Completing the Party Reload

Despite telling myself that, with this Party reload, I would only play two tables at a time (at most), and that I wouldn't play 1/2, and that I'd only go for half the bonus so I wouldn't feel jammed trying to cram in the required number of raked hands, yesterday found me with less than 24 hours remaining to clear the bonus and still 225 raked hands short. And so, I was 3-tabling 1/2. Again.

Overall, my results for this reload were much more encouraging:

$3/$6 - 231 hands - ($17)
$1/$2 - 776 hands - $51.87

Woohoo, I actually netted $34 while clearing the bonus. How about that. But forget that. I know 776 hands does not a sample size make, but I was much more relieved (I think that's the right word) to see that I didn't get slaughtered this time. My river play is still really atrocious, and I'm sure I'm leaving money on the table, but I seem to be moving in the right direction. And I certainly had my share of suckouts that cut back what otherwise would have been larger profits, so I feel pretty good overall about my play.

One leak I noticed was overplaying medium pairs - the 6s, 7s, 8s and 9s of the world. In a tight, aggressive game, there may be more value to doing so, but in the loose, calling-station filled world that typifies lower limits (especially on Party), these hands rarely hold up without improving.

Since my "comeback" to online poker, I've cleared $277 in bonuses at party, and before the bonus I am net ($15) in that span. So right now, the bonuses are the only thing keeping me in the black, but that doesn't worry me, because that first bonus stretch of bonus clearing was pretty brutal, and I think I'm playing better than I was then. It doesn't help that QQ and JJ are net losing hands for me in that span and have taken some brutal beats (including losing three out of four flopped sets with QQ).

I'll probably spend a bunch of time working of my Full Tilt bonus next, where I'm currently down about $10, which I attribute as a learning cost of playing razz - which is what I'm doing almost exclusively. I've played enough over there to qualify for their WSOP Main Event freeroll this Saturday, which I think Derek and Sir Waffle competed in this past Saturday. My understanding is that this is a winner-take-all satellite, no booby money for anyone else at the final table, so I have to think about how that impacts my strategy. Clearly, chip accumulation will be even more critical than normal, so taking more "gambles" is probably correct (and what the hell, it's a freeroll, so it's not like I lose anything by busting).

I hope I can convince my tight ass to take those gambles, at the right times, AND have them pay off!