After playing poker for 90 minutes today, I'm beginning to like UltimateBet a little more. It's already a nice site to use. If I can start winning money while playing on the site, I'll start to love it!
Sitting at a 6-man $2/$4 table, I won $69.75 this afternoon. Similar to yesterday, my cards weren't bad. If these sites would simply give me adequate cards to play with, I'm confident that I can win money almost every time I sit down. For a good part of the month, that didn't seem to be happening.
I wasn't able to completely deplete the balance in my UltimateBet bonus account, however, while playing this afternoon. After leaving the tables today, I still have an outstanding balance of $4.81. That means that I made $12.74, in addition to the other money I won while actually playing. I'll hafta wait until April to earn the final bit of my $100 bonus.
After leaving UltimateBet, I logged into Party Poker to see if any "suckers" were on-line. To my delight, one of the worst $5/$10 players that I"ve earmarked was sitting at a 6-man table. I quickly joined him.
Playing for 20 minutes, I won a quck $84 - most of it from him. This guy LOVES to chase cards. Thankfully, he didn't hit any of his chases against me, although he did hit a couple against the other players. As a result, he actually made close to $200 during the 20 minutes I was sitting there. At that point, I was happy with my winnings, so I left my table - although the bad player remained behind.
After all was said and done, it was a pretty good month for the Sketchbook. Although I spent most of the month breaking even on the tables, the redeposit bonuses I earned helped the Sketchbook's balance. In addition, with my actual poker winnings the past two days, I'm pretty happy with where I sit heading into the wedding this weekend. About 10 days ago, I had hoped that the Sketchbook would crack the $1K again this month, but beggers can't be choosers, I suppose. I came mighty close!
The Sketchbook will be dark for the next several days. I don't anticipate another entry until Monday - at the earliest. At that point, my Sketchbook entries will be from the perspective of a married man. Wish me luck!
Daily Sketch: Up $166.49
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $955.33
March 30, 2005: UltimateBet's Redeposit Bonus
Heading into today's on-line poker action, I still had a pending bonus of $41.14 outstanding from UltimateBet. It should take me approximately 2 1/2 hours to earn that bonus. I'd like to do that in the next 24 hours so that I can take a long weekend away from poker while getting married.
Today, I played poker on a 6-man $2/$4 table for about 75 minutes on UltimateBet. For the first time in a while, the cards cooperated and I made some money.
All told, I won $78.75 on the table. The players I faced weren't particularly bad. Instead, I was simply dealt decent cards for a decent amount of time. It felt good to finally win some money at a table - without relying on the bonus dollars to record a positive Sketchbook entry.
At the same time I was winning, I also earned $23.59 of bonus - leaving me with an oustanding bonus balance of $17.55. I'll try earn to that amount tomorrow.
Daily Sketch: Up $102.34
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $788.84
Today, I played poker on a 6-man $2/$4 table for about 75 minutes on UltimateBet. For the first time in a while, the cards cooperated and I made some money.
All told, I won $78.75 on the table. The players I faced weren't particularly bad. Instead, I was simply dealt decent cards for a decent amount of time. It felt good to finally win some money at a table - without relying on the bonus dollars to record a positive Sketchbook entry.
At the same time I was winning, I also earned $23.59 of bonus - leaving me with an oustanding bonus balance of $17.55. I'll try earn to that amount tomorrow.
Daily Sketch: Up $102.34
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $788.84
March 29, 2005: Poker at Bernard's
I played poker at Bernard's home tonight and lost exactly $20. Nine people participated, so it was a good turnout. With my wedding (and honeymoon) pending, I won't be playing with the boys for another three weeks.
Daily Sketch: Down $20
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $686.50
Daily Sketch: Down $20
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $686.50
March 28, 2005: I'm Getting Frustrated
I played poker for 90 minutes this evening on two 10-man $2/$4 tables on UltimateBet. It was a rather uneventful evening. This hand, however, epitomizes my luck over the past two (or so weeks):
Hand of the Day:
Preflop: Jnskuc posts small blind ($1). WookieonEndor posts big blind ($2). Sart folds. Classic53 folds. Bumblebee01 folds. UrbanElf folds. I raise to $4. Cowtree folds. Qbert 74 folds. LadyLuck28 folds. Jnskuc calls. WookieonEndor calls. Three of us see the flop.
Flop: Ah 9h Kc.
Jnskuc bets $2. WookieonEndor folds. I call.
Turn: 2d.
Jnskuc bets $4. I call.
River: Kh
Jnskuc bets $4. I call.
I flip over Ad 7c. I've got two pair (aces and kings).
Jnskuc flips over Tc Kd. He's got three kings. Jnskuc scoops the pot.
As of late, this hand pretty much typifies my luck. Leading all the way to the river, my opponent (who I raised before the flop), continues to bet into me - even though he hasn't flopped top pair and a couple hearts are on the board. However, my opponent is ultimately rewarded for his bets with a river that allows him to take the money. Ugh!
Over the long haul, I should be able to make money off these types of players. However, it's not happening right now.
Interestingly, I lost $8.25 on this table during the 90 minutes that I played. At the same time, I won exactly $8.25 on the other table - which means I broke even. However, I did earn $11.12 of bonus money, so that's tonight's meager profit. For everyone's information, Jnskuc lost all $50 he came to the table with. Unfortunately, I didn't get any of it.
I'm sure that my cards are going to start turning around relatively soon, but it's mighty frustrating right now. I really feel like I'm climbing a steep hill. I'm still up a good amount for the month, but it hasn't really moved much in the past 10 days. Thank goodness for these redeposit bonuses!
Daily Sketch: Up $11.12
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $706.50
Hand of the Day:
Preflop: Jnskuc posts small blind ($1). WookieonEndor posts big blind ($2). Sart folds. Classic53 folds. Bumblebee01 folds. UrbanElf folds. I raise to $4. Cowtree folds. Qbert 74 folds. LadyLuck28 folds. Jnskuc calls. WookieonEndor calls. Three of us see the flop.
Flop: Ah 9h Kc.
Jnskuc bets $2. WookieonEndor folds. I call.
Turn: 2d.
Jnskuc bets $4. I call.
River: Kh
Jnskuc bets $4. I call.
I flip over Ad 7c. I've got two pair (aces and kings).
Jnskuc flips over Tc Kd. He's got three kings. Jnskuc scoops the pot.
As of late, this hand pretty much typifies my luck. Leading all the way to the river, my opponent (who I raised before the flop), continues to bet into me - even though he hasn't flopped top pair and a couple hearts are on the board. However, my opponent is ultimately rewarded for his bets with a river that allows him to take the money. Ugh!
Over the long haul, I should be able to make money off these types of players. However, it's not happening right now.
Interestingly, I lost $8.25 on this table during the 90 minutes that I played. At the same time, I won exactly $8.25 on the other table - which means I broke even. However, I did earn $11.12 of bonus money, so that's tonight's meager profit. For everyone's information, Jnskuc lost all $50 he came to the table with. Unfortunately, I didn't get any of it.
I'm sure that my cards are going to start turning around relatively soon, but it's mighty frustrating right now. I really feel like I'm climbing a steep hill. I'm still up a good amount for the month, but it hasn't really moved much in the past 10 days. Thank goodness for these redeposit bonuses!
Daily Sketch: Up $11.12
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $706.50
March 27, 2005: Brrrrrrrrrrrrr
Over the past week, the cards have cooled down considerably. Ugh!
I played poker for 90 minutes on UltimateBet this evening and lost exactly $123.50 while playing on a 6-man $3/$6 table. The poker gods have (apparently) decided that I shouldn't get any help from the turn or river cards. I'm flopping a lot of open-ended straights and four-card flushes, but I can't catch the final card to make my hand. Time after time, I dejectedly find myself folding a decent pot when my cards don't work out.
At the same time, my opponents are drawing to an inordinate number of suck-outs. While I'm flopping four-card flushes, my opponents are repeatedly flopping middle pair and hitting the set (or two-pair) on the turn or river. It's getting a bit frustrating!
While losing the $123.50, I earned $21.30 in bonus. So, the Sketchbook took a $102.20 hit today for my poker play. My initial $100 bonus has been whittled down to a little over $50.
Despite tonight's losses, there is VERY good news to report.
Today, I opened my mail (delivered yesterday) and found a check for $576.63 in an envelope mailed from Gibraltar. It was the check from Pacific Poker that had been predicted to take 1-4 weeks to deliver. Thankfully, it came in less than a week, and I can officially record the $100 sign-up bonus in the Sketchbook. If nothing else, that check helps to ease the stink of today's losses while simultaneously allowing me to uninstall the Pacific Poker software from my computer.
Daily Sketch: Down $2.20
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $695.38
I played poker for 90 minutes on UltimateBet this evening and lost exactly $123.50 while playing on a 6-man $3/$6 table. The poker gods have (apparently) decided that I shouldn't get any help from the turn or river cards. I'm flopping a lot of open-ended straights and four-card flushes, but I can't catch the final card to make my hand. Time after time, I dejectedly find myself folding a decent pot when my cards don't work out.
At the same time, my opponents are drawing to an inordinate number of suck-outs. While I'm flopping four-card flushes, my opponents are repeatedly flopping middle pair and hitting the set (or two-pair) on the turn or river. It's getting a bit frustrating!
While losing the $123.50, I earned $21.30 in bonus. So, the Sketchbook took a $102.20 hit today for my poker play. My initial $100 bonus has been whittled down to a little over $50.
Despite tonight's losses, there is VERY good news to report.
Today, I opened my mail (delivered yesterday) and found a check for $576.63 in an envelope mailed from Gibraltar. It was the check from Pacific Poker that had been predicted to take 1-4 weeks to deliver. Thankfully, it came in less than a week, and I can officially record the $100 sign-up bonus in the Sketchbook. If nothing else, that check helps to ease the stink of today's losses while simultaneously allowing me to uninstall the Pacific Poker software from my computer.
Daily Sketch: Down $2.20
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $695.38
March 26, 2005: A Full Day's Work
I played A LOT on Party Poker today. In fact, I was on-line for 8 hours today, or the equivalent of a regular day's work. Yikes! Since things weren't going particularly well at the tables, I wanted to earn my $200 bonus - so that became my goal for the day.
The morning started with a 90-minute session on a pair of 10-man $3/$6 tables. To put it mildly, it was a brutal hour-and-a-half session. After the 90 minutes, I was down exactly $173 and feeling pretty bad about my game.
Apparently, I'm going to need to adjust my game on these 10-man $3/$6 tables. Two different times, I was dealt QQ and raised the blinds. In making the raise, my intent was to get other players holding marginal hands (i.e. an ace with a bad kicker) to fold. Unfortunately, that wasn't happening. The first time I was dealt QQ, I was called by two players each holding A-5 (offsuit). Neither player was the small or big blind, so they each threw $6 into the pot with marginal hands. Naturally, the flop came 5-5-2 and I ended up losing a decent sized pot. What are the odds that all four 5's would play? Ugh!!
The 2nd time I was dealt the Queens, I received a call from a player holding A-2. In this case, at least they were suited, but I would have liked to see my opponent fold, especially after an ace appeared on the flop. Again, I lost a decent pot.
After my 90 minute session, I took an hour-long break. Then, I jumped on a couple more $3/$6 tables and proceeded to lose another $118 during the next two hours. I was staring at a hefty deficit of $271 when I decided to retire from the $3/$6 arena.
Instead, I hopped on a 6-man $5/$10 table and simultaneously played on another 6-man $1/$2 table. I ventured to the $1/$2 table in an effort to increase my number of raked hands and because the worst player on Party Poker was sitting at a particular table. I don't have his name handy, but I've bookmarked him in the software. I had seen him play three other times and I had never seen him leave his table with ANY money. Today was no different.
Sitting at his table, I proceeded to watch him lose his entire bankrool ($50) in a little over an hour. Interesingly, this player NEVER folds preflop and loves to bluff. Thankfully, most of his losses flowed in my direction and I left that table with a profit of $42.63 - and feeling a little better about my game. I am DEFINITELY going to keep "stalking" this player and join him whenever I see him at a table.
At the same time I was claiming the $42.63 at the $1/$2 table, I proceeded to win some money at the $5/$10 table. It took nearly 3 hours, but I won an additional $123. If nothing else, it was very entertaining to play at that table, 'cuz many of the other players were very chatty. I started the session at the $5/$10 down nearly $100, but the cards finally started going in my direction - allowing me to leave with a decent profit. Had I lost money at the $5/$10 table, today's Sketchbook entry could have gotten REALLY ugly!
At that point, I only needed to play appproximately 50 more hands to earn my $200 redeposit bonus, so I jumped on a 10--man $2/$4 table for the rest of the day. I proceeded to win $42 at that table and, at the same time, I earned my $200 bonus.
So, after all was said and done, I lost $83.37 while player poker today. However, considering the fact that I was down over $300 at one point, I don't feel too bad about the losses. When you factor in the $200 bonus I earned today, the Sketchbook actually shows a net gain. Woo Hoo!!
Now that I've earned my $200 bonus, I'll be staying away from Party Poker for awhile. I still need to earn the rest of the $100 redeposit bonus I received from UltimateBet last week, so that becomes my new objective for the next few days.
Daily Sketch: Up $116.63
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $697.58
The morning started with a 90-minute session on a pair of 10-man $3/$6 tables. To put it mildly, it was a brutal hour-and-a-half session. After the 90 minutes, I was down exactly $173 and feeling pretty bad about my game.
Apparently, I'm going to need to adjust my game on these 10-man $3/$6 tables. Two different times, I was dealt QQ and raised the blinds. In making the raise, my intent was to get other players holding marginal hands (i.e. an ace with a bad kicker) to fold. Unfortunately, that wasn't happening. The first time I was dealt QQ, I was called by two players each holding A-5 (offsuit). Neither player was the small or big blind, so they each threw $6 into the pot with marginal hands. Naturally, the flop came 5-5-2 and I ended up losing a decent sized pot. What are the odds that all four 5's would play? Ugh!!
The 2nd time I was dealt the Queens, I received a call from a player holding A-2. In this case, at least they were suited, but I would have liked to see my opponent fold, especially after an ace appeared on the flop. Again, I lost a decent pot.
After my 90 minute session, I took an hour-long break. Then, I jumped on a couple more $3/$6 tables and proceeded to lose another $118 during the next two hours. I was staring at a hefty deficit of $271 when I decided to retire from the $3/$6 arena.
Instead, I hopped on a 6-man $5/$10 table and simultaneously played on another 6-man $1/$2 table. I ventured to the $1/$2 table in an effort to increase my number of raked hands and because the worst player on Party Poker was sitting at a particular table. I don't have his name handy, but I've bookmarked him in the software. I had seen him play three other times and I had never seen him leave his table with ANY money. Today was no different.
Sitting at his table, I proceeded to watch him lose his entire bankrool ($50) in a little over an hour. Interesingly, this player NEVER folds preflop and loves to bluff. Thankfully, most of his losses flowed in my direction and I left that table with a profit of $42.63 - and feeling a little better about my game. I am DEFINITELY going to keep "stalking" this player and join him whenever I see him at a table.
At the same time I was claiming the $42.63 at the $1/$2 table, I proceeded to win some money at the $5/$10 table. It took nearly 3 hours, but I won an additional $123. If nothing else, it was very entertaining to play at that table, 'cuz many of the other players were very chatty. I started the session at the $5/$10 down nearly $100, but the cards finally started going in my direction - allowing me to leave with a decent profit. Had I lost money at the $5/$10 table, today's Sketchbook entry could have gotten REALLY ugly!
At that point, I only needed to play appproximately 50 more hands to earn my $200 redeposit bonus, so I jumped on a 10--man $2/$4 table for the rest of the day. I proceeded to win $42 at that table and, at the same time, I earned my $200 bonus.
So, after all was said and done, I lost $83.37 while player poker today. However, considering the fact that I was down over $300 at one point, I don't feel too bad about the losses. When you factor in the $200 bonus I earned today, the Sketchbook actually shows a net gain. Woo Hoo!!
Now that I've earned my $200 bonus, I'll be staying away from Party Poker for awhile. I still need to earn the rest of the $100 redeposit bonus I received from UltimateBet last week, so that becomes my new objective for the next few days.
Daily Sketch: Up $116.63
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $697.58
March 25, 2005: Other Opinions
I didn't get a chance to get on-line today. Between the fact that I needed to attend church (it's Good Friday) and the fact that the Badgers played in the NCAA tourney this evening, I didn't even sniff my computer until after 10:00pm. I've got all weekend to play poker, so I thought I'd take the night off and get a good night's rest - rather than playing late into the night and being tired half the weekend.
I've done some surfing around the internet to see what other people think about Pacific Poker and Caribbean Poker. If nothing else, it's always nice when someone reaffirms your opinions. Here are a couple reviews I found:
Regarding Pacific Poker:
"Their software is pretty bad. The games are very slow, though this may be nice for beginners since it gives them more time to think. They have been improving their software lately, making it smoother and expanding some features. Nevertheless, this software remains among the worst out there. Their servers are also fairly poor. Many people have had problems getting disconnected from Pacific Poker's servers.
The main reason to play at Pacific is the competition. The players are horrible. Everyone is a calling station and some maniacs exist. However, this will skyrocket the frustration level as your premium hands will frequently be cracked. I recommend playing at a lower limit than usual at first because the variance is so much higher here. Home of the worst players on the internet, Pacific Poker is a gem for anyone looking for an easy game."
Regarding Caribbean Sun:
"Caribbean Sun Poker is a fairly popular poker room that has nice ongoing bonuses and promotions. Most of the time, cashouts are fairly standard. However, for your first withdrawal, you need to wait until you receive a PIN, which takes about a week to receive.
You need to know this PIN when you cash out. Thus, if you lose your PIN for whatever reason, you will need to wait for another PIN to be mailed to you. While this is really not a big deal, it can be really annoying if you end up changing addresses and lose your PIN at the same time. My suggestion is to make sure you keep your PIN in a place you remember and to keep your address information updated with them.
There are a lot of Europeans who play this site, and they tend to play more aggressively. This makes some of their play more solid, but many are maniacs."
All in all, I'd agree with both of these reviews. I tried to find something about the 4-week wait I may need to endure to receive my money from Pacific, but I found nothing. Apparently, I should have deposited funds using my Neteller account, rather than the bank draft. Oh, well. I guess you live and learn. One review complained that it took 5 days to complete a withdrawal using Neteller through Pacific Poker, but that's a heck of a last faster than what I'm going to wait.
I'd like to earn my $200 bonus from Party Poker this weekend. We'll see what happens. I'll need to play a lot of poker to earn it.
Daily Sketch: $0
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $580.95
I've done some surfing around the internet to see what other people think about Pacific Poker and Caribbean Poker. If nothing else, it's always nice when someone reaffirms your opinions. Here are a couple reviews I found:
Regarding Pacific Poker:
"Their software is pretty bad. The games are very slow, though this may be nice for beginners since it gives them more time to think. They have been improving their software lately, making it smoother and expanding some features. Nevertheless, this software remains among the worst out there. Their servers are also fairly poor. Many people have had problems getting disconnected from Pacific Poker's servers.
The main reason to play at Pacific is the competition. The players are horrible. Everyone is a calling station and some maniacs exist. However, this will skyrocket the frustration level as your premium hands will frequently be cracked. I recommend playing at a lower limit than usual at first because the variance is so much higher here. Home of the worst players on the internet, Pacific Poker is a gem for anyone looking for an easy game."
Regarding Caribbean Sun:
"Caribbean Sun Poker is a fairly popular poker room that has nice ongoing bonuses and promotions. Most of the time, cashouts are fairly standard. However, for your first withdrawal, you need to wait until you receive a PIN, which takes about a week to receive.
You need to know this PIN when you cash out. Thus, if you lose your PIN for whatever reason, you will need to wait for another PIN to be mailed to you. While this is really not a big deal, it can be really annoying if you end up changing addresses and lose your PIN at the same time. My suggestion is to make sure you keep your PIN in a place you remember and to keep your address information updated with them.
There are a lot of Europeans who play this site, and they tend to play more aggressively. This makes some of their play more solid, but many are maniacs."
All in all, I'd agree with both of these reviews. I tried to find something about the 4-week wait I may need to endure to receive my money from Pacific, but I found nothing. Apparently, I should have deposited funds using my Neteller account, rather than the bank draft. Oh, well. I guess you live and learn. One review complained that it took 5 days to complete a withdrawal using Neteller through Pacific Poker, but that's a heck of a last faster than what I'm going to wait.
I'd like to earn my $200 bonus from Party Poker this weekend. We'll see what happens. I'll need to play a lot of poker to earn it.
Daily Sketch: $0
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $580.95
March 24, 2005: Pacific Poker's Bonus
I found the following e-mail in my Inbox this morning:
Dear Steve,
Thank you for playing at Pacific Poker. According to our records, you have a cashout request in process. The details are as follows:
Bank draft, as you requested. Amount = $576.63.
The draft is issued by the bank and sent to the address you submitted during registration. It may take up to 4 weeks for you to receive it. The timeframe includes the actual time it takes for the bank to issue the draft and the postal service to deliver it.
If the funds are not received within the time frame mentioned above or if you require assistance, please contact us and we will investigate.
Regards,
Transaction Department
Pacific Poker
So, it definitely appears that I'll get my $100 sign-up bonus from Pacific Poker, which is included in the $576.63. However, the fact that I may need to wait 4 weeks to get my money is ridiculous. When I put money into my account, the bank draft took less than an hour to clear. However, when the money is going the opposite direction, it takes 4 weeks. Yikes!
When I initiated this withdrawal, I tried to transfer the funds directly into my Neteller account - a process that usually takes a couple days. However, Pacific Poker's software required that I withdraw the funds in a manner consistent with the way the funds were originally deposited - which was through a bank draft. So, I was stuck with this process.
Yet again, I've got another reason to avoid Pacific Poker in the future. Thankfully, I don't need the $576.63 this very moment. However, the fact that they've got a process in place that causes a person to wait a month for their money is ludicrous. When I withdraw money from other sites (i.e. Party Poker or UltimateBet), the money is in my account within 2 days.
Until I see the $576.63 in my hands (or in my bank account), I'm still going to wait to record the $100 bonus in the Sketchbook. After all, this is a cash-basis Sketchbook, and I don't have the cash in my hands yet. After all was said and done, I probably shouldn't complain too much, however. I originally deposited $200 into my Pacific Poker account and I'm withdrawing nearly triple that amount - after playing on the site for only a few weeks. That's a decent return, if I do say so myself.
With all that going on, I jumped back onto Party Poker this evening and played on a couple $3/$6 tables for a little over two hours. Similar to yesterday, my cards were cold and I proceeded to lose exactly $21.50. I won only 7% of the hands I played, which is pretty bad. I actually feel pretty good about losing "only" $21.50, 'cuz the cards didn't want to cooperate.
Daily Sketch: Down $21.50
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $580.95
Dear Steve,
Thank you for playing at Pacific Poker. According to our records, you have a cashout request in process. The details are as follows:
Bank draft, as you requested. Amount = $576.63.
The draft is issued by the bank and sent to the address you submitted during registration. It may take up to 4 weeks for you to receive it. The timeframe includes the actual time it takes for the bank to issue the draft and the postal service to deliver it.
If the funds are not received within the time frame mentioned above or if you require assistance, please contact us and we will investigate.
Regards,
Transaction Department
Pacific Poker
So, it definitely appears that I'll get my $100 sign-up bonus from Pacific Poker, which is included in the $576.63. However, the fact that I may need to wait 4 weeks to get my money is ridiculous. When I put money into my account, the bank draft took less than an hour to clear. However, when the money is going the opposite direction, it takes 4 weeks. Yikes!
When I initiated this withdrawal, I tried to transfer the funds directly into my Neteller account - a process that usually takes a couple days. However, Pacific Poker's software required that I withdraw the funds in a manner consistent with the way the funds were originally deposited - which was through a bank draft. So, I was stuck with this process.
Yet again, I've got another reason to avoid Pacific Poker in the future. Thankfully, I don't need the $576.63 this very moment. However, the fact that they've got a process in place that causes a person to wait a month for their money is ludicrous. When I withdraw money from other sites (i.e. Party Poker or UltimateBet), the money is in my account within 2 days.
Until I see the $576.63 in my hands (or in my bank account), I'm still going to wait to record the $100 bonus in the Sketchbook. After all, this is a cash-basis Sketchbook, and I don't have the cash in my hands yet. After all was said and done, I probably shouldn't complain too much, however. I originally deposited $200 into my Pacific Poker account and I'm withdrawing nearly triple that amount - after playing on the site for only a few weeks. That's a decent return, if I do say so myself.
With all that going on, I jumped back onto Party Poker this evening and played on a couple $3/$6 tables for a little over two hours. Similar to yesterday, my cards were cold and I proceeded to lose exactly $21.50. I won only 7% of the hands I played, which is pretty bad. I actually feel pretty good about losing "only" $21.50, 'cuz the cards didn't want to cooperate.
Daily Sketch: Down $21.50
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $580.95
March 23, 2005: Another Party Poker Reload Bonus
.Party Poker is offering another reload bonus, and it's very difficult to avoid being a Bonus Whore. With all these sites prostituting themselves to me, I can't help myself!
Maximizing the offer, I moved $1,000 into my Party Poker account today. As such, I have 7 days to play 1,400 hands. If I do that, I will earn a free $200. If I play 1,399 hands, I get $0 - which is a little strange - but that's the Party Poker policy. To reach 1,400 hands in the next week, I'll need to play A LOT of poker this weekend, but I suppose that shouldn't be a problem. I don't have any solid plans for Saturday or Sunday, and the extra $200 will be a nice contribution towards the impending honeymoon (scheduled to commence on April 9th).
I started my quest for 1,400 hands tonight. I spent 4 hours simultaneously playing a couple 10-man $3/$6 tables and couldn't get anything to work. It's amazing at the number of people holding Qc 8c who will call a preflop raise and chase their flush all the way to the river. Unfortunately, I was the victim of some of the chasers who hit their cards. All told, I lost exactly $56 while playing 364 raked hands.
At least I put a nice dent into the 1,400 hands. Still, I would have rather won some money tonight. Oh, well.
Daily Sketch: Down $56
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $602.45
March 22, 2005: Playing on UltimateBet
.After spending a decent amount of time on Caribbean Sun and Pacific Poker the past couple weeks, it was refreshing to spend 90 minutes on a couple 10-man $2/$4 tables on UltimateBet this evening. If nothing else, UltimateBet has the fastest poker software I've ever played. The pace of play is quick and it's VERY easy to play two tables at once. In fact, it's significantly easier to simultaneously play a couple tables on UltimateBet than any other poker software that's currently available. UltimateBet has a nice feature that allows you to shrink a table in such a way that you can actually fit three tables on your screen at once. I wasn't that ambitious tonight, however, so I "settled" for playing two tables at once.
All told, I won $67 while playing tonight. At the same time, I also earned $17.82 in bonus bucks, so the Sketchbook shows a decent profit of $84.82 today.
Daily Sketch: Up $84.82
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $658.45
March 21, 2005: Where's My PIN Number?
Well . . . I finally earned my $40 bonus from Caribbean Sun Poker this evening. Unfortunately, I lost $44.89 while earning my $40 bonus. Ugh!!
To top things off, I learned that I need a PIN number to withdraw money from my Caribbean Sun Poker account. Apparently, that PIN number was mailed to me last October (when I originally opened my account), but I've since discarded it. Doh!
So, I sent an e-mail to Caribbean Sun asking them to resend my PIN number so that I can claim the $290 sitting in my account. It's going to take 5-15 days to get that PIN, so I won't see my money before then. At least I don't have $1k sitting in my account, but I'd still like to get my money ASAP. In the meantime, I can't uninstall the software from my computer until I get that PIN and until I initiate my withdrawal from the account. Ugh!!
On another note, no news is good news - as far as I'm concerned. After initiating a full withdrawal of the funds in my Pacific Poker account on Saturday, I still haven't heard anything back from them. According to their software, it takes 4-5 days to complete a withdrawal, so I don't expect to see the money in my checking account until later this week. Still, I believe that I would have already received an e-mail if the transaction was going to be denied, so I believe that I'm going to get my pending $100 sign-up bonus. I've got $575 in that account, so I'm eager to see that money.
After all is said and done, the Sketchbook records a very tiny loss tonight. I'm eager to uninstall Caribbean Sun and Pacific Poker from my computer, so I hope I get their respective funds relatively soon. In the meantime, you'll probably find me playing UltimateBet tomorrow night. I've got a pending $90 bonus that I need to start earning!
Daily Sketch: Down $4.89
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $573.63
To top things off, I learned that I need a PIN number to withdraw money from my Caribbean Sun Poker account. Apparently, that PIN number was mailed to me last October (when I originally opened my account), but I've since discarded it. Doh!
So, I sent an e-mail to Caribbean Sun asking them to resend my PIN number so that I can claim the $290 sitting in my account. It's going to take 5-15 days to get that PIN, so I won't see my money before then. At least I don't have $1k sitting in my account, but I'd still like to get my money ASAP. In the meantime, I can't uninstall the software from my computer until I get that PIN and until I initiate my withdrawal from the account. Ugh!!
On another note, no news is good news - as far as I'm concerned. After initiating a full withdrawal of the funds in my Pacific Poker account on Saturday, I still haven't heard anything back from them. According to their software, it takes 4-5 days to complete a withdrawal, so I don't expect to see the money in my checking account until later this week. Still, I believe that I would have already received an e-mail if the transaction was going to be denied, so I believe that I'm going to get my pending $100 sign-up bonus. I've got $575 in that account, so I'm eager to see that money.
After all is said and done, the Sketchbook records a very tiny loss tonight. I'm eager to uninstall Caribbean Sun and Pacific Poker from my computer, so I hope I get their respective funds relatively soon. In the meantime, you'll probably find me playing UltimateBet tomorrow night. I've got a pending $90 bonus that I need to start earning!
Daily Sketch: Down $4.89
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $573.63
March 20, 2005: Chasing $40
Today's objective was simple: Play 134 raked hands on Caribbean Sun Poker and earn my $40 monthly bonus. At the most, I figured that it would take 2 1/2 hours to play 134 raked hands.
Starting at 1:00pm, I played poker on Caribbean for 3 hours. During that time, I played with an assortment of players from (among other places) Quebec, Naples, Hvidovre, London, Vineland, Cumbria, Farnham, Copenhagen, Westmids, Bogswaerd, and Athens. As I described yesterday, the players on Caribbean have an international flavor. Occassionally, someone from San Francisco or New York jumped onto my table, but most of the players I faced were from abroad.
After three hours, the $40 hadn't been credited to my account, so I contacted Customer Support (via live webmail). I was told that I had reached 441 raked hands, and that I still needed to play 59 more hands to earn my $40 bonus. Apparently, Caribbean doesn't count raked hands the same way EVERY other site counts raked hands, because I DEFINITELY played more than 75 raked hands during my three hours of action.
Disgusted with my lack of progress, I stayed on the site for another 90 minutes. Upon contacting customer support (again), I was told that I needed to call an '800' number if I wanted to keep receiving raked hand updates. I questioned the validity of the counting of raked hands by this site, and I was ignored. Really disgusted with where this was heading, I kept playing for another 30 minutes, but I still didn't reach 500 raked hands.
All told, I played on Caribbean for 5 hours and didn't play 134 raked hands - according to their screwy system. If nothing else, today's debacle illustrates that their monthly $40 bonus is a sham. I've probably played 12 hours of poker on their site this month, and I still haven't earned the $40 bonus. That's ridiculous!
Tomorrow night, I'm going to jump back onto the site and play until I earn this elusive $40. Hopefully, it doesn't take long. Assuming that I continued to play at a rate of 25 raked hands/hr, I should be less than a dozen raked hands away from hitting 500. After earning the $40, I'm taking all my money out of the account and permanently uninstalling the Caribbean software from my computer. While the $40 recurring monthly bonus sounds nice, the requirement that you play over 12 hours of poker to earn that $40 is preposterous.
Oh, yeah. I almost forgot. While playing poker for 5 hours, I made exactly $43.25. It's not exactly a windfall, but it's something. If I hafta play 3 hours of poker to earn my $40 tomorrow night, I think I'm going to strangle someone at Caribbean Sun Poker.
Daily Sketch: Up $43.25
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $578.52
Starting at 1:00pm, I played poker on Caribbean for 3 hours. During that time, I played with an assortment of players from (among other places) Quebec, Naples, Hvidovre, London, Vineland, Cumbria, Farnham, Copenhagen, Westmids, Bogswaerd, and Athens. As I described yesterday, the players on Caribbean have an international flavor. Occassionally, someone from San Francisco or New York jumped onto my table, but most of the players I faced were from abroad.
After three hours, the $40 hadn't been credited to my account, so I contacted Customer Support (via live webmail). I was told that I had reached 441 raked hands, and that I still needed to play 59 more hands to earn my $40 bonus. Apparently, Caribbean doesn't count raked hands the same way EVERY other site counts raked hands, because I DEFINITELY played more than 75 raked hands during my three hours of action.
Disgusted with my lack of progress, I stayed on the site for another 90 minutes. Upon contacting customer support (again), I was told that I needed to call an '800' number if I wanted to keep receiving raked hand updates. I questioned the validity of the counting of raked hands by this site, and I was ignored. Really disgusted with where this was heading, I kept playing for another 30 minutes, but I still didn't reach 500 raked hands.
All told, I played on Caribbean for 5 hours and didn't play 134 raked hands - according to their screwy system. If nothing else, today's debacle illustrates that their monthly $40 bonus is a sham. I've probably played 12 hours of poker on their site this month, and I still haven't earned the $40 bonus. That's ridiculous!
Tomorrow night, I'm going to jump back onto the site and play until I earn this elusive $40. Hopefully, it doesn't take long. Assuming that I continued to play at a rate of 25 raked hands/hr, I should be less than a dozen raked hands away from hitting 500. After earning the $40, I'm taking all my money out of the account and permanently uninstalling the Caribbean software from my computer. While the $40 recurring monthly bonus sounds nice, the requirement that you play over 12 hours of poker to earn that $40 is preposterous.
Oh, yeah. I almost forgot. While playing poker for 5 hours, I made exactly $43.25. It's not exactly a windfall, but it's something. If I hafta play 3 hours of poker to earn my $40 tomorrow night, I think I'm going to strangle someone at Caribbean Sun Poker.
Daily Sketch: Up $43.25
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $578.52
March 19, 2005: Hopping Around
While watching NCAA Tournament games today, I hopped around the internet and played on various poker sites. Because I love watching NCAA Tourney games, I played low-limit poker games, 'cuz I didn't want to be overly distracted from the television.
I started my day on Party Poker. Playing on a 6-man $1/$2 table, I won $12.75 in a little over 30 minutes. There were a couple particularly poor players ripping into each other, but I couldn't seem to catch the cards necessary to take advantage. I would have liked to stay on Party, but I'm not chasing a bonus on that site and other bonuses are waiting . . .
Next, I hopped on Pacific Poker and played on a 10-man $3/$6 table for 60 minutes and won exactly $1.50. I was down most of the session, but I hit a nice flush on my last hand and escaped with a very modest profit. At the end of my session, I attempted to withdraw all the funds in my account - including my $100 sign-up bonus. The last time I made such a request (two weeks ago), I received an e-mail letting me know that I couldn't withdraw the bonus bucks because I hadn't played enough hands. That e-mail took 24 hours to deliver, so we'll see if I hear anything over the next day or two. I don't know if I've played enough hands yet, but I'm sure that Pacific Poker will let me know. If I'm allowed to withdraw all the funds, that'll be a nice $100 positive entry for the Sketchbook.
Then, I decided to visit UltimateBet. Since making a deposit earlier this week, I haven't invaded the site and, as such, I still have a pending $100 bonus. I played for 45 minutes on UltimateBet and proceeded to lose $17.25 on a 10-man $2/$4 table. At the same time, I earned $8.62 of my bonus, so my session on UltimateBet resulted in a net loss of $8.63. Unlike every other site I've visited, UltimateBet slowly pays back their bonuses - rather than waiting to pay it off in one lump sum.
Finally, I spent most of my day playing on a 6-man $1/$2 table on Carribean Sun. After playing for a couple hours, I found myself ahead $56.75 and thought that I had played enough poker to earn my monthly $40 bonus. However, after contacting Customer Support, I learned that I still need to play 134 raked hands on Caribbean to earn my bonus. I guess that I'll make it my goal to play 134 raked hands tomorrow afternoon and earn my $40 bonus.
The play on Caribbean Poker has a definite international flair. At one point, I was playing with five players from these five cities: Cork, Falkirk, Herts, Mansfield, and Kelowna. I'm not a geography major, but I'm pretty certain that none of these cities can be found in the good ol' USA. Every other poker site has players primarily hailing from America, but Caribbean Poker seems to appeal to a lot of foreigners. In fact, Caribbean actually offers tables that allow you to play for Euros - rather than American dollars. Perhaps I'll try that sometime soon!
After all was said and done, I played on four different poker sites this afternoon and recorded a small profit while watching all the exciting NCAA Tourney action.
Daily Sketch: Up $62.37
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $535.27
I started my day on Party Poker. Playing on a 6-man $1/$2 table, I won $12.75 in a little over 30 minutes. There were a couple particularly poor players ripping into each other, but I couldn't seem to catch the cards necessary to take advantage. I would have liked to stay on Party, but I'm not chasing a bonus on that site and other bonuses are waiting . . .
Next, I hopped on Pacific Poker and played on a 10-man $3/$6 table for 60 minutes and won exactly $1.50. I was down most of the session, but I hit a nice flush on my last hand and escaped with a very modest profit. At the end of my session, I attempted to withdraw all the funds in my account - including my $100 sign-up bonus. The last time I made such a request (two weeks ago), I received an e-mail letting me know that I couldn't withdraw the bonus bucks because I hadn't played enough hands. That e-mail took 24 hours to deliver, so we'll see if I hear anything over the next day or two. I don't know if I've played enough hands yet, but I'm sure that Pacific Poker will let me know. If I'm allowed to withdraw all the funds, that'll be a nice $100 positive entry for the Sketchbook.
Then, I decided to visit UltimateBet. Since making a deposit earlier this week, I haven't invaded the site and, as such, I still have a pending $100 bonus. I played for 45 minutes on UltimateBet and proceeded to lose $17.25 on a 10-man $2/$4 table. At the same time, I earned $8.62 of my bonus, so my session on UltimateBet resulted in a net loss of $8.63. Unlike every other site I've visited, UltimateBet slowly pays back their bonuses - rather than waiting to pay it off in one lump sum.
Finally, I spent most of my day playing on a 6-man $1/$2 table on Carribean Sun. After playing for a couple hours, I found myself ahead $56.75 and thought that I had played enough poker to earn my monthly $40 bonus. However, after contacting Customer Support, I learned that I still need to play 134 raked hands on Caribbean to earn my bonus. I guess that I'll make it my goal to play 134 raked hands tomorrow afternoon and earn my $40 bonus.
The play on Caribbean Poker has a definite international flair. At one point, I was playing with five players from these five cities: Cork, Falkirk, Herts, Mansfield, and Kelowna. I'm not a geography major, but I'm pretty certain that none of these cities can be found in the good ol' USA. Every other poker site has players primarily hailing from America, but Caribbean Poker seems to appeal to a lot of foreigners. In fact, Caribbean actually offers tables that allow you to play for Euros - rather than American dollars. Perhaps I'll try that sometime soon!
After all was said and done, I played on four different poker sites this afternoon and recorded a small profit while watching all the exciting NCAA Tourney action.
Daily Sketch: Up $62.37
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $535.27
March 18, 2005: New Deposit Increase Update
I received the following e-mail today:
Dear Steve,
We'd like to take a moment to thank you for choosing to play poker at UltimateBet. We know you have a choice and we sincerely appreciate your being part of our online poker community.
We also want to let you know that as of March 16th 2005, the deposit limits for you poker account have increased. Your new limits are as follows:
Week (Old Limit): $8,000 Week (New Limit): $10,000
Month (Old Limit): $16,000 Month (New Limit): $25,000
Thank you again for choosing UltimateBet. We hope you have fun at the tables!
Sincerely,
Caitlyn
Woo Hoo!! I didn't know that I was previously subject to any spending limits, but it's comforting to know that I can lose $10,000 in a week (or $25,000 in a month) without UltimateBet cutting me off.
Wouldn't that be an ugly Sketchbook entry? "Today I went on tilt and proceeded to lose $10,000 while playing on UltimateBet." The simple fact that UltimateBet feels compelled to send out this e-mail confirms that people must really lose their shirts while playing on-line poker. Yikes!
Anyway, with the NCAA Tournament in full swing, I took a day off from poker. It felt good to lie around the house this evening and watch college basketball without worrying about losing a big pot to some joker chasing a gut-shot straight.
Daily Sketch: $0
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $472.90
Dear Steve,
We'd like to take a moment to thank you for choosing to play poker at UltimateBet. We know you have a choice and we sincerely appreciate your being part of our online poker community.
We also want to let you know that as of March 16th 2005, the deposit limits for you poker account have increased. Your new limits are as follows:
Week (Old Limit): $8,000 Week (New Limit): $10,000
Month (Old Limit): $16,000 Month (New Limit): $25,000
Thank you again for choosing UltimateBet. We hope you have fun at the tables!
Sincerely,
Caitlyn
Woo Hoo!! I didn't know that I was previously subject to any spending limits, but it's comforting to know that I can lose $10,000 in a week (or $25,000 in a month) without UltimateBet cutting me off.
Wouldn't that be an ugly Sketchbook entry? "Today I went on tilt and proceeded to lose $10,000 while playing on UltimateBet." The simple fact that UltimateBet feels compelled to send out this e-mail confirms that people must really lose their shirts while playing on-line poker. Yikes!
Anyway, with the NCAA Tournament in full swing, I took a day off from poker. It felt good to lie around the house this evening and watch college basketball without worrying about losing a big pot to some joker chasing a gut-shot straight.
Daily Sketch: $0
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $472.90
March 17, 2005: The NCAA Tournament - Opening Day
The NCAA Tournament started today. I spent $10 to join Jim's pool and I spent $15 in my own pool. So, all told, I'm spending $25 and the expenditure gets recorded in today's Sketchbook.
Between the afternoon and night games, I played poker for 30 minutes on a 6-man $1/$2 table on Party Poker and won a whopping $5.25. Woo Hoo!!
Daily Sketch: Down $19.75
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $472.90
Between the afternoon and night games, I played poker for 30 minutes on a 6-man $1/$2 table on Party Poker and won a whopping $5.25. Woo Hoo!!
Daily Sketch: Down $19.75
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $472.90
March 16, 2005: A Bonus Whore
.A few days ago, I received an e-mail from UltimateBet announcing a Reload Bonus. Since I've been playing Caribbean and Pacific Poker the past two weeks chasing their respective bonuses, I found UltimateBet's offer intriguing.
UltimateBet is offering a 25% bonus (up to $100) for anyone who deposits money into an account by the end of the day tomorrow (March 17th). As such, I immediately transferred $400 (from Partypoker) into UltimateBet and was immediately credited with a $100 bonus that I can start earning immediately. I haven't played on UltimateBet in quite some time, but I really like the site. In fact, after Party Poker, UltimateBet is my favorite on-line poker site.
So, as it stands, I've got three bonuses pending. I need to play approximately 150 more hands on Caribbean Sun to earn their $40 bonus. I've also got Pacific Poker's $100 bonus pending - but I don't know how much more poker I need to play to earn that bonus. Now, I've got UltimateBet's $100 pending bonus. I think I'm becoming a Bonus Whore!
Before I jump into UltimateBet, I'd like to earn Caribbean's bonus and simultaneously make a run at Pacific's bonus. Unfortunately, I don't believe that I'll know if I've earned Pacific's bonus until I attempt to withdraw my bonus dollars from their account. That's a bit distressing.
With Theresa out of the house for a couple hours tonight, I decided to jump on a 10-man $5/$10 table on Pacific Poker. All told, I played poker for a little over 2 hours.
The first hour was a miserable poker experience as I proceeded to lose the first 37 hands I played. I got ZERO cards and, as a result, I won ZERO hands. I was down exactly $117 when I (foolishly) decided to jump into a hand with 5s 6s. Jumping into a hand with 5s 6s isn't necessarily foolish, except for the fact that I was under-the-gun (aka first to act). Thankfully, no one raised my bet and I proceeded to flop two pair. After scooping the pot, I was "only" down $50, and I was feeling a little better about things - despite my poor preflop play.
Unfortunately, my good feeling didn't last very long. After winning my 38th hand, I proceeded to lose the next 25 hands. Ugh!! Finally, 26 hands after winning my only pot of the night, I scooped my 2nd pot of the night when my AK struck gold and I took home a decent pot with a full house. Still, I was down $65 after that hand. Sadly, I felt pretty good being down only $65.
My bad luck continued and I proceeded to lose my next 17 hands. At that point, I had been playing for two hours and I had won 2 of the 81 hands I had been dealt. That is a poor winning percentage! I was down $143.50 and cursing my luck. My 82nd hand became the hand of the night:
HAND OF THE NIGHT:
Preflop: Jsm9028 posts small blind ($2). Schlomo5 posts big blind ($5). DDudley posts big blind ($5) and adds $2 to the pot for missing the blinds (he had been disconnected last time around). Green108 calls the $5 bet. Bonaber & Zocalo fold. TnT112 & Manzcue call. Matman1 folds. DDudley checks the bet. I'm last to act.
I'm holding Kc Qc. I raise the bet to $10 and everyone who's still in the hand calls my raise. After the rake is taken, there is $69 in the pot and 7 of us see the flop.
Flop: Js 8c Ac.
Jsm9028 bets $5. Shlomo5 folds. Green108 and TnT112 call. Manzcue and DDudley fold. I'm holding 4 clubs to the nut flush, so I raise to $10. Jsm9028 re-raises to $15. Green108 folds and TnT112 calls. I also call. There is $134 in the pot and 3 of us see the turn.
Turn: 2c.
Jsm9028 bets $10. TnT112 goes "all in" with his last $4. Holding the nut flush, I raise to $20. Jsm9028 calls my bet. Two of us await the river. There is $178 in the pot.
River: 9d
Jsm9028 checks. I've got him! I bet $10 - knowing full well that I can't be beaten. Jsm9028 calls my bet and I scoop the $198 pot. Woo Hoo!!
Just like that, I'm up $54.50. Five hands later (when it's my turn to post the big blind), I leave the table with a profit. Despite the fact that I played poker for a little over 2 hours and won only 3 of the 87 hands I played this evening, I made money. Amazing! Nearly as amazing, I won the exact same amount of cash that I won last night. Maybe that's not amazing, but it's interesting.
Unfortunately, due to the fact that Pacific Poker sucks, I never learned what my two opponents were holding. I'm curious, but I'll never know. I asked Jsm9028, but he never responded. He must've been holding AA, JJ, or AJ - but I can't know for sure. Oh, well. Tough luck for him. :-)
Daily Sketch: Up $54.50
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $492.65
March 15, 2005: One Hour of $2/$4
While Theresa watched American Idol in our living room (yuck!), I played on two 10-man $2/$4 tables on Party Poker in the other room. I did pretty well and finished the hour with a tidy profit of $54.50. Considering the fact that I lost three separate hands holding KK and JJ (twice), I feel pretty good about tonight's winnings.
Daily Sketch: Up $54.50
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $438.15
Daily Sketch: Up $54.50
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $438.15
March 14, 2005: Poker at Joe's
I visited Joe's house for an exciting evening of cards and lively discussion. After all was said and done, I had to rely on my memories of lively discussion, because I came out exactly even tonight. Without trying, I was able to play 3 1/2 hours of poker and I finished the night with the exact same amount of cash that I started with. That's hard to do!
Daily Sketch: $0
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $383.65
Daily Sketch: $0
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $383.65
March 13, 2005: The Long Journey Towards Breakeven
I didn't have a particularly good time sitting at my computer today. Most of the day involved an uphill struggle towards breaking even - something that can be really exhausting (and not much fun).
I started my day by joining a 6-man $1/$2 table on Party Poker. Playing for 20 minutes, I lost $24.78. Most of my losses accumulated on a hand that saw a flop of 2-2-2. Holding 10-10, I thought I had a good hand until my opponent revealed A-2 underneath. Ugh!
After playing the minimum number of hands that would allow me to be credited with playing on Party, I spent the rest of my day on a 10-man $5/$10 table on Pacific Poker - the home of the slowest tables on the net. Personally speaking, I can't wait to earn my $100 bonus so that I can move on to another site. Besides the fact that my computer must've "bombed" four times this afternoon, waiting for slowly-dealt cards dealt can be rather annoying.
My initial 30 minutes on Pacific were UGLY UGLY UGLY (did I say UGLY?). I got some nice cards, but I lost some big pots to opponents who hit even nicer cards. All told, I was down $240 before I knew what happened. I won't go into the details, but I lost two of the pots on miracle river cards that my opponents hit. Down exactly $264.78 for the day, I was ready to throw my computer monitor onto the floor - especially when my 4-of-a-kind lost to a bigger 4-of-a-kind (3's vs. 6's).
For the next 2 hours, I did everything I could to grind my way back. I tightened my game A LOT and slowly started the climb back towards even. I never seemed to scoop a monster pot, but I started to win some smaller pots. It was an exhausting battle that I didn't enjoy. At 4:45pm (minutes before the NCAA selection show was scheduled to start), I won a $58 pot that actually gave me a small profit on Pacific. When I won that hand, a sigh of great relief escaped from my lips and I immediately logged out of the software.
After all was said and done, I lost exactly $16.53 while playing poker today. However, considering the fact that I was down over $250 early this afternoon, I consider my small loss to be a bit of a gain. I still don't know how much poker I need to play on Pacific to earn the $100 first-time deposit bonus, but (hopefully) it'll be relatively soon. I suppose that I shouldn't complain too much (I did take a small profit from the site today), but I prefer Party Poker WAY MORE than Pacific Poker.
By the way, my NCAA Tournament Pool is underway. If you want to play, check out the website.
Daily Sketch: Down $16.53
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $383.65
I started my day by joining a 6-man $1/$2 table on Party Poker. Playing for 20 minutes, I lost $24.78. Most of my losses accumulated on a hand that saw a flop of 2-2-2. Holding 10-10, I thought I had a good hand until my opponent revealed A-2 underneath. Ugh!
After playing the minimum number of hands that would allow me to be credited with playing on Party, I spent the rest of my day on a 10-man $5/$10 table on Pacific Poker - the home of the slowest tables on the net. Personally speaking, I can't wait to earn my $100 bonus so that I can move on to another site. Besides the fact that my computer must've "bombed" four times this afternoon, waiting for slowly-dealt cards dealt can be rather annoying.
My initial 30 minutes on Pacific were UGLY UGLY UGLY (did I say UGLY?). I got some nice cards, but I lost some big pots to opponents who hit even nicer cards. All told, I was down $240 before I knew what happened. I won't go into the details, but I lost two of the pots on miracle river cards that my opponents hit. Down exactly $264.78 for the day, I was ready to throw my computer monitor onto the floor - especially when my 4-of-a-kind lost to a bigger 4-of-a-kind (3's vs. 6's).
For the next 2 hours, I did everything I could to grind my way back. I tightened my game A LOT and slowly started the climb back towards even. I never seemed to scoop a monster pot, but I started to win some smaller pots. It was an exhausting battle that I didn't enjoy. At 4:45pm (minutes before the NCAA selection show was scheduled to start), I won a $58 pot that actually gave me a small profit on Pacific. When I won that hand, a sigh of great relief escaped from my lips and I immediately logged out of the software.
After all was said and done, I lost exactly $16.53 while playing poker today. However, considering the fact that I was down over $250 early this afternoon, I consider my small loss to be a bit of a gain. I still don't know how much poker I need to play on Pacific to earn the $100 first-time deposit bonus, but (hopefully) it'll be relatively soon. I suppose that I shouldn't complain too much (I did take a small profit from the site today), but I prefer Party Poker WAY MORE than Pacific Poker.
By the way, my NCAA Tournament Pool is underway. If you want to play, check out the website.
Daily Sketch: Down $16.53
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $383.65
March 12, 2005: My Birthday
Happy birthday to me! I thought I'd share an e-mail I received:
Hi Steve.
May the cards play well in your hands.
May the dice all roll your way.
And may great luck be with you,
On your special day, today!
Enjoy your day!
From all of us at the Sands of the Caribbean. May you be happy, lucky, and well on your birthday - and every day.
Sincerely,
The Entire Casino Staff
The Sands of the Caribbean Online Casino
I think I'm gonna cry.
Anyway, I moved $100 into my Caribbean Sun Poker account this morning and played on a 6-man $2/$4 table for about 90 minutes. I didn't make a lot of progress, however, and netted a relatively small profit of $33.33. I guess that's better than losing. It's also better than yesterday's performance, so I suppose that I shouldn't be too disappointed.
The rest of the day was devoted to birthday activities - and those activities didn't involve gambling. So, the Sketchbook is pretty boring today, although the poem certainly spices things up, doesn't it?
Daily Sketch: Up $33.33
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $400.18
Hi Steve.
May the cards play well in your hands.
May the dice all roll your way.
And may great luck be with you,
On your special day, today!
Enjoy your day!
From all of us at the Sands of the Caribbean. May you be happy, lucky, and well on your birthday - and every day.
Sincerely,
The Entire Casino Staff
The Sands of the Caribbean Online Casino
I think I'm gonna cry.
Anyway, I moved $100 into my Caribbean Sun Poker account this morning and played on a 6-man $2/$4 table for about 90 minutes. I didn't make a lot of progress, however, and netted a relatively small profit of $33.33. I guess that's better than losing. It's also better than yesterday's performance, so I suppose that I shouldn't be too disappointed.
The rest of the day was devoted to birthday activities - and those activities didn't involve gambling. So, the Sketchbook is pretty boring today, although the poem certainly spices things up, doesn't it?
Daily Sketch: Up $33.33
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $400.18
March 11, 2005: Caribbean Sun Poker
.Last summer, I established an account at Caribbean Sun's on-line poker room. More than anything else, I like Caribbean Sun because they offer a recurring $40 bonus to anyone who plays 500 raked hands on their site during any calendar month. I took advantage of the offer and earned a "free" $80 last summer.
However, for various reasons, I wandered away from Caribbean Sun and haven't taken advantage of the $40 bonus in quite some time. Tonight, however, I decided to reaquaint myself with Caribbean Sun Poker.
Entering the night, I had planned on transferring $100 into my Caribbean account (from my Party Poker account) and thought I'd play on a 6-man $1/$2 hold 'em table. However, when I logged into the Caribbean Sun software, I was surprised to see that I already had $91 in my account. Apparently, I forgot to clean this account out last summer, so I essentially "found" the unclaimed $91 still sitting in my account. Woo Hoo!
Too many times to count in the past, I've discovered "free" money while doing my laundry - especially when I visited the local drinking emporiums regularly. I'd pull my clothes out of the dryer and discover wads of dollar bills that I had thrown into my pockets and forgotten all about. Numerous times, I made money at the laundromat, as my findings would exceed the cost of the quarters I poured into the machines. For quite a stretch (when I visited A LOT of drinking emporiums), doing laundry was a cash cow!
Anyway, I never found anything close to $91 when doing my laundry, so tonight's bonanza is probably my biggest discovery of "free" money. I won't record a positive $91 Sketchbook entry for the discovery, but I'm still happy to find the money in my account.
Armed with the extra cash, I decided to jump onto a 6-man $2/$4 table with my "free" money. Ninety minutes later, I had lost all of my "free" money while playing approximately 125 hands. Ooops!! I caught an inordinate number of four-card flushes (after the flop), but I proceeded to miss an inordinate number of five-card flushes. That translated into a nightly deficit of $91 on Caribbean Sun.
With my Caribbean cash account completely depleted, I ventured into Pacific Poker and played on a 10-man $5/$10 table while watching the Badgers play Ohio State on TV. During my first 15 minutes on Pacific, I proceeded to lose another $114 and found myself staring at a nightly deficit of $205. Ugh!! However, I slowly (yet surely) started to grind out some victories and eventually won exactly $30 while playing on Pacific for two hours. At the same time, the Badgers came out victorious, so I was feeling pretty good about things. If nothing else, Pacific's exceedingly slow software allowed me to watch 98% of the Badger game. After folding a hand, I usually didn't need to look back at my computer for a minute or two before worrying about the next hand.
After the Badger game ended, I decided to visit Party Poker for a few minutes. If nothing else, I simply wanted to play 20 raked hands. A couple months ago, Party started awarding Player Points to frequent players. To earn any daily points, however, you need to play 20 raked hands. So, down $61 for the night, I jumped on a 6-man $1/$2 table on Party.
For the next 45 minutes, I caught some nice cards. All told, I won $56 while playing on the $1/$2 table. I played more than 20 raked hands, but I couldn't leave while I was winning, right?
Eventually, my cards started to cool down, so I thought I'd quit - just short of making up the $61 I had lost previously tonight. Considering the fact that I was down $205 at one point, I'm quite happy to only lose $5 on the poker tables. Then, considering the fact that I found $91 in my Caribbean Sun account, I actually netted ahead. The Sketchbook will show a $5 loss - since that's what I lost while gambling - but my poker "portfolio" saw a little profit tonight.
Daily Sketch: Down $5
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $366.85
March 10, 2005: Poker at Joe's
Tonight, I played poker for 3 1/2 hours at Joe's house with nine other guys After 2 1/2 hours, I was down $16.50 and I was getting ready to rebuy in (I had bought in for $20). However, over the last hour, my cards started to improve and I finished the night with a profit of exactly $10. It could have been larger, except that Joe hit a miracle gut-shot straight on the last hand of the night and he scooped a $20 pot. I had flopped a set of 6's and I was feeling pretty good about things, but a river 7 was all Joe needed to scoop the chips.
Daily Sketch: Up $10
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $371.85
Daily Sketch: Up $10
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $371.85
March 9, 2005: Swimming Back in the Pacific
Guess what? I spoke too soon yesterday. When I arrived at work this morning, I saw that the money that was in my Neteller account (yesterday) was now gone. Experiencing a moment of panic, I found the following e-mail in my inbox:
Dear Steve,
This is Isabel P. from the operations department at Cassava LTD. Cassava operates Pacific Poker.
Our bonus policy states that that Pacific Poker reserves the right to withhold the amount of the bonus from a player's cashout funds if the bonus wagered is less than the required amount. Your game history shows that you requested a cash-out of your bonus without wagering the appropriate bonus funds.
Hence, your current cash-out has been reversed and your funds have been returned to your current bankroll. From there, you will be required to wager the appropriate amount of funds before receiving your bonus.
Kindly be advised that failure to wager the bonuses according to the Bonus Policy could lead to your cashouts being transferred back to your bankroll again or possibly even termination of your account.
To enjoy all benefits of your membership, kindly follow all our policies, which you may find in the Help Section of our website.
Regards,
Isabel P.
Operations Department
Cassava LTD.
After getting home from work, I had to download the Pacific Poker software (again) and found my Pacific Poker account full of the money that I had attempted to cash-out yesterday. I guess that I'm going to hafta tolerate this software for a couple weeks to earn my $100. If I proceed to lose more than $100 while chasing this bonus, I'm going to be EXTREMELY annoyed.
Thus, as I entered tonight's world of on-line poker, the Sketchbook had already taken a $100 hit - as a result of recording a $100 gain in yesterday's Sketchbook or the bonus. I wasn't planning on playing tonight, but I couldn't rest on my laurels with a $100 deficit staring me in the face!
So, I jumped onto a 10-man $2/$4 table on Pacific Poker. For 90 minutes, I made little headway and folded bunches of hands. All told, I lost $15. If nothing else, the players at Pacific Poker seem rather loose and anytime you catch a big hand, you seem to win a big pot. Unfortunately, I couldn't catch many big hands and found myself wearing out the "fold" button.
After 90 minutes, I was getting bored. As mentioned in a previous post, Pacific does not allow for multi-table play. Coupled with the fact that the software is noticeably slower than Party Poker, it makes these low-stakes games rather boring - primarily 'cuz the actions seems VERY SLOW.
In an effort to "juice" things up, I jumped onto a 10-man $5/$10 table to take my chances. For the next 15 minutes, I caught some nice cards. In fact, the last three hands I played, I was dealt JJ, 88, & JJ (again) - in succession. On my first pair of Jacks, no overcard appeared on the board and I scooped a nice pot. While holding 88, the flop came A-Q-9 and I folded to a bet. An '8' that appeared on the river would have been my savior, and I would have scooped a nice pot. On my final JJ, the flop came 2-3-J and I scooped another nice pot with my 3-of-a-kind.
During those 15 minutes, I made a quick $119 - easily offsetting the $15 I lost on the $2/$4 table. Up $104 at the poker tables, I decided to retire for the night.
So, despite the fact that I need to "reverse" the $100 bonus I recorded in yesterday's Sketchbook, the $104 I won tonight allows me to record a small profit today. I'll take it! I've still got a $100 bonus pending in my Pacific Poker account, so all's well that ends well.
Daily Sketch: Up $4
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $361.85
Dear Steve,
This is Isabel P. from the operations department at Cassava LTD. Cassava operates Pacific Poker.
Our bonus policy states that that Pacific Poker reserves the right to withhold the amount of the bonus from a player's cashout funds if the bonus wagered is less than the required amount. Your game history shows that you requested a cash-out of your bonus without wagering the appropriate bonus funds.
Hence, your current cash-out has been reversed and your funds have been returned to your current bankroll. From there, you will be required to wager the appropriate amount of funds before receiving your bonus.
Kindly be advised that failure to wager the bonuses according to the Bonus Policy could lead to your cashouts being transferred back to your bankroll again or possibly even termination of your account.
To enjoy all benefits of your membership, kindly follow all our policies, which you may find in the Help Section of our website.
Regards,
Isabel P.
Operations Department
Cassava LTD.
After getting home from work, I had to download the Pacific Poker software (again) and found my Pacific Poker account full of the money that I had attempted to cash-out yesterday. I guess that I'm going to hafta tolerate this software for a couple weeks to earn my $100. If I proceed to lose more than $100 while chasing this bonus, I'm going to be EXTREMELY annoyed.
Thus, as I entered tonight's world of on-line poker, the Sketchbook had already taken a $100 hit - as a result of recording a $100 gain in yesterday's Sketchbook or the bonus. I wasn't planning on playing tonight, but I couldn't rest on my laurels with a $100 deficit staring me in the face!
So, I jumped onto a 10-man $2/$4 table on Pacific Poker. For 90 minutes, I made little headway and folded bunches of hands. All told, I lost $15. If nothing else, the players at Pacific Poker seem rather loose and anytime you catch a big hand, you seem to win a big pot. Unfortunately, I couldn't catch many big hands and found myself wearing out the "fold" button.
After 90 minutes, I was getting bored. As mentioned in a previous post, Pacific does not allow for multi-table play. Coupled with the fact that the software is noticeably slower than Party Poker, it makes these low-stakes games rather boring - primarily 'cuz the actions seems VERY SLOW.
In an effort to "juice" things up, I jumped onto a 10-man $5/$10 table to take my chances. For the next 15 minutes, I caught some nice cards. In fact, the last three hands I played, I was dealt JJ, 88, & JJ (again) - in succession. On my first pair of Jacks, no overcard appeared on the board and I scooped a nice pot. While holding 88, the flop came A-Q-9 and I folded to a bet. An '8' that appeared on the river would have been my savior, and I would have scooped a nice pot. On my final JJ, the flop came 2-3-J and I scooped another nice pot with my 3-of-a-kind.
During those 15 minutes, I made a quick $119 - easily offsetting the $15 I lost on the $2/$4 table. Up $104 at the poker tables, I decided to retire for the night.
So, despite the fact that I need to "reverse" the $100 bonus I recorded in yesterday's Sketchbook, the $104 I won tonight allows me to record a small profit today. I'll take it! I've still got a $100 bonus pending in my Pacific Poker account, so all's well that ends well.
Daily Sketch: Up $4
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $361.85
March 8, 2005: Pacific Poker - That Ship has Sailed
When I made my initial $200 deposit into Pacific Poker this past weekend, it appeared that my $100 sign-up bonus was credited directly to my new account. Usually, the $100 bonus is reported as "pending" and the bonus isn't moved into your "live" cash account until the required number of raked hands is played. I assumed that I didn't really have access to the $100 and, as such, I planned on playing 1,000 raked hands on Pacific Poker before attempting to withdraw the bonus money from their site.
Unfortunately, when I logged into Pacific Poker this evening, I experienced nothing but trouble. The software had a brutal time opening up and it didn't want to connect me to a table. The software kept looking for a secure connection and I never got to play. I rebooted my computer and tried a 2nd time, but it still wouldn't connect. I think that my computer is unhappy with Pacific, because it appeared that other people were playing on the tables of Pacific Poker. As I mentioned yesterday, my home computer moves EXCEEDINGLY slow after I log into Pacific, so I believe that I have a memory issue when playing on Pacific.
Frustrated by the software, I decided to initiate a full cash withdrawal of all the funds in my account - including the $100 bonus. Surprisingly, the full withdrawal was a success and I was able to take everything out of my account - including the $100. More than anything else, it was an experiment to see what would happen and I didn't really expect to claim the bonus money. I was quite happy, however, to see the $100 included in my withdrawal.
I estimate that I played 125 hands on Pacific Poker the past few days. For that, I received a $100 bonus - which gets logged into tonight's Sketchbook. After receiving confirmation that the withdrawal was a success (the money appeared in my Neteller account a couple hours later), I uninstalled Pacific Poker from my computer. I guess it's time to think about joining another on-line poker site. If other sites offer bonuses as easy as Pacific, this is gonna be a profitable month! :-)
After closing my Pacific Poker account, I went back to "old reliable" (Party Poker) and played on a couple 10-man $2/$4 tables while watching UWM qualify for the NCAA Tournament. Unfortunately, it appears that "the switch" is stilled flipped down and I couldn't get anything to work. All told, I played exactly 307 hands of poker on the $2/$4 tables and won 17 of them. For those of you away from a calculator, that's a winning percentage of 5.5%. That's ugly!!
I lost $74 on the $2/$4 tables. Considering my paltry winning percentage, the loss of $74 really isn't that bad. Interestingly, I only played 21 hands through the river, which means that I won 81% of the showdowns I encountered. That's a VERY high percentage. Still, it was comical to see how many times I was dealt 3-8 or 2-9. I was a folding machine!
After leaving the $2/$4 tables, I decided to "relax" on a 6-man $1/$2 table and found immediate success. Playing for 45 minutes, I was able to win back $44.75. I had a nice run of cards and felt pretty good about the dent I put into tonight's losses. In the end, I only lost $29.25 while playing poker this evening.
However, with the $100 bonus I cleared from Pacific, I actually made money tonight. That feels strange, 'cuz i spent a good part of the night losing money on the $2/$4 tables.
Daily Sketch: Up $70.75
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $357.85
Unfortunately, when I logged into Pacific Poker this evening, I experienced nothing but trouble. The software had a brutal time opening up and it didn't want to connect me to a table. The software kept looking for a secure connection and I never got to play. I rebooted my computer and tried a 2nd time, but it still wouldn't connect. I think that my computer is unhappy with Pacific, because it appeared that other people were playing on the tables of Pacific Poker. As I mentioned yesterday, my home computer moves EXCEEDINGLY slow after I log into Pacific, so I believe that I have a memory issue when playing on Pacific.
Frustrated by the software, I decided to initiate a full cash withdrawal of all the funds in my account - including the $100 bonus. Surprisingly, the full withdrawal was a success and I was able to take everything out of my account - including the $100. More than anything else, it was an experiment to see what would happen and I didn't really expect to claim the bonus money. I was quite happy, however, to see the $100 included in my withdrawal.
I estimate that I played 125 hands on Pacific Poker the past few days. For that, I received a $100 bonus - which gets logged into tonight's Sketchbook. After receiving confirmation that the withdrawal was a success (the money appeared in my Neteller account a couple hours later), I uninstalled Pacific Poker from my computer. I guess it's time to think about joining another on-line poker site. If other sites offer bonuses as easy as Pacific, this is gonna be a profitable month! :-)
After closing my Pacific Poker account, I went back to "old reliable" (Party Poker) and played on a couple 10-man $2/$4 tables while watching UWM qualify for the NCAA Tournament. Unfortunately, it appears that "the switch" is stilled flipped down and I couldn't get anything to work. All told, I played exactly 307 hands of poker on the $2/$4 tables and won 17 of them. For those of you away from a calculator, that's a winning percentage of 5.5%. That's ugly!!
I lost $74 on the $2/$4 tables. Considering my paltry winning percentage, the loss of $74 really isn't that bad. Interestingly, I only played 21 hands through the river, which means that I won 81% of the showdowns I encountered. That's a VERY high percentage. Still, it was comical to see how many times I was dealt 3-8 or 2-9. I was a folding machine!
After leaving the $2/$4 tables, I decided to "relax" on a 6-man $1/$2 table and found immediate success. Playing for 45 minutes, I was able to win back $44.75. I had a nice run of cards and felt pretty good about the dent I put into tonight's losses. In the end, I only lost $29.25 while playing poker this evening.
However, with the $100 bonus I cleared from Pacific, I actually made money tonight. That feels strange, 'cuz i spent a good part of the night losing money on the $2/$4 tables.
Daily Sketch: Up $70.75
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $357.85
March 7, 2005: Grandma Dziadosz's Birthday
Today was Theresa's grandmother's birthday, so a sizeable group of us took the 81-year-old birthday girl out for dinner. As such, I didn't get a chance to play a lot of poker tonight, although I did eat a lot of all-you-can-eat shrimp at the Chancery.
After the festivities were over, I was able to sneak in 28 hands of poker on a 10-man $2/$4 Pacific Poker table, and I have three more complaints about the site:
(1) Pacific Poker does not allow you to play more than one table at a time.
(2) The software is slower than Party Poker. It takes noticeably more time to deal a hand to 10 players at a table. Coupled with the fact that you can only play one table at a time, Pacific Poker seems REALLY slow.
(3) Pacific Poker eats up a lot of my computer's memory while I'm on the tables. Even after I log out of Pacific, my computer performs noticeably slower. Among other things, it's making it more difficult to type this Sketchbook entry tonight.
Despite the fact that I only played 28 hands tonight, I was dealt AA and KK on back-to-back hands, so things were (seemingly) going well. Later, I was dealt Ks 10s and saw a flop of As 6s 4s. Sadly, I lost all three hands!
The AA lost to a player holding 6d 8d who hit his flush on a turn that was (ironically) the Ad. My KK lost to another player's QQ - as my opponent saw another Queen appear on the flop. Finally, my nut flush lost to another player holding Ac 4h. The 4c on the turn was disastrous. Ugh!
All told, I lost 27 of the 28 hands I played tonight. Thankfully, the one pot I scooped came with a decent pile of chips and I "escaped" with a loss of only $43. Losing with AA and KK was pretty frustrating, however.
Daily Sketch: Down $43
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $287.10
After the festivities were over, I was able to sneak in 28 hands of poker on a 10-man $2/$4 Pacific Poker table, and I have three more complaints about the site:
(1) Pacific Poker does not allow you to play more than one table at a time.
(2) The software is slower than Party Poker. It takes noticeably more time to deal a hand to 10 players at a table. Coupled with the fact that you can only play one table at a time, Pacific Poker seems REALLY slow.
(3) Pacific Poker eats up a lot of my computer's memory while I'm on the tables. Even after I log out of Pacific, my computer performs noticeably slower. Among other things, it's making it more difficult to type this Sketchbook entry tonight.
Despite the fact that I only played 28 hands tonight, I was dealt AA and KK on back-to-back hands, so things were (seemingly) going well. Later, I was dealt Ks 10s and saw a flop of As 6s 4s. Sadly, I lost all three hands!
The AA lost to a player holding 6d 8d who hit his flush on a turn that was (ironically) the Ad. My KK lost to another player's QQ - as my opponent saw another Queen appear on the flop. Finally, my nut flush lost to another player holding Ac 4h. The 4c on the turn was disastrous. Ugh!
All told, I lost 27 of the 28 hands I played tonight. Thankfully, the one pot I scooped came with a decent pile of chips and I "escaped" with a loss of only $43. Losing with AA and KK was pretty frustrating, however.
Daily Sketch: Down $43
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $287.10
March 6, 2005: Pacific Poker
.Combining the fact that I've played 1,400 raked hands over the past 7 days and the fact that I lost over $100 chasing a $200 bonus, I'm a bit burned out from Party Poker right now. With that in mind, I decided to move the $200 bonus that I earned from Party into another on-line poker account. For the past 2 months, I've limited myself to playing exclusively on Party, but I think it's time to do a little exploring.
Pacific Poker, in particular, is offering a 50% deposit bonus (up to $100) for any first-time players, so I took them up on the offer. Before leaving for Green Bay yesterday, I moved $200 into a Pacific Poker account and was credited with pending bonus bucks of $100. I'm not sure how many hands I need to play to earn the $100, but the site indicates that I've got 3 months to earn the bonus. Considering the amount of poker I play on-line, I can't imagine that it's going to take more than a week (or two) to earn the $100 bonus while playing on Pacific Poker.
This afternoon, I decided to play on a single 10-man $2/$4 table on Pacific while watching Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson duke it out at Doral. Since I've been playing two (or even three) such tables at once on Party, it was pretty easy playing one table on Pacific Poker while watching TV.
For ninety minutes, my starting stack of $100 in chips steadily increased. Holding 8-8 two different times, I saw another 8 appear on the flop (each time) and subsequently took home a couple nice pots. In fact, I had just cracked the $200 mark (up $100) when the following hand was dealt:
Hand of the Day:
Castor25 posts the small blind ($1) and Jim41121 posts the big blind ($2).
I'm dealt AA (under the gun) and raise to $4. CScott, Atrex, & JoeyT731 fold. Duricle calls $4. RicCon and Elgitano fold. Greenbak calls $4. Castor 25 folds. Jim41121 raises to $6. I cap the betting and raise to $8. Duricle, Greenbak, and Jim41121 call my re-raise and four of us see the flop. After the house rake, there is $31.50 in the pot.
The flop comes 10s 3d 2s. It certainly seems harmless.
Jim41121 checks. I bet $2. Duricle calls. Greenbak raises to $4. Jim41121 calls $4. I raise to $6. Duricle, Greenbak, and Jim41121 call my raise. There is $54.50 in the pot.
The turn is a 7s. Another seemingly harmless card hits the board.
Jim41121 checks. I bet $4. Duricle and Greenback call $4. Jim41121 raises to $8. Myself, Duricle, and Greenback call the raise. There is $86 in the pot.
The river is a Jh. With Jim41121 raising after the turn, I don't know how this Jack affects the hand.
Jim 41121 bets $4. Myself, Duricle and Greenback call the bet. There is $102 in the pot.
Result:
Jim 41121 reveals 7d 7c underneath and scoops the pot with 3-of-a-kind. Obviously, that beats my pair of Aces. Ugh! In the end, a very lucky turn gave Jim41121 nice some cash. He chased his pair of 7's after the flop and was rewarded on the turn. What can you do?
Unlike Party Poker, I can't find any information, however, regarding the holdings of my other two opponents in this hand, so I don't even know if I finished in 2nd place. That's a definite strike against Pacific Poker. Often, I like to review my hands on Party Poker to see what everyone had, but Pacific doesn't have that option. That stinks!
Shortly after this bad hand, I decided to retire for the day. I was up $74.50 and this hand was the first time I really felt burned by a Pacific Poker dealer. Rather than risk going on tilt, I quit. Considering the fact that I hadn't planned on playing on-line poker today, I'm quite happy with the daily profit. One week into a new month, the Month-to-Date Sketchbook is looking pretty good.
Daily Sketch: Up $74.50
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $330.10
March 5, 2005: Poker at Dave's (in Green Bay)
Theresa's bachelorette party was this afternoon/evening. With that in mind, I knew that I needed to vacate my apartment for the night. The party was scheduled to start in Juneau Village's clubroom and would eventually move into my apartment. There was NO WAY I was going to stick around for the festivities, so I made arrangements to leave town.
So, Andrew and I drove to Green Bay and stayed at Dave's house. Dave hosted a small poker game (six players) tonight and we ended up playing poker until 4 in the morning. All told, I won exactly $56.50 playing a wide variety of games. It was a good time, and it never hurts to record a profit for the Sketchbook! :-)
Daily Sketch: Up $56.50
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $255.60
So, Andrew and I drove to Green Bay and stayed at Dave's house. Dave hosted a small poker game (six players) tonight and we ended up playing poker until 4 in the morning. All told, I won exactly $56.50 playing a wide variety of games. It was a good time, and it never hurts to record a profit for the Sketchbook! :-)
Daily Sketch: Up $56.50
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $255.60
March 4, 2005: Earning the $200 Bonus
This evening, Theresa and I joined friends at LaFuente. As such, I hadn't planned on playing any poker tonight. The key word in that sentence, however, is "planned" . . .
Unfortunately, Theresa wasn't feeling particularly well today, so we headed home right after dinner. Arriving at the apartment around 9:00pm, I decided to jump onto Party Poker and tried to make a dent into the 532 raked hands I still needed to play to earn the $200 redeposit bonus.
After playing 90 minutes on two $2/$4 10-man tables, things were going terribly. I was down $120 and I was getting very frustrated. It seemed as if my opponents were chasing every card to the river - and they kept hitting the miracle card that allowed them to scoop a big pot. More than once, I flopped 3-of-a-kind, only to see someone "suck out" a flush or straight on the river. Anytime I decided to chase a flush or open-ended straight, I seemed to always miss it.
I wanted to quit, but I also wanted to get this bonus out of the way. As it stood, however, I wasn't making as big a dent as I hoped. For those of you unaware, a Party Poker pot needs to reach $20 before it qualifies as a raked hand on a $2/$4 table. Unfortunately, a lot of the hands that were being played on my two tables kept falling just short of $20, so Party wasn't taking a rake and, as a result, it wasn't cutting into my required number of raked hands.
After 90 minutes, I still needed to play 420 raked hands to earn my $200 bonus. At the pace I was going, I still needed to play 4 1/2 hours of poker this weekend to earn my bonus, and that thought sickened me. With this recent string of losses, I didn't relish the idea of playing that much on-line poker this weekend. For the first time in quite a while, I was getting very tired of playing on-line poker.
At that point, I decided to "up my ante" and jumped on a couple 10-man $5/$10 tables, which is a sizeable jump from $2/$4 tables. If nothing else, I reasoned that nearly every hand my new tables played would qualify as a raked hand. At this point of the night, I simply wanted to reduce the 420 required raked hands as much as possible - and playing a couple $5/$10 tables would achieve that objective.
For the next hour, things went well. Theresa fell asleep (she had been watching me lose on the $2/$4 tables), and I started to win some money. I scooped one really nice pot when my pocket AA's saw a flop of JJQ. Unbenownst to me, one of my opponents was holding JQ, but a miracle ace on the river saved my butt. That was sweet!
During my 60 minutes of playing two $5/$10 tables, I fully recouped the $120 that I had previouisly lost on the $2/$4 tables. Feeling bold, I decided to open a 3rd $5/$10 table and made the resolution that I was going to play until I earned the $200 bonus. Usually, my aging home computer doesn't let me open three tables at once, so I reasoned that fate was leading me to play three tables at once.
All told, I ended up playing on-line poker until 1:00am. During my unplanned four-hour session, I played exactly 532 raked hands and finished the night with a modest profit of $70.40. Considering the fact that I was down $120 earlier in the night, however, I was quite happy to clear a profit this evening. Coupled with the $200 bonus I earned, the Sketchbook shows a daily profit of $270.40. That's not bad!
In the end, I ended up losing $107.90 this week while earning the bonus of $200 - giving me a net profit of $92.10. Admittedly, my hourly rate this week was terrible, but it definitely could have been worse. To say I'm a bit burned out from on-line poker would be an understatement. At a minimum, I won't be logging into Party Poker this weekend and I hope to stay away until sometime next week. I need a break!
In jumping to the $5/$10 tables, I think I came to the realization that I was probably playing a bit too loose on the $2/$4 tables. For whatever reason, I think I was over-rating suited connectors and found myself chasing those cards too often. When it cost more to chase those same cards on a $5/$10 table, I found myself folding much more frequently. However, I also found myself winning more frequently on the 5/$10 tables, so I hope that I learned something. We'll see what happens. For now, I'm simply happy looking at a positive Month-to-Date figure.
Daily Sketch: Up $270.40
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $199.10
Unfortunately, Theresa wasn't feeling particularly well today, so we headed home right after dinner. Arriving at the apartment around 9:00pm, I decided to jump onto Party Poker and tried to make a dent into the 532 raked hands I still needed to play to earn the $200 redeposit bonus.
After playing 90 minutes on two $2/$4 10-man tables, things were going terribly. I was down $120 and I was getting very frustrated. It seemed as if my opponents were chasing every card to the river - and they kept hitting the miracle card that allowed them to scoop a big pot. More than once, I flopped 3-of-a-kind, only to see someone "suck out" a flush or straight on the river. Anytime I decided to chase a flush or open-ended straight, I seemed to always miss it.
I wanted to quit, but I also wanted to get this bonus out of the way. As it stood, however, I wasn't making as big a dent as I hoped. For those of you unaware, a Party Poker pot needs to reach $20 before it qualifies as a raked hand on a $2/$4 table. Unfortunately, a lot of the hands that were being played on my two tables kept falling just short of $20, so Party wasn't taking a rake and, as a result, it wasn't cutting into my required number of raked hands.
After 90 minutes, I still needed to play 420 raked hands to earn my $200 bonus. At the pace I was going, I still needed to play 4 1/2 hours of poker this weekend to earn my bonus, and that thought sickened me. With this recent string of losses, I didn't relish the idea of playing that much on-line poker this weekend. For the first time in quite a while, I was getting very tired of playing on-line poker.
At that point, I decided to "up my ante" and jumped on a couple 10-man $5/$10 tables, which is a sizeable jump from $2/$4 tables. If nothing else, I reasoned that nearly every hand my new tables played would qualify as a raked hand. At this point of the night, I simply wanted to reduce the 420 required raked hands as much as possible - and playing a couple $5/$10 tables would achieve that objective.
For the next hour, things went well. Theresa fell asleep (she had been watching me lose on the $2/$4 tables), and I started to win some money. I scooped one really nice pot when my pocket AA's saw a flop of JJQ. Unbenownst to me, one of my opponents was holding JQ, but a miracle ace on the river saved my butt. That was sweet!
During my 60 minutes of playing two $5/$10 tables, I fully recouped the $120 that I had previouisly lost on the $2/$4 tables. Feeling bold, I decided to open a 3rd $5/$10 table and made the resolution that I was going to play until I earned the $200 bonus. Usually, my aging home computer doesn't let me open three tables at once, so I reasoned that fate was leading me to play three tables at once.
All told, I ended up playing on-line poker until 1:00am. During my unplanned four-hour session, I played exactly 532 raked hands and finished the night with a modest profit of $70.40. Considering the fact that I was down $120 earlier in the night, however, I was quite happy to clear a profit this evening. Coupled with the $200 bonus I earned, the Sketchbook shows a daily profit of $270.40. That's not bad!
In the end, I ended up losing $107.90 this week while earning the bonus of $200 - giving me a net profit of $92.10. Admittedly, my hourly rate this week was terrible, but it definitely could have been worse. To say I'm a bit burned out from on-line poker would be an understatement. At a minimum, I won't be logging into Party Poker this weekend and I hope to stay away until sometime next week. I need a break!
In jumping to the $5/$10 tables, I think I came to the realization that I was probably playing a bit too loose on the $2/$4 tables. For whatever reason, I think I was over-rating suited connectors and found myself chasing those cards too often. When it cost more to chase those same cards on a $5/$10 table, I found myself folding much more frequently. However, I also found myself winning more frequently on the 5/$10 tables, so I hope that I learned something. We'll see what happens. For now, I'm simply happy looking at a positive Month-to-Date figure.
Daily Sketch: Up $270.40
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $199.10
March 3, 2005: Poker at Harry's
Tonight, I played poker and blackjack at Harry's. Overall, it was a decent night for the Sketchbook.
Playing poker for 3 1/2 hours, I won $127 while playing a variety of games. This recurring monthly game has $1 antes and betting is capped at $3. In winning $127, I had a pretty good night.
After the 7-handed game of poker broke up, five of us headed to the blackjack table.
In my best move of the night, I resolved to only lose $20 at Harry's table - which I proceeded to do in a little over a shoe. Playing for $5 hand, I was the "cheapskate" at the table. However, after watching Harry (the dealer) deal himself consecutive blackjacks to begin the night, I knew things weren't going to go well at that table.
Still, I experienced a decent profit - which helps to offset some of the losses on Party Poker the last two days.
Daily Sketch: Up $107
Month-to-Date Sketch: Down $71.30
Playing poker for 3 1/2 hours, I won $127 while playing a variety of games. This recurring monthly game has $1 antes and betting is capped at $3. In winning $127, I had a pretty good night.
After the 7-handed game of poker broke up, five of us headed to the blackjack table.
In my best move of the night, I resolved to only lose $20 at Harry's table - which I proceeded to do in a little over a shoe. Playing for $5 hand, I was the "cheapskate" at the table. However, after watching Harry (the dealer) deal himself consecutive blackjacks to begin the night, I knew things weren't going to go well at that table.
Still, I experienced a decent profit - which helps to offset some of the losses on Party Poker the last two days.
Daily Sketch: Up $107
Month-to-Date Sketch: Down $71.30
March 2, 2005: Who Flipped the Switch?
It was another bad night for the Sketchbook. If I didn't know better, I would think that someone at Party Poker flipped the magical switch that's keeping me from winning. Despite the fact that I'm playing the same, I'm currently experiencing some poor luck. That happens in poker, I guess. Still, it's pretty frustrating!
During the first 30 minutes of tonight's session, I saw three particular hands end with horrendous river cards. I won't go into the details, but it was brutal! Before I knew it, I was down $75. If nothing else, my winnings over the past two months kept me from going on tilt. Whenever I lost a big hand, I'd simply look at the balance in my account and recall that I was playing exculsively with winnings. There wasn't any reason to get crazy, since poker is a game of ups and downs. As long as you keep your downs reasonable, things should work out in the long run.
For the next several hours (after losing the $75), I couldn't get anything going. Anytime I started to go on a small roll, I'd experience another brutal bad beat and find myself back down $75. After all was said and done, I finished the night down exactly $94.30. Ugh!
If nothing else, I made a severe dent into the 1,400 hands needed to earn the $200 bonus. After tonight, I "only" need to play 532 more raked hands to get the money. At this point, I'm hoping to stay even during the last 532 hands and escape the week with a small profit - despite the fact that I've already invested a fair amount of time pursuing the $200.
With activities scheduled the next two nights, I won't be on-line until Saturday. Hopefully, by then, the gamemasters at Party Poker will have flipped the switch back to where it was in January and February! :-)
Daily Sketch: Down $94.30
Month-to-Date Sketch: Down $178.30
During the first 30 minutes of tonight's session, I saw three particular hands end with horrendous river cards. I won't go into the details, but it was brutal! Before I knew it, I was down $75. If nothing else, my winnings over the past two months kept me from going on tilt. Whenever I lost a big hand, I'd simply look at the balance in my account and recall that I was playing exculsively with winnings. There wasn't any reason to get crazy, since poker is a game of ups and downs. As long as you keep your downs reasonable, things should work out in the long run.
For the next several hours (after losing the $75), I couldn't get anything going. Anytime I started to go on a small roll, I'd experience another brutal bad beat and find myself back down $75. After all was said and done, I finished the night down exactly $94.30. Ugh!
If nothing else, I made a severe dent into the 1,400 hands needed to earn the $200 bonus. After tonight, I "only" need to play 532 more raked hands to get the money. At this point, I'm hoping to stay even during the last 532 hands and escape the week with a small profit - despite the fact that I've already invested a fair amount of time pursuing the $200.
With activities scheduled the next two nights, I won't be on-line until Saturday. Hopefully, by then, the gamemasters at Party Poker will have flipped the switch back to where it was in January and February! :-)
Daily Sketch: Down $94.30
Month-to-Date Sketch: Down $178.30
March 1, 2005: Reload Bonus
.As the above-graphic shows, Party Poker is currently offering a Reload Bonus that I'll be working to earn during the next week. To get the full $200 bonus, a person needs to deposit $1,000 into their Party Poker account and play 1,400 raked hands in the next 7 days. The initial offer expires tomorrow at midnight, so there isn't a lot of time to waste if any of my loyal readers want to take advantage.
Upon hearing about this bonus, I transferred $1,000 from my personal checking account (last night) and moved it into my Party Poker account. Then, this morning, I transferred all $1,000 back into my checking account. For those of you unaware, Party Poker requires that any transferred money stay in their account for (at least) 8 hours. However, after 8 hours, you can transfer the money back into your own checking account and you'll still be eligible for the bonus. So, my checking account lost $1,000 for a day - but that's a small price to pay for the chance to earn $200 later this week.
After all is said and done, the amount of cash I have in my Party Poker account hasn't changed, but I'm now in position to earn an extra $200 if I simply play 1,400 raked hands during the next 7 days. That means that I'll need to average 200 raked hands each of the next 7 days, but I don't think that will be a problem. If nothing else, I don't have any plans this Sunday, so I'll be able to eat up a lot of the required 1,400 hands this weekend. As far as I can tell, I average 100 hands an hour when playing two 10-man tables at once, so I'll need to play 14 hours of on-line poker by the end of next Monday night to earn the $200. Piece of cake - I think!
I started my quest for the $200 this evening. While watching the Bucks and Badgers on TV, I played 339 raked hands over 3+ hours on a couple $2/$4 10-man tables. To put it mildly, it was an uphill climb.
I lost some pretty big hands early in the night (the river wasn't kind) and I could never catch up. After all was said and done, I lost $84 this evening. Of the 339 raked hands I played, I was only able to flop a set one time. I don't know the true odds are of being dealt a pocket pair and seeing 3-of-a-kind appear on the flop, but they hafta be better than 339-1, aren't they?
Regardless, I start yet another month in the hole. It's incredible that I can take a 17-day winning streak into a month and immediately see the streak end on Day #1 of the new month. Oh, well. I've dug myself out of bigger holes, so we'll see what happens. If nothing else, I'm "only" 1,061 hands away from earning $200. Hopefully, I don't proceed to lose $200 chasing the $200 bonus!
Daily Sketch: Down $84
Month-to-Date Sketch: Down $84
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