Stars Bonus Shenanigans

Bankroll: $295.12 (but really, its $265.12)


This weekend, I deposited $30 for a new reload bonus at Pokerstars. Due to the strange way in which reload bonuses at Stars work, I will need to keep that money in the account for the next 2 months.

The full story is that you're allowed up to 3 separate deposits. The 2nd and 3rd need to be made within 60 days of the first. Each deposit has its own expiry to clear which is 90 days after the deposit date.

Therefore, it behoofs you to deposit a small amount first, then deposit the 2nd and 3rd deposit exactly 60 days after the first. This extends your expiry for the bulk of the bonus from what would normally be 90 days to 150 days.

Concurrent with that deposit, I decided to take a shot at the $6+0.50 turbo Sit and Gos, up from the $3+0.4 level.

I played in 6 of the $6.5's. I had a 2nd place finish, a third place finish, and 4 losses. So, for 6 SnG's, I am down by $12, or just short of two buy-ins.

My initial impression is that playing at the $6.5 level feels different. Very different. I'm sure some of it has to do with the higher buy-in level; but, I suspect the majority of the feeling has to do with the fact that these are only 9 player Sit and Go's at this level, rather than the 10 player Sit and Go's I'm used to at the lower level.

So, for now, I will move back down to $3.4's for awhile and stick with the original plan of waiting until I've got another 100 or 200 buy-ins first.

After that, I might consider playing a few dozen 9-man Sit and Go's at the ultra-low $1+0.2 level - just to get used to the differences in preparation for the move back to $6+0.5.

In other news, I cleared the 2nd portion of my earlier reload bonus - which amounted to $12.50 into my account. How I cleared the last of this bonus was utterly reckless, and I'm thankful I made it without incident. Stay tuned for that story!

Incredible Weekend

Thus far, this weekend has been absolutely incredible.

My bankroll has increased from about $187 to $234.47. I believe that is a 25% increase.

Here's how it happened....

Last two weeks, I have been having incredible success playing the $3.4 10-man turbo Sit and Go's at Pokerstars.

On Friday night, I played in three of them. I received 1 first place finish ($15) and 1 second place finish ($9). After that, I noticed my Frequent Player Points balance was 20 points away from clearing the $15 reload bonus. Well! I fired up 3 double or nothing SnG's with a $1.1 buy-in. Unfortunately, I lost all 3.

So, I formulated a plan to clear the rest of the bonus by the end of the evening. I foolishly decided to play in a couple of NL25 games (that's a $25 buyin), which would normally require my bankroll to be 5 times its current size. I would play VERY tight, and choose tables with a very high average pot. The reason for the high pot is that higher pots mean more rake, and more rake translates into more Frequent Player Points (FPPs).

Needless to say, it ended up being a wild ride on NL25. I was up a full buyin, then down 2 buyins, then finally I ended the session once I cleared the points.... and miraculously, I was up $3.37. One problem is that I was only playing two tables, and just couldn't play less cards and tighten my game up.

Anyhow, before I went to bed, I noticed a menu item on the software "Sit and Go Leader Points". This got me curious because I had been running so well at the $3.4's. I saw that I had 240 points out of 7 games. The minimum block of games however, is 20. I extrapolated that if continued at that rate, my final points would be : 686. The current leader on the board was at 630. Then I see that I have until tomorrow evening to play my additional 13 required games - unfortunately, not going to happen. Too bad, because being at the top of the ladder in a given week pays $300 at this level, as well as entry into a $50,000 tournament! Wow. So I pledge to try again starting tomorrow evening, after it resets.

WELL, Saturday evening arrives. I play a few to warm up. By the end of the evening, I've played 8 of the 10-man $3.4 (buy in total of $27.20). I'm first place in 3 of them, for a total of $45 in winnings. Not only that, but I get eliminated in 4th place on the bubble in two of them, so a great night was close to being absolutely fabulous! Can't complain about that!

Anyways, checking the new leader board, I have 100 points with 4 tournaments played (the other 4 were played BEFORE the evening's point reset). So at this rate, I will have 500 points by the end of the block of 20 tournaments, which is good enough to cash in, I believe!

Anyways, so far, a great weekend. My Sit and Go / Tournament graph is at the top there. (the red line is luck adjusted winnings). $234.47 is the highest my bankroll has ever been (well, except for when I deposited for the reload bonus, but promptly withdrew that amount).

7785 players. Its a Pokerstars depositor freeroll.

After 4 gruelling hours, there are 145 people left, and I'm 36th in terms of chips.

Unfortunately, its now 2:50 am. I have to wake up at 7:00 am for work.... And I've got 2 short stacks at the table who insist on using up all available time on every hand to drag it out, just so that they have a chance to gain a meagre amount of cash (from $4 to $5). When they play a hand together, the agony is unbearable watching a full 4 betting rounds of double-delaying.

I'm nodding off… and unfortunately, the thought that it’s a freeroll and I'm currently sitting on a prize of $4 grabs hold. Should I actually make it to 36th, it'll only be worth $8. Final table? Okay… anywhere from $30 to $200; but how long is it going to take to get there? I've got $165,000 in chips, and my M (or CSI) is 20. I'm double the size of the average stack.

Basically, I started shove-tilting just to go to bed and eventually lost the stack (placing something like 125 - I don't even remember).

GG.

If I wanted to "optimize" my decision to go to sleep, I should have just sat out at that point and left it. But the all-in every hand sure was fun.

No matter what, I will make the finals, worth 10 times as much. I've actually qualified for it twice now! I'll be more serious about stick around if I make it that far then, even if I have to pull an all-nighter.