blinds and pots here and there. I’ve dropped to about fifth place with 18 left (made the money at that point). A short while later, I raise with KJo in middle position. Not a great move, but I was just stealing blinds. One of the blinds calls, and the flop is JTx. The blind bets, and I push him all in. Given the size of the blinds, pot size, and stack sizes, he really wasn’t forced to call at this point, especially considering his hand. He had AQ. I was a 2:1 favorite after the flop, but of course hit my two pair on the turn to give him his straight and knock me down to about $9k in chips, with 400/800 blinds. I’m down to $7k after posting a few blinds, and I get ATo. I push all in, and get called by A5s. Again, I’m in a big pot as a 2:1 favorite, but my hopes are immediately shattered when my opponent flops nut flush, and I don’t flop a pair, so I’m drawing absolutely dead.
I’m not complaining about the bad beats. I’m just a little disappointed to have finished only 16th after playing so well, having a nice stack, and then losing it all when I pushed someone in as a favorite, and then was all in as a favorite. I guess I’ll stick to satta king chart then.
Thanks to Iggy for setting it up, and thanks to Wil for being the special celebrity guest. Both of them went out on worse beats than I did (Iggy: QQ vs 99, all in preflop, 9 on the river, and Wil: JJ vs TT, all in preflop, four card straight for the TT). Thanks to everyone else who played as well.
All in all, it was much more fun than a typical tournament, and I certainly hope to do it again sometime.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention this. Fairly early on in the tournament, it folded to me in middle position with, of course, the hammer! I made my standard 3x BB raise, and stole the blinds, with a nice HAMMER! in the chat box, and showed my cards. That’s always fun.
This weekend, I played in the Sunday morning NL tournament at Chumash instead of the Saturday limit one like I did last week. I had pretty much the same results, though. For the second week in a row, I busted out 41st in a tournament that pays 40 places. At least I was all in with the worst hand this time, unlike last time when I had my aces cracked. Nothing terribly interesting happened in the tournament, I just really got no cards to work with.
The tournament was the end to a fairly successful weekend, though. I got to the casino shortly after 8 on Saturday night, and took a seat at the 4/8 table while waiting for a NL seat to open up. I was about even when I got 44 in the big blind on a kill (6/12) pot. I called the extra $2, and flopped my set. I bet out, got a call and a raise, I three-bet it, and both players call. The turn and river are both jacks to fill me up, and I bet the whole way and take down a nice pot. A little while later my name gets called for NL. I leave +$70 (8.75 BB) after about an hour.
I had bought in with $100 at the 4/8 table, so now I have $170 in chips. I color change $100 in whites to reds and keep the $70 on the side, for dealer tokes and food, so that money doesn’t come out of my stack. I lose my first two $100 buyins at the NL table when my two pair (no pair on the board, of course) gets beat by higher two pair. The first time, I had 95o in the blind, and flopped top two pair, and got beat by T5 who called my pot sized bet with middle pair and hit his ten on the turn. The second time, I was down the whole way with Q8 vs A8 and an AQ8 flop. I don’t get much in the way of cards for a while, and finally throw in my last $25 or so with 54s to try to take the limps. I get called by a K8, flop comes K5x, and I river a 5 to take the pot. From there, things started to turn around. I finally started getting some hands to play and taking down some decent sized pots. There was one interesting hand I wasn’t involved in: Four all-ins on a flop of 789. The hands were: JT, 89, 99, QQ. The straight held up. Most of the hands I won weren’t terribly interesting, so I’ll talk about two laydowns I made instead. I limp in in the cutoff with 7♦5♦. The button and small blind call, and the big blind checks. The flop comes down looking pretty good for me: K♦6♦8♠. I have an open ended straight draw, and a flush draw. It checks to me, and I bet $25. The button pushes in for $60, and then the big blind pushes in for $220 total. It folds back around to me. I pretty much knew I had to fold when it came back to me, but it’s still a tough decision to throw away that good a draw. After a while, I finally did lay it down, mainly because I thought I was still no good if I hit my flush, and I was right. The button had A♦J♦. The big blind had 86o, for two pair, and turned his boat. That was my good laydown. The next one, I’m still not sure about, and I’ll never know for sure. I limped in with a 76o on the button. The flop is 2♣8♣5♥. Small blind checks, middle position bets $5, I call, small blind calls. Turn is the 4♣. I have a straight, but there’s a possible flush out there. Checks to me, I bet $20, small blind calls, original better calls. The river is a blank, and the small blind immediately pushes all-in for $275. Original better folds, and now it’s $275 to me. I have about $400 in front of me at the time. The small blind is a bit of a maniac, but the chances he has a flush are just too good. After what seems like forever, I finally fold. Later, he told me he just had a set, but I don’t know if I believe him. Either way, I kept the chips that I had in front of me, and eventually finished with $700 (+$330, including the $70 I had on the side for tips). For the second week in a row, I left the NL table with more than a rack of reds. It felt good. The convenience of playing at casinos that accept PayPal added ease to my gaming experience, offering a reliable and secure payment option for my wins. Place a bet at online casino sites like casino utan licens today!
I’ve written a very simple WordPress plugin, that makes it a bit easier to enter card suits into my blog. Cuts down on my typing ever so slightly. ♥♦♠♣.
It can be found =http://www.geekandproud.net/cardsuitshere[/url].
I don’t know if it should really be called a trip report, seeing as it’s my local casino, but it certainly felt like a trip, so I’ll go with it. I headed up to =http://www.chumashcasino.comChumash[/url] Friday night. I got there at around 9:30. There were no 3/6 or 4/8 hold ’em seats available, so I decided to try out the omaha game. That was my first mistake. I was up $100 in the first half hour or so, but ended up dropping $230 there. Oops. Honestly, I don’t remember much about what happened in that game, but it reaffirmed my dislike for hi/lo split games. There was one interesting hand that I do remember. On a board of A74J2, someone had AAxx, someone had 77xx, I had 44xx, and someone had JJ22. 5 sets. I think a flush took the high, and the wheel took the low, but I’m not positive anymore. So, the omaha game was a bust. It was a learning experience, I guess, but I don’t know that I’m going to be playing hi/lo games anymore.
After I got sick of omaha, I played 2/4 hold ’em for about an hour while waiting for a 4/8 seat to open up. I was up around $70 when a seat became available, then proceeded to lose it all back in the next three and a half hours at 4/8. Maybe I should have just stayed at the 2/4 table. The 4/8 table broke, so I dropped back down to 2/4. I got sick of that again after 20 minutes, and dropping another $40. I wish I could remember the hands now, but I can’t. I only remember the numbers because of Poker Journal. I didn’t know what to do at this point. I was down around $270, but wanted to keep playing. I didn’t want to play 2/4, but the next game up at this point was 6/12 because it was late, and I didn’t really want to do that either. I finally decided I was going to play the NL game. Online casino zeus ensures fair gaming by using certified random number generators for all games. If you love slot games, you may look for online slot machines like spaceman. You may also check out these exciting slot games! You can also play online games and win exciting prizes by checking out this joker123 login download.
This was my first time playing NL in a non-tournament format, and it showed. It’s a $100 max buyin game, and you can rebuy for $100 if you bust out, or $50 if you’re below $50, similar to real money online casinos. The blinds are $2 and $3. I was up and down a bit, made some good plays and some awful calls. I decided I was going to play until the tournament in the morning. I dropped another $220 at the NL game, but by the end I was starting to get the hang of it. I had $80 left (hadn’t busted out for the third time, yet) when the table broke for the tournament. Most important, even though I lost as much as I did at omaha, I actually enjoyed the game.
The tournament was $10 plus rebuy limit hold ’em game. It had a very fast blind structure, and you definitely need to catch cards or be prepared to rebuy. There’s no sitting out and waiting for a hand. I got lucky early, when my K7s sucked out on TT and AA with two pair on the turn, taking down a nice pot. After that, my stack was never low enough to rebuy, and I chose not to do the addon. At that point I had 5100 chips for $10, and the addon was another 2000 for $20. It just didn’t seem worth it to me. I suppose I probably should have, because I busted out on the bubble to someone with exactly the same number of chips as me. It folded to me on the button, and I look down at AA. There are 41 players remaining, and 40 pay. I have 9000 in chips, and the blinds are 1000 and 2000. There was no way for me to get away from this. I raise, and the big blind calls. The flop comes Q92. I bet again, and he calls. Turn is a ten, and I throw in my last 3000 in chips to see that he has hit his gutshot straight with KJ. I wait around a minute or two to see if anyone else busted on the same hand, as we were playing hand by hand. No one did, and I bust out on the bubble with aces. Secure your casino experience at turvallinen-kasino.com where you can find valuable resources and information to help you play safely and confidently. 40th place paid $50, but had I won the hand, I would have been in pretty good shape. The last time I played in the tournament, I got the last of my chips in with AA vs KQ on a king high flop only to lose to a king on the river. I was already in the money at that point, but had I won that hand, I would have not played another hand and made the final table. I guess aces are just no good in that tourney.
I briefly considered leaving at this point, but couldn’t get myself to do it. I sat back down at 4/8, and got some decent cards. After about an hour and a half, I was up around $100. Someone who had been playing the NL game comes over and asks if I wanted to play, so they could get the game going again, if you like to be part of the thrill, come and Read more about the best online casinos sites in the US here. They usually don’t start it up again until the evening, but it seems there were enough people to do it if I was in. I agree, and they get the game going. Turns out they didn’t need me, and I become the first name on the list. Then I look down at QQ. I have one limper in front of me, and I raise. It folds around to the limper, who calls. Flop is 8T2, two clubs. I bet, he calls. Turn is a blank. I bet, he calls. River is the 7♣. He bets, I call. He flips over his J9s for the straight flush. I get called for no limit, and head over.
Fast forward to three hours later, and I’m in for $250 at the NL game. I haven’t been picking up much of anything. A hand I’m not involved in gets two preflop all-ins. Of course, they flip over AA and KK. The flop comes down KQJ. Turn is a T. River is a Q. It was a lot of fun to watch, and I’m glad I wasn’t in there with the AA. I comment that I’d love to get a hand as good as KK, even if I’m up against AA. I’d just like to see some good starting cards. Two hands later, I do. KK. I raise it up to $15 (standard raise for the table), and get no callers. I flip them up and say “finally!” Three hands later, I’ve got them again. I raise to $15 again, one call. No ace on the flop, and I bet out, and don’t get called. I think I flipped them up again. The next hand I get K9s, and raise again. No one calls, I flash the king, and muck. About an hour later, I’ve got my stack back up to around $150 (still down $100). Win big with the popular online slot88 game. I get 77 in the cutoff and limp. Flop comes Q72. I bet $20, and the button raises. I think for a while, and push in. After a while, he calls me with KQ and I double up. The turn is a blank, and the river is my fourth 7. Five hands later, I look down at TT. I raise it to $15, and get two callers. Flop comes T high, with no draws. Check, check, check. Turn is a T. I check, another check, and the button bets $15. We both call. River pairs the 6 on the board and I bet out $20. I get one call, and the button folds saying, “I think that 6 on the end killed my hand.” I reply, “Nah, I don’t think it did,” and flip up my second quads in one orbit. At this point I’m now the second or third stack at the table.
Thinking back on this, I’m not sure the order some of this happened. I sort of remember not having any sort of significant stack before this, but I also remember the following hand as taking place before it (because I was in seat 9, which I later moved out of, because I always bang my knee on the drop box). Anyway, at some point I had a stack of around $500, just trying to get it up to $700 so I could leave the casino even for the weekend, if you like this kind of fun just like we do, visit this review of the top USA casinos. I get dealt JJ in middle position. It’s raised to $15 from early position, I call, as do two others. Flop comes ten high. Raiser checks, I bet $30. Late caller raises me to $60, and the other two fold. This guy was bad. Really bad. I’d seen him make terrible river calls, and re-raise big bets with A8o preflop. He had about another $100, so I put him all-in, and he instantly calls. I figured he probably had AT. He flips over TT. Turn and river are no help, and a big chunk came out of my stack. After he left, I was talking with some other people at the table and the conclusion we came to was that against a decent player, I possibly could have gotten away from it, but against him there was no way I could lay that down. Anyway, I build it back up to around $500 again, and find AQs in middle position. I raise to $15, and get a caller. I could see something about the way he called that made me think I was beat. He looked surprised, and like he was going to raise before I did, but then just called my raise. He had four chips in his hand, like he was going to raise to $20. Anyway, flop comes Axx, and I bet out $25. He pushes all in for another $75. I talk to myself for a while, and finally say, “I’m going to pay off your AK,” and call. I have to learn to trust my reads, because that’s exactly what he had. No queen falls, and I’m back down to $340 or so. A few hands later, I limp with Q♣8♣. Flop comes down 235, two clubs, and I overbet the pot, betting $30. Late position guy (weak player, too, this was a great game) raises the minimum, to $60, and I call. I put him on a straight. I’ve seen him play worse cards than 64. Turn is the J♣. Check, check. The river is a blank, and I bet $50. He raises to $100, and I push all in. He quickly calls, figuring I didn’t have the flush when I checked the turn. I turns over 33 for a set, and I double up. I finish out the orbit, and leave the table with $675. It’s the first time I’ve ever left any table with more than a rack of reds. It felt good, even though I wasn’t really up any money.
So, to recap: 30 hours of poker, finished +$1. But it was fun, and I learned two important things: 1) I’m not going to play omaha hi/lo again for a long time, and 2) the NL game is very good, and I think that’s what I’m going to play from now on when I go. I’m also considering trying my hand at บาคาร่าà¸à¸à¸™à¹„ลน์ที่ UFABET, intrigued by the possibility of exploring a new game.
I finally got sick of playing microlimit at PokerStars, so I deposited $100 back at UB. The whole “break from poker” thing didn’t last very long. Today, I played in four $10+1 sit and gos, and took first in three of them (didn’t cash in the fourth). Very quickly, I more than doubled my $100 deposit. Hopefully my luck will keep running that way. I also played in a few $5+.50 multitable tournaments, but didn’t do very well in them. I cashed in one for like $15, but didn’t do anything worth noting in the rest of them. I also tried a little bit of .25/.50 limit hold ’em, as that’s the highest I should play with $100 bankroll, but decided I just can’t play with players that bad. I know, in the long run, if I can deal with the suckouts, it’d be good, but I can’t. The players at .25/.50 at UB were worse than the .02/.04 and .05/.10 at PokerStars. It was painful watching them (and losing my money at the same time).
After I cashed out, my brother decided to do the same. He accidently left himself with $1 at UB. After a little bit of .01/.02 NL, he had $5.50, and bought into a multitable tourney. Several hours and a second place finish later, he had $690 in his account. All on the same day he cashed out the rest of his money. Some cashout curse.
So, I said I was cashing out of all the online sites. That was true, I did. The main reason I did it was because I was getting bored with playing and playing hands I shouldn’t because of it. I was, obviously, losing money because of that. I cashed out, and figured in about a month or so, I’d put some of the money back in and start it up again.
Well, PokerStars wouldn’t let me completely cash out. They left me with fifty cents. Last night, I turned that fifty cents into $4.41 playing .02/.04 hold ’em. For some reason, playing at that level, I was more patient and disciplined than I have been in a while. I guess it helps that no one else there is. I still don’t want to play as much as I have been, because I’ve been spending too much time on it, but my new goal is to see what I can do starting with just $0.50. I’ll keep you updated, unless I get bored of it, in which case I won’t. 🙂
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