playing ring solely for bonuses

Putting a big chunk of my roll into PP to try to clear their deposit bonus. $500 means that I could potentially play NL$25 which seems to be a good way to earn this bonus.

My problem is that I am a SnG player and NOT a ring player by any means. With that in mind, should I play NL$10 instead (I'm assuming this exists)? How much slower would it be to earn the bonus this way?

I am not there to play ring, I am there to clear the bonus. After the bonus is cleared, I am playing SnGs again. So what is the smartest way to do this given the fact that I don't usually play ring? Perhaps play NL$10 at first and then move to NL$25? But then again, if the game at NL$25 is beatable for a sound TAgg player, then I may as well just skip the NL$10? Can much be gained from playing NL$10 first?

I have done an extensive search on the differences between NL$25 and other limits and also on the transition from SnGs to ring. I found these posts particularly helpful:
http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...ght=difference
http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...ght=difference

Additional thoughts are appreciated, especially if you're a SnG player who plays ring just for bonuses. Thanks in advance.

I'm primarily a ring player, and have evolved this way due to bonus whoring. :) Just IMO, with less than a 3k (or so) BR, you should stick to bonus whoring and that means playing ring if your main goal is to earn money. If you're an exceptional sng/mtt player, then this could be disputed. From my experience, I started out playing probably an even mix of sng/ring and some mtt's, and I was doing okay, making a few dollars here and there. However, once I made the commitment to bonus whoring and improving my ring game skills, my BR shot through the roof. I went from a 2.5k BR to an 8k BR in about 3-4 months, starting from 50NL and moving up to 200NL.

But enough of my rambling. I realized I haven't even addressed your question yet. :roll: I would suggest hitting up the 25NL tables on PP, and just camping pretty much. Beating 25NL is not hard, provided you have some knowledge of starting hands and how to play position. Playing 4 tables should get you through the bonus in say, 4 hours or so. Post some hands in the HHH forum and we can help you out. But if you're not commfortable at the 25NL tables, then start at the 10NL tables. The bonus should clear at the same rate I believe. Good luck!

PS: Why limit your bonus whoring to just party? You can do the ex-skins + IGM Pay + ePassporte for a grand total of something like 1.2k in Party + ex-skins. Just FYI, this is all do-able in 2 weeks if you put in enough time.

Edit: I'm not trying to sway you to convert from sngs to ring, if my post made it sound that way. Just trying to let you know what's out there and how great bonus whoring is! :D

I think if you stick to your early SNG stratergy, before the blinds increase, you cant go far wrong. Just remember that lower stakes players dont generaly change gears and the how they played an hour ago is probably the way their playing now. This can help you build up reads and prey on their weaknesess. Find someting they are doing wrong, wait for the right opportunity (patients is key) then make them pay for it.

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Originally Posted by bdawg56kg

PS: Why limit your bonus whoring to just party? You can do the ex-skins + IGM Pay + ePassporte for a grand total of something like 1.2k in Party + ex-skins. Just FYI, this is all do-able in 2 weeks if you put in enough time.

Edit: I'm not trying to sway you to convert from sngs to ring, if my post made it sound that way. Just trying to let you know what's out there and how great bonus whoring is! :D

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Please do go on. I almost cried yesterday when I found out one of the sites, I don't remember which, was offering %100 up to $700 for just playing .25 - .50, but that offer ended in the new year. Now the site only offers %50 up to $250 and the hands must have a minumum rake. Which is still a good deal, but nowhere near as good as the former. I can't seem to remember this site's name.
But there are some others. GamesGrid is offering %1000 up to $5000, but the minumum rake and number of hands to be played is on the high side.
I only very recently came across this incredible potential for free money, provided you are able to play break-even poker. Specifically, tell me more about this sentence, "You can do the ex-skins + IGM Pay + ePassporte for a grand total of something like 1.2k in Party + ex-skins." Much appreciated.

Akira, check out bonuswhores.com

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Originally Posted by DaNutsInYoEye

Akira, check out bonuswhores.com

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Wow, thanks, that is a bizarre site. That's alot of fucking banners there, obviously. Unfortunately, I think many of the poker sites changed their promotions at the new year, and even bonuswhores hasn't fully caught up. But thanks much on the heads up, I discovered some good ones.

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Originally Posted by SonOfAkira

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Originally Posted by DaNutsInYoEye

Akira, check out bonuswhores.com

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Wow, thanks, that is a bizarre site. That's alot of fucking banners there, obviously. Unfortunately, I think many of the poker sites changed their promotions at the new year, and even bonuswhores hasn't fully caught up. But thanks much on the heads up, I discovered some good ones.

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Bonus expiration dates are to be heeded, but know they will likely offer the same one next week when they update their site. Additionally, a call to CS will probably score you the same bonus that just expired.


Courti, I assume PP means Party. Party is only 25nl and up, right? Or are there beginner tables at lower levels? But kudos for making the jump. You should be fine. The big surprise in the move from tournament to ring is the crap that gets played, and small margins are pressed with weaker hands.
I'm with bdawg56kg. After learning to play, it's time to take the show on the road and collect both pots AND bonuses, not just at Party. And if there's an enevitable downswing, the bonuses even out the dip. Additionally, each poker room you add to your trophy case becomes an increased possibility of being offered yet another reload bonus.
I miss playing SnG's at Stars, but I like money more, and I've learned to appreciate the "I'm stopping now" aspect of ring, rather than, "do I have 90 minutes (or 3 hours) to play poker?"

If you'd like to clear a bonus at SNG, you can do so at Pacific.

Thanks very much for your replies guys, very helpful. I'm nervous about leaving a game I've come to know pretty decently and going to a game that seems totally different in so many ways, hopefully the transition is smoother than I think. TAgg poker, here I come!

Warning: your table image means absolutely nothing at 25NL ring. Dont' think somebody will fold a hand because they should have noticed you only play premiums. They don't notice, so don't bluff much if at all. This took me a while to get over and cost me some money to find out.

Hey Courtie - you might also look for aokrongly's 19 hand strategy, sorry I don't have a link handy[Edit: I found one] . It's a pretty easy strategy for multitabling ring and will work fine at 25NL. Basically just playing the 13 PP + AK,AQ,AJ,KQ,KJ,QJ.

http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...hlight=#230188

I also play probably 80% SNGs and don't normally play ring without a bonus involved. I wish they did offer more bonus $$$ for SNG/MTT play, but there's always rakeback(I didn't say that).

Keep us posted, courtie. I'm going to keep track of your progress because I'm considering doing the same thing myself. eeeee's point about the time commitment is a good one, and I would like to start trying to make some serious money at this game instead of playing SnGs all the time. I think my skills have progressed enough to start 25NL again (I dipped my toes in there when I first started playing and generally took a bath).

Thanks for posting the thread links as well...

maybe need to start new thread on this one, but...

can you just sit and watch and still tally raked hands or do you have to see the flop for it to count?

just curious. thanks.

No, you actually have to be delt into the hand, and the hand has to be raked. But once your delt into the hand and you dont like your cards, just fold them. If the hand is raked then it counts as a rake for you. This is at Party at least.

Also Party does have a beginners section where you can play 10nl I believe. But you are only allowed to play there like 2 or 3 days, then you must move to the 25nl minimum. I dont think you can play the beginner section if you have been playing the 25nl or higher.

Party is extremely easy to open 3 tables of 25 or 50nl and just camp, fold every thing that is even borderline questionable. You can clear the bonus over the weekend pretty easy.

If you are a successful SnG player, you should be able to beat NL25 pretty easily I think. The most important thing you have to realize IMO is the difference between low M SnG/MTT scenarios and deep stacked ring games with comparitively tiny blinds. In the latter, hands like AKo and AQo lose a lot of value, while drawing hands like small pairs, suited connectors, Axs etc. shoot up in value due to implied odds.

I remember telling somebody else this, but read through all the posts in the hand histories section of FTR. Learn to distinguish the good advice to listen to from the bad advice which gives you some psychology into how the other players at your table may be thinking. Also, even though it's an early-stage MTT book, I recommend HOH1.. most of it applies fairly well to a cash game and it's an all-around excellent book.

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Originally Posted by Aces

you might also look for aokrongly's 19 hand strategy

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I am most definitely using Aok's 19 hand strategy :) I think it's a great starting point for ring play, and it's excellent for ensuring you don't lose big money on marginal hands. If anyone had been following Aok's books before Christmas (or if you were involved in the editing of it since that's where most of the information was), I'm going to be using a lot of his strategy and suggestions, especially at first (if not the entire time).

I will certainly update and let you folk know how my attempt goes :) I'm hoping this won't take more than a week, although with school and work it might take a couple. Thanks again for all your advice and suggestions, they're awesome and they're DEFINITELY going to help me out. Keep em coming!

I'll add that it pays to know exactly what you're getting into when bonus whoring. There's definitely bonuses out there that aren't feasible at 25NL (UB signup comes to mind...). Party has the friendliest raked hands policy, of course, but other sites range from somewhat less easy to very hard when completing a bonus in a timely fashion.

Some of the ex-party skins say that the rake amount divided by the the number of players at the table has to be at least 1 cent. Eurobet or Ultimatebet (and full tilt, i think) all have "points" structures where the rake amount corresponds to a certain number of points that you get, and then theres a points-to-bonus dollars conversion policy, sometimes 10-1.

Hope this helps. Personally, I'm working my way through the martinspoker bonus right now. Not really feasible at 25NL, but the players are so bad its funny.