Bonus whoring

AcidJoe

I'm just about complete with the Victor chandler sign up bonus. I've noticed something that I haven't decidedly done before, but given how they calculate the clearance you have to play in the hand. A contributed rake thing. I was pushing to clear it by 3 tabling (all that you can there on money tables) and I noticed I started calling etc even with crap just to get the thing raked so more action points would clear. I've had a good run there on real money tables up to 2/4 with poker tracker giving me a 5.5 BB/100. I didn't realize what I was doing until I noticed every table was losing for me so I closed the one table and started paying more attention (I was kinda in autopilot mode). That's when I started noticing exactly what cards I was playing in what position, thinking I was calling the blind when there was actually a raise (the joys of playing 1/2 and 2/4 simultaneously). Once I started paying attention I realized I was clearing the bonus quicker but was bleeding chips away.

I'm not sure if there is a trade off point, but once I got myself back on track it ended up being a slightly profitable night. I"m not sure what I"m really asking except have other people found this once they get into bonus whore autopilot. If it was calling a quarter to ensure the hand got raked that's one thing, but at 1/2 and 2/4 my suboptimal play was getting expensive even if a $400 bonus will be cleared quicker.

Big E

Obviously you can't keep the same level of concentration on multi tables as you do on-line. I play 4 tables when whoring and I pretty much play TAG ABC poker moreso playing the cards then the other players but at the low limits I play ($0.50/1.00) I really think that's all you need to do. Of course I still pay attention to position and odds and try to play accordingly but I'm sure I do miss out on picking up the 'styles' of the other players and hence I may miss out on exploiting them for a slightly better profit? My profits at the levels I play are satisfying to me so I'm not about to change how I go about whoring reloads....but I do always still try to improve and refresh what I know by re-reading some good poker books from time to time. Whoring can be a grind and I must say you need to really be disciplined in your game or you'll experience exactly what you said Joe.....you'll make mistakes you wouldn't make with your full concentration on one or two tables. I get most of my enjoyment out of SNG's and MTT's, those I mostly play one at a time to really focus and try to do my best.

ChrisWinsor

yo Joe, has VS said anything about their Maxim King of Poker tournaments starting up soon? I won an ipod nano last year, only getting to play 2 final tournies since i had Rugby every monday(finals)

AcidJoe

NO I haven't heard anything about it.


Sort of off topic but I decided to graph my play to see what the graph looked like.  It's unbelieveable the swings that can occur including the large (about 300BB dip).