Why, oh why...

Why do I always fall for these "free money" offers? Full Tilt sent me a "Free $50" offer. All I had to do was claim it, and then clear it as a regular bonus in the next two weeks. It's been long enough that I've done one of these that the many pitfalls have been forgotten.

I used to live for poker bonuses and was very good at clearing them. It became obvious long ago that at anything near the level I normally play, bonuses clear best at limit. So I used to play a lot of limit, and was pretty good at it. But then the bonuses dried up and I realized NL was a lot more fun, so I switched.

Now, along comes the Full Tilt bonus and I'm trying to play $1/$2 limit again. My first session of bonus clearing I lost more than the total bonus. I did better during my second session, actually winning some money, but didn't make up for what I lost in the first session.

Last night I sat down for what was intended to be a short session before going to bed. There were no tables immediately available, so I got on the wait list for several. After a few minutes they started popping up. Before I knew it I had four tables going. And the cards were coming like you wouldn't believe. AKs, AKo, AQs, KK, QQ, JJ, AJ. In the first five minutes of play I must have seen 20 premium hands. It was hard to keep track they were coming so fast, but I believe I won ONE hand out of the bunch. Before I could barely blink I was down $20 on three different tables. What stung the most was that in almost every case, the guy who won had no business being in the hand in the first place.

I would do far better to get nothing but crap cards that I can fold all night. Losing with a long series of premium hands just adds insult to the injury.

I recall reading an article a while back where the author attempted to scientifically prove that the schooling of the fishes was a fallacious concept. I don't recall all the details of his proof, but I'm pretty sure he overlooked some aspect of the real world conditions.

Party Poker was the ultimate proving ground for schooling of the fishes. I remember when I first started playing there. They had these "beginner" tables where only people in their first X days of play could sit at those tables. I joined Party long after I'd started playing seriously. I almost felt guilty sitting at those tables. Almost. For the first week or so it was literally like taking candy from a baby. These guys might as well have just transferred their funds to my account.

Then the tide turned. The schooling of the fishes hit with a vengeance. In most of the hands I played, I'd start way in the lead against any other single player, but when you get eight people seeing the flop and staying to the river if they caught even the tiniest bit, your opponents will collectively have the advantage on you almost every time. You aren't playing against a bunch of single fish, you're playing against the whole school. And the school will win the majority of the time.

To be completely fair, I'm probably dragging a number of non-applicable NL skills into the limit arena. I definitely read bluff far more often than is correct. With the exception of the very bad players, bluffs in limit are pretty much situational only. I need to keep repeating this to myself.

Or, better yet, I need to stop chasing these stupid bonuses. Nothing good ever comes of it. In the last three years I don't think I've made money on a single bonus.

Another tournament

I fired up PokerStars last night for the first time in ages and checked out their cheap SnGs. The rake at the low end seemed a bit cheaper than Full Tilt, but not by much. Except they had these "Double or Nothing" tournaments that paid the top five double their entry fee. The rake on those was only 10%, but you have to figure they're likely to last only 20 minutes or so.

I got into a $3+0.40. I should have saved the money. Card dead. Card dead. Card dead. AQo was the best I saw. Went out in 5th when somebody caught a runner-runner flush after I pushed all-in with TP on the flop.

On the plus side, I noticed PokerStars is apparently now offering Badugi. That should be loads of fun. I didn't see any Badugi tournaments in the list -- wasn't looking for them -- but I did notice it's listed in the tournament filter.

Tournament Time

Full Tilt recently sent me a please-come-back free money offer. While checking it out I again came across Chris Ferguson's article on his $0 to $10k project and noticed he had played some tournaments during the endeavor. This got me thinking that it might be fun to toss a few tournaments into the mix.

Checking at Full Tilt, I discovered they do offer SnGs for poor folk, but the rake is pretty steep. The 25% rake at the $1 SnGs is ridiculous, but at $2 it's down to 12.5%. Still higher than normal, but acceptable.

So, Saturday night, already tired enough to be thinking about going to bed, I signed up for a Turbo $2+$0.25 1-table SnG. The cards weren't terribly kind. With the rapidly increasing blinds I quickly found myself shortstacked. Then I woke up with AA. I put in a small raise and get one caller. Flop comes ten high. I check. Other guy bets more than half my stack. I push. He calls and turns over AT. Of course, he rivers a third ten and I hit the rail.

Sunday I decided to give it another go. This time I got into a non-turbo, so the blinds increased at the normal 6-minute intervals. This was a fairly typical cheap tournament. A couple people played it like it was a turbo freeroll. We got down to six rather quickly, but we stayed at six for a long time.

The tight play allowed me to steal quite a few pots. I even played the hammer a couple times. Eventually the blinds caught up and people started dropping off. I made a nice push back at the one other mildly aggressive player and he backed down, allowing me to take a very nice pot and the chip lead.

I had some trouble figuring out my opponent when we got heads up. I will often make a min-raise from the small blind as a way to put pressure on the big blind and to send a message that I think my cards are decent. Several times this guy came back with min-reraises, which really baffled me. I suppose he's making a statement, but I'm getting 5-to-1 on my call. Heads up I'll make that call with almost any two cards.

The other guy had the chip advantage going into heads up, but I quickly rectified that situation. I kept chipping away until he was in serious trouble. Then I find myself in the big blind with the Brunson. He makes a min-raise. I debated a bit, but eventually made the call. Then I got lucky. Flop comes 22x. Now I'm trying to figure how to get all his chips in the pot. I check, he checks. On the turn I get even luckier as a ten falls. Deuces full of tens. And there are three diamonds on the board. I'm praying he's got a couple diamonds. I make a small bet, he calls. The river brings another diamond. I again make a small bet, he pushes all-in. I'm sure he figured he was back in it as his king high flush was revealed, but, sorry, Charlie.

I'm not sure playing at this level is doing a lot for my skills, but it is kind of fun.