Bonus Chasing

hursday I deposited $50.00 in my Party Poker account to take advangtage of the reload bonus they offered me. My reload offer was 20% up to $100 and I needed to play 10x the bonus to release the bonus. Thursday I played about 200 hands of $0.50/1.00 Limit and ended up losing $2.75, but released the $10.00 bonus from Party Poker. I decided I would try not to focus so much on how much I was up or down and instead focus on playing the number of hands needed to release the bonus.

I think I played pretty well Thursday night and did not make too many bad decisions. Very early in the session I took down a nice sized pot from the BB with J3o. Only the button and the SB where saw the flop with me. The flop was J3x with two clubs. I bet the flop and both of my opponents called. A three on the turn filled up my boat and both opponents called again. I bet again on the river and the button raised, I reraised and he showed his is KJ of hearts. I won another pot a few hands later with another full house came in for me on the river (Aces full of fives). Near the end of the session I took a big hit when my AK went up against a BB with J7o and a Jack came down on each street.

When I logged in to Party Poker on Friday I was greeted by a pop-up window that informed that if I played another 150 raked hands by Monday I would receive another $10.00 bonus without depositing any additional money. So I played over 200 hands of Limit Hold'em and lost almost $8.00. I think I play okay. I know I made some mistakes and I could have done better and I lost a few very nice hands to hands that were a little better. During the middle of the session I was dealt QQ in the BB and raised after a couple of early and late position limpers. The flop was TTx, I bet and both limper called. They both called again on the turn when I bet. The river was a blank, I bet again and this time the EP limper raised. We both called and our opponent show KT.

About half of the hands I played on Friday were raked, so I figured I would need to play about 100 more hands on Saturday to release the second $10.00 bonus. I ended up playing about 130 hands and won $1.75. I went too far with AKo after the SB reraised preflop. After a pair of nines came on the flop I called him all the way to the river where he showed me his pocket Jacks.

Sunday morning I recieved another pop-up from Party Poker informing me that my account had been credited with the second bonus and that I could earn a third $10.00 bonus by player 200 more raked hand by Wednesday. The Sunday session did not go very well at all and really put me on tilt towards poker for the rest of the day. I played 137 hands and lost over $22.00. Maybe I should have seen where this was going to end up when I was dealt pocket kings early in the session. I raised with my kings from middle position behind two limpers. The BB and the two limpers in front of me called and I caught another king on the flop along with two clubs. The flop was checked to me and I bet and all three players called. The turn was another club, the player to my right bet, I raised and then he reraised. I called his bet on the river and he showed 74 of clubs and his ten high flush. At least he was to my right and I would be able to act after him on the rest of the hands.

I continued folding the lousy hands I was dealt and missing flops with the decent ones. It looked like my luck was about to change when I won a couple of hands at the end of the session but everyone split and left me sitting at an empty table. I think about half of the hands were raked, so at least it was a decent start to releasing the final bonus.

Current Bankroll: $239.92