How much did you pay for your bonus?

[LinusKS]

I paid $198.50 playing 2261 hands 3/6 for the $200 Party bonus.

Anybody else?

[Shoe]

I was even after clearing the bonus, but proceeded to drop about $200 shortly afterwards, 4-tabling 3/6.

[SlowStroke]

I paid $9.66 four tabling $0.50-$1 No Limit for almost 8 hours

[Subby]

2109 hands of 1/2 6-max.
6.55 hours over two nights.
3.78 tables on average.

Avg pot: $10.87
Avg players: 5.1
Saw flop: 49.6%

$144 in rake
+16BB

That rake amount/% is staggering to me.

[jayboo]

4 tabling 2-4 for 2400 hands
+ 200 for party bonus
+ 10bb for play
not my greatest 10 hour day but better up than down

[LinusKS]

Yes, I meant to ask how much folks paid in rake.

In my case Party got back almost the entire amount of the bonus.

$144 in rake at 1/2 is astonishing.

I'm also curious how many hands you had to play to clear it.

I played a few more hands than I needed, but not that many. It looks like about 60% of the pots are raked at 3/6.

The rake at low limits is supposed to be approx 2BB/100.

Imagine if you could make 2BB/100 at every single table at Party.

Amazing to think about, isn't it?

[ QUOTE ]
2109 hands of 1/2 6-max.
6.55 hours over two nights.
3.78 tables on average.

Avg pot: $10.87
Avg players: 5.1
Saw flop: 49.6%

$144 in rake
+16BB

That rake amount/% is staggering to me.

[/ QUOTE ]

[krazyace5]

2,390 hands at $25NL, paid $91.40 in rake.

[Tilt-a-Whirl]

I paid an astonding $252 in rake clearing my bonus at 2/4. It took about 2765 hands.

[Art Vandelay]

1837 hands at 1/2 full. Total rake $62.25.

IMO, 1/2 full is the best place to clear a bonus if speed is what you're after. I ususally clear them at 2/4, but I didn't have much time and will be out of action all next week.

[FlFishOn]

I killed off two of them, both at $25 NL. Played roughly 4000 hands and went +$90 in the games. Party sux. Endless, ugly, improbable suck outs. If this is real poker then my 25 year career of live poker is a twisted sample.

Give me UB any time. 4000 hands there and I'd be +$400. 300 UB hands today and I'm +$50 already.

Also, killing off two bonii in two days is kinda like driving LA to Seattle and back. Yes, I've done that.

[Freakin]

[ QUOTE ]
1837 hands at 1/2 full. Total rake $62.25.

IMO, 1/2 full is the best place to clear a bonus if speed is what you're after. I ususally clear them at 2/4, but I didn't have much time and will be out of action all next week.

[/ QUOTE ]

Why not 6-max?

B

[Broken Glass Can]

This thread tells you why Party, Empire and PokerNow should be offering bonuses all the time. They can steal away people who are playing somewhere else and still make a nice profit from us while the bonus is being cleared.

[FlFishOn]

Go to Bonuswhores.com and note the history of Party's bonii. They see the profit in the deal as they have doubled the $$$ in recent months. Keep it coming.

[playersare]

[ QUOTE ]
This thread tells you why Party, Empire and PokerNow should be offering bonuses all the time. They can steal away people who are playing somewhere else and still make a nice profit from us while the bonus is being cleared.

[/ QUOTE ]
the first part of this statement is correct, but not necessarily the second part.

the flat 14 cents per raked hand value of the party reload bonii is more lucrative - in terms of player net earnings - than just about any possible rakeback setup.

but as far as what the optimal play limits are to clear this bonus, you want to minimize your personal attributed revenue to the site so the ideal combination would be highest % of hands raked and lowest rake amount per hand:

limit - BB's req for minimum rake - avg rake amount - revenue (10m/6m)
50c/$1 - 5BB - 50c - 5c/8c
$1/$2 - 2.5BB - 75c - 7.5c/12.5c
$2/4 - 5BB - $1 - 10c/16c
$3/6 - 3.33BB - $2 - 20c/33c

so while shorthanded games are good for rakebacks since they pay on a percentage basis of MGR, for flat rate bonus clearing, IMO you want full ring tables which have the lowest minimum BB requirement to be raked.

I almost always clear the party skin bonuses playing four $1/2 full ring tables at a time. the higher percentage of raked pots I believe make up for the slight increase in rake exposure compared to 50c/$1 full ring.

playing $2/4 6-max and higher to clear a 7x bonus would not yield a net gain against rake paid in the process, but is still very much superior to a flat percentage rakeback up until about the $5/10 level.

for fixed limit play, an efficient player should be able to pay between $75-100 for the $200 party 7x bonus, if not lower. Art Vandelay has the right idea here.

[Art Vandelay]

I'd put 1/2 6 max a close 2nd. I'm talking about purely time here, and I had ~75% of hands raked at 1/2 full.

Now that I think about it, 6 max is probably better just because of the hands/hr factor. Giving up a little in % hands raked is more than made up for by the number of hands/hr.

Of course, I suck big sweaty balls as short handed play so that's a big reason why I didn't do 1/2 6 max.

[Art Vandelay]

Good analysis. I was referring more to the time needed to clear a bonus but from a rake perspective it looks like 1/2 full is the way to go.

[ismisus]

4 tabled 1-2 6-MAX for 2 hours. What a crazy experience. Its nice to play 2-3 hands at a time

[playersare]

in terms of speed, there is very little raked hand % loss playing $1/2 shorthanded vs. full ring because the 2.5BB requirement is so low.

also I think the average pot sizes are not too different between 6 and 10 players because there will be more raising and blind steal attempts at 6-max, and people betting in heads up on 3rd and 4th street with things like ace high, a gutshot or bottom pair. your overall skill level comes into play too, as experience reading hands and opponents on the fly becomes more of a factor than the textbook EV of starting cards.

so depending on your priorities, you can clear the bonus 40% faster on 6-max $1/2, but you'll also pay 40% more rake in the process and the games themselves are conceivably more challenging.

[jackdaniels]

What about continuing to play at your regular playing level - thus using your time productively as far as your earnings are concerned? I mean, if spending the hours playing at 1/2 is detracting from your playing time at 15-30, do you really go to 1/2?

New to the bonus scene - so if there is any reason that it is +EV to do this, I would love to hear it.

[Emmitt2222]

No, there is no reason to drop down when you clear a bonus unless your winrate at the higher limits is really bad. You should stay at your limit because you are making more money there [that why you are there right?] just through your play and then the bonus is an addon to whatever you normally make and this is almost always better than rakeback. I played 2/4 even though I could have played 1/2 because I make more money just through playing my regular game at the higher limit and I made $115 more than I would have with rakeback. This is a common misconception when clearing bonuses and people should stop thinking only about the shortterm and the bonus money.

O and clearing a bonus at 15/30 is pointless, at the 5/10 level bonuses start to mean nothing compared to rakeback.

[jackdaniels]

Yes, I thought that was correct.

Thanks for the advice re: rakeback vs. bonii (is this really a word???). I currently play 3-6, but I'll keep this in mind when I move up to the 15-30's /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[Reef]

I paid -$254

[theredwave]

Not sure what I paid in rake but I lost $91 playing 2/4 before the $200 bonus. Would've been worse had I not placed 2nd in a couple of $20 SnGs. It feels nice losing a $130 pot when your full house gets sucked out on by a two outer on the river and going 3/14 and 1/6 with QQ and JJ respectively.

[Hung]

I only made a deposit of $500 and went for the $100 bonus. It's a miracle. I didn't think I was going to finish it so fast. I can hardly find the time to play. But somehow I cleared it in two days. 4-tabling $25 NL HE. Profit $320 ($100 bonus included). I had a good run.

[playersare]

depends what your BB/100 in actual play is in order to offset the amount of money spent clearing the bonus.

if you are already a winning player at $2/4 and up, then playing under the bonus simply increases your net percentage of earnings via the bonus versus straight rakeback.

at shorthanded $5/10 levels and up where 25% rakeback and a 7x/$1 bonus are roughly the same, then whoring is not really a strategic factor anymore.

just add the applicable earnings for the 7x bonus for the limits you play on top of your PT stats to determine whether it's worth it for you:

limits - bonus BB/100 raked hands - rake paid BB/100 (10-max/6-max)
50c/$1 - 14 BB - 5/8 BB (net gain of $6.00 - $9.00)
$1/2 - 7 BB - 3.75/6.25 BB (net gain $1.50 - $6.50)
$2/4 - 3.5 BB - 2.5/4 BB (positive $4.00 - negative $2.00 )
$3/6 - 2.33 BB - 3.33/5.5 BB (net cost $6.00 - $19.00)
$5/10 - 1.4 BB - 3/5 BB (net cost $16.00 - $36.00)
$10/20 - 0.7 BB - 1.5/2.5BB (same)
$15/30 - 0.46 BB - 1/1.67 BB (same)
$30/60 - 0.23 BB - 0.5/0.83 BB (same)