Start to my online poker

Ok so this morning I just got set up with a fairly sweet deal where I got $75 free on Party poker and all I need to do is clear 500 raked hands to collect it. Plus I get another $25 after thoes 500 hands.

So anyways I looked around a bit and the lowest stakes I could find were the 25NL games(Only looking to play NL holdem)

This caused the obvious problem of me being way out of my BR... but I figured whatever it is free money just play tight and see what happens...

So I load one up and start playing. 10 min passes and I have been folding alot.. played 2 hands and am down to $20. Already thinking shit.. 5 bucks down the drain I have barely played anything... this is gonna be rough playin with only 3 buy ins.

Get a little tighter yet and start playin my raises, continuation bets, check raise, etc. Actually using alot of plays I have read about in the dozens of HH's that I have studied here.

So then all of a sudden that 20 is up to 40. Thinkin wow I am actually makin something here...

Decided to load up a 2nd window. Played 2 tables for about 2 hrs then stoped by the time I reached about 150 raked hands played and up $45 to $120.

Went out for a bit. Came back home. Loaded up another 2 tables.

Currently I am up to ~$40 on both tables (+$31ish atm) and have just over $150 BR now. (Ohh and am at about 270 raked hands played)

Questions are as follows...

Once I clear this bonus where should I head next?
I was hoping to have a BR of at least $200 but by the way things are going I am now hoping for closer to $250-$300 (including the extra $25 I get after completing these 500 hands)

So I guess the best idea would be to find a new site where I can deposit and get a nice 30-40% bonus on a 250-300 BR...

Any sugestions? Would rather play at sites with more fish obviously :P but also one that requires less hands pref. Although these 500 are going alot faster than I thought they would.

Also is it posible to clear bonuses playin SnG's? How many raked hands do they count for? just 1? if so that would take forever.. lol

Ohh and what is the best way to move my money around? If I plan on bonus whoring I'll need a way to move the money around easiest....

Thanks for any help/tips you can provide me with.

i use neteller, i find its very easy to move money around. if i were you i'd look into moving your money to empire poker. i've never done the whole switch back and forth thing, but i'm sure a lot of people on here do, and there's a thing on the homepage about it.

[parrot] Neteller [/parrot]

I participated in the same deal as you, though I shall not name the affiliate. I took a somewhat different approach, though.

I played super-tight on the .50/1 Limit tables for the smaller blinds, as I was more interested in clearing my rake requirement then I was in growing my bankroll at this point. Finished my requirement up $15, so I found myself with a $115 bankroll. Not enough for .50/1 tables, so off to Pacific Poker go I. I found an affiliate that gave me a 35% bonus on top of Pacifics 25%. Sweet, $75 free dollars, which through poor accounting became $100

Now, Pacific has an immediate bonus, and they allow you to withdraw your deposit and play with there money risk free. However, if you fall below your bonus amount before your withdrawal clears they will reverse, so I left $15 and withdrew $100. Once the withdrawal cleared I played a bit more. I never cleared the bonus requirements, in fact I lost a bit of money at the tables, however my Neteller account soon had a balance of $195

Now I'm at Stars, grinding and learning at the micro-limit tables. Winning consistantly and preparing to move up limits, though tehy still be micro in nature. Current bankroll $210, all of which given to me by the poker gods.


JunkHead

Nice to read about your success doing what I am doing atm.

Little update on me. Took a bad beat the other day where a fish called me down on a rainbow flop to hit 2 running hearts and steal the pot away from my top 2 pair. Lost about $30 right here.

Can definatly understand how playing outside your BR can be a very bad idea! I am just so happy I found this site first and feel comfortable playing at the 25NL tables even though my BR does not support it.

So last time we left off...

Currently I am up to ~$40 on both tables (+$31ish atm) and have just over $150 BR now. (Ohh and am at about 270 raked hands played)

Well then I hit that flush hand, lost about $30 right there, and ended the day with a BR of about $130 and up to about 300ish raked hands.

So I take a day or 2 off (Busy with work, home, and a little put off by that hand so wanted to wait till I was good and ready to start playing again.)

Got back to work on Monday and Tuesday clearing the bonus. Only played about 1-2 hrs both days. Played pretty break even poker, ending the 50 raked hands yesterday after work with a BR of $146.

That money is now being transfered to Neteller so I can start on a new bonus

Personally I do not see the value, for me, in droping down to micro levels now. I feel comfortable playing 25NL, I don,t mind if I loose $5-$10 on a good hand, heck even droping a full buy-in isn't that bad. I guess the fact that it was free money to start with helps alot here. That and financially $25 isn't a huge chunck of money to me.

A little put off that I didn't achieve my goal of 200-250ish, but I have a better understanding of how varience plays a fairly large role in poker.

Biggest win? Probably about a $50 hand where my JJ turned into a Straight J/10/9/8/7 Not sure what he was calling me with.. mabey 2 pair? /shrug

Biggest loss: 2 of them, $30 on that flush I mentioned, then lost a $50-60ish pot last night, last hand before I quit and made my withdrawl, limped a 56s flop comes down 10/5/6 rainbow. Checks to me as last to act. Throw out a baby 1/2 pot (.75) bet, gets raised to 1.50, rest fold. I then raise to 3, he calls. Turn is a J. He pushes all in. I think for a min. Type in, hope you can beat 2 pair, cuz I guess I am going to call. No reply from him. I make the call, river was I don't even remember... He flips 106s for the higher 2 pair on the flop and then says in chat *Had me worried about the J/10 for a min*

Sucks to loose this, but I have made the same calls before and won with people pushing a draw before the river, TP ok kicker, TPTK, and absolute crap. Personally in this case I thought he had A/10 at the time, but whatever shit happens.

End of the day I started with nothing, was given $75, and now have almost 150BR that I will soon be starting another bonus with.

I look forward to moving up to $50, but I will be waiting for my BR to catch up first. Probably wait till I get to at least 15 buy ins, mabey even 20.

"I have a better understanding of how varience plays a fairly large role in poker."

I'm not so sure you do if you plan on taking a 5 buy-in roll into the 25NL tables. But, to each his own. I wish you the best of luck. Please keep us up to date on how it's going.

IH8ME

Trust me you don't know about variance yet... it's not uncommon to loose 5 buyins... no matter how good you are. But I'm no one to talk, cause I never played micro-limits, started with a $50 BR on party and played nothing but 25NL, till I got up to $700 and hit the Newbie Circle of Death (check out that post). My only advice is, don't get TOO comfortable, keep it tight and stick with your guns until you are properly bankrolled. (The first time I tried 2 tabling it worked great for a few days, but I started slipping for some reason) But congrats and keep up the good work...

the only thing i'd say, is its fine if you're comfortable at 25, but don't assume things will all stay the same at 50. if you're comfortable at 25, get your bankroll well ahead of what you need for 50 before you jump to it, otherwise you will always be playing out of your bankroll and you'll swing too much.

I appreciate the feedback.

the only thing i'd say, is its fine if you're comfortable at 25, but don't assume things will all stay the same at 50. if you're comfortable at 25, get your bankroll well ahead of what you need for 50 before you jump to it, otherwise you will always be playing out of your bankroll and you'll swing too much.

Exactly. I said in the last one 15-20 buy ins. Am/Was leaning towards the 20 side, ie 1k BR. I think by this time I should be ready for the move up.

But I'm no one to talk, cause I never played micro-limits, started with a $50 BR on party and played nothing but 25NL, till I got up to $700 and hit the Newbie Circle of Death (check out that post).

Same as me almost.. started with 75 on party playin 25NL.

The way I see it is I don't need to get involved in risky hands. I don't mind playing super tight. With all the idiots that will call you down with nothing in the 25NL swimming pool it's a shame not to take advantage.

Either way I am having fun playing. My ultimate goal is to earn enough money to buy a car and to get into SnG's and MTT's atm just getting more comfortable and working on making reads, learning when to bet, when to fold, etc. Figure I might as well milk all these bonuses and 3rd party bonuses along the way to making my BR for tourneys.

Will likely start posting HH's as well for feedback as I go. I read most of the ones posted here and really like the advice I see in them.

I'm glad to see you have a great attitude, and are having fun playing poker online. While winning money is great, having fun while doing it is better. If you weren't having fun it would be too much like a job. Jobs suck...

I'm of the slow and easy set, grinding away at .02/.04 Limit, fretting over when I shoudl move up to .05/.10!!! I mean, I've only got a bankroll of 2100 BB's at .05/.10

Everyones approach and risk tolerance is different. If you're winning and having fun, great. Just tread carefully with your small bankroll. I don't want to see you go bust...

IH8ME

Thanks IH8ME, I do enjoy playing. Plus I drop about 20-30 a week into tourneys for fun with friends of mine. If I ever did go bust it would be easy enough to not play live games for a week and re-deposit another $50 or whatever. Although ATM I am playing strictly to increase my BR.

To me this means bonus whoring while playing break even poker.

I have my good days and my bad just like the rest but I really enjoy playing poker. Even when I get a bad beat, or get sucked out on I can laugh, type in a little NH or plain lol sometimes when it is that bad.

And I never continue to play if I am no longer having fun! Period.

To me this is a play money account with real potential. It cost me nothing! I deposited $0.00 and it now reads $146 with another $76 bonus in pending. I am amazed at how much money these sites can just give away fro free, but then again I would wager my online BR and RL BR that these sites make a killing from rakes and can afford to give away whatever they want.

As I have mentioned I'd like to buy a car with my winnings so I figure there is no better way then to be bonus whoring and buildnig a BR for free as I get more used to playing poker online and start to feel more and more comfortable in trusting reads and in what plays I should be making for max efficency.

Plus with this site to fall back on I hope to make mistakes... The best way for me to learn is through my own mistakes.

So thanks again to the FTR team! Real good bunch of peeps and I am proud to see the growing list of people heading off to the WSOP this year to represent! Mabey one year I can win a seat and meet some of you there.

Chris

Ok I need a sugestion here....

I know I am out of my BR... on Party this did not bother me at all playing 25NL. But now I am on absolute, working another bonus, this time for $73.

Now my problem arises by the way you clear the bonus. You need to play in 100 raked hands for every $10 bonus. BUT a raked hand is only hands where they get a min of .25$ so that means the pot must be at least $5.

Now my problem is on Absolute they have a very wierd table selection.

There is no 25NL, 50NL etc...

They do have 25cent blinds and 50 cent blinds... but the buy in is DOUBLE what it was on Party. IE rather than max of $25 for the .25 blinds, they have a $50 max.. and $100 max on the .50 blinds.

Am down about $40 since I moved to this site now, and have yet to get my first $10 in bonus even.

Options.

1) Stay here, keep playing these fish and try to make a comeback... keep playin on same blinds and keep working towards the bonus.

2) FUCK Absolute and their crappy tables, players, and customer support, get whatever I got left in there OUT and run.

3) Stay here, for whatever stupid reason, drop to micro limits and work my BR back up to where I feel comfortable again.

4) Switch to PS right now, with only $100, and start my SnG's reason why I started playin online poker and forget about bonuses.

Originally Posted by chris_1069

4) Switch to PS right now, with only $100, and start my SnG's reason why I started playin online poker and forget about bonuses.

That sounds like a winner right there. At least with such a small bankroll. PS tourney structure is great, 1500 chips and slow moving blinds. Patience and skill are rewarded. Pay out a tad lower because of 9 seat tourney tables, though.

I love PokerStars, and I think you will too. Just let me know what your username is so I don't tangle with you

IH8ME

I started off poorly at Absolute as well. Then I went on a tear and finished the promotion up over $300.

I'd recommend playing the 50NL, buying in for half and just camp for the bonus. Make sure you two table as well, or the bonus will take a long time.

I would advise against going to Poker Stars. Why go there where there is a grand total of ZERO bonuses?

If you're looking for a soft place to play with a decent bonus and decent sitngoes, try Pacific.

But seriously, I'd recommend finishing the Absolute one. Keep in mind that you'll be receiving a gift worth ~USD90.

Just grind it out and play smart (tight).

Is there ever a good time to play on Absolute?

More specifically any time where there is more than 1 or 2 .25 or .50 blinds tables running at once.

This morning there was 1 table for each both were full. Played on 2 .10 blind tables, went up $5 on one then droped $20 on the other where he floped a straight(I figured him for the draw) and I floped 3x10's (PP 10)

So playin some free rolls just for fun while I wait for 2 tables to join.

Did manage to get onto 1 50 and 1 25 table last night and went up about $30 in 2 hrs. Not like these tables are hard... not at all... it's just the plays they make some times lol.