Does playing for a bonus affect your play?

This is something I have been thinking about a lot lately. When I'm not playing for a bonus, it seems my motivation is to win money, but when I AM playing for a bonus, it seems I am just playing to get in hands, nothing more. Does anyone else feel this way? I realize that since I see this, I should change this about my game when I'm bonus whoring, but I am just wondering if this is common.

The bonus may be a juicy carrot but I'm not changing how I play just to get it faster. The only time I played for the bonus was playing .1/.2 6 max on Sportingbet as it was a $100 bonus with tiny stakes so the effects of calling every time preflop wasn't much.

I guess its only for certain people, as I usually do not play ring games if I have the choice. I am a SNG player, so this must be why, as I only play bonuses for free money, not to get the bonus while I play my regular game. I think I need to just stop rushing and take my time on bonuses.

[theben]

only time i 10 table party is during a reload

[ QUOTE ]
only time i 10 table party is during a reload

[/ QUOTE ]

Me 2

Do you 10 table on 2 FPS 2000s? How do you fit the extra 2

[theben]

i 10 table on a POS screen with tons of overlap.

[ QUOTE ]
i 10 table on a POS screen with tons of overlap.

[/ QUOTE ]
amen

[Eder]

I dont know...havent played w/o a bonus for almost 2 years

[KSOT]

My winrate dropped when I Started whoring, but I just assumed that was because the sites rigged hands against whores >_>

[BigBiceps]

If I am clearing the bonus on Paradise or Party, I just want to get the hands over with and play on another site.

If it is on Stars, UB, Absolute, or FullTilt I don't care how long the bonus takes to clear because I like playing on those sites.

Those are the only 6 sites I have tried. (not counting Pacific where I quit after 1 day, and Empire where I quit after 2 days).

[Keith Fellmy]

when I played for bonuses I never played very many hands usually the top ten hands (we all read Phil H's book right?) Played 4 tables at once and cleared them as fast as possible. Party, Cryptos (when they were cool), Empire and any other fast clearing bonuses I did them ask quickly as possible. The slower clearing bonuses like UB, Stars, Paradise, Pokerroom/skins, Absolute, and Prima skins I always tried to play my best poker and played more than the usual top ten hands. i would always four table with a tourney or two on the other screen.

[MadMat]

I try not to let the bonus affect my play, but I think it's hard not too, especially for bonuses with short timescales for the playthrough.

I can think of several occasions I've stayed at poor tables, or carried on playing tired and knowing I wasn't on my "A" game because I just need another 50 or 100 hands to complete a bonus.

the only site I play without a bonus isn't PT compatable, so I can't really work out just how much this is affecting my bottom line though!

Mat

[raze]

When I play I've learned to NOT constantly check the cashier to see how well I'm doing bonus-wise - this helps

[jrz1972]

Bonuses will sometimes affect what game I choose to play. If I want to get the bonus knocked down quickly, I'll sometimes play a level higher than I normally do, often at 6max. Otherwise it doesn't affect my play at all.