GrinningBuddha
08-31-2003, 04:13 AM
Day 44 – Living in Paradise
A local 2+2er invited me out to chat about PokerTracker and online poker in general. He told me that the lower rake at Paradise would positively enhance my winnings. The topic had been broached in previous diary entries, so that combined with the lure of a 25% deposit bonus prompted me to shift the ol’ bankroll over to Party’s older, stuffier brother.
I have to admit I felt like a donkey with a carrot in front of him, as every now and then a window popped up telling me that Paradise had given me $10 of my bonus since I was nice enough to play some hands at their site. I finally caught my carrot tonight, and I thought I’d present some first impressions of the games at Paradise.
While there’s still plenty of poor players there, it seemed like the skill level was just a touch higher. Guys picked better spots to bluff in, and the overall competition was a little trickier. Now, I only have 16 hours of experience there, so it may simply have been the tables I chose, but it was somewhat challenging to find tables with an average pot size in the double digits. The only time I see that on Party is at about 4 in the morning when all of the casual players have gone to bed. Are the games unprofitable? No, but I’d lean towards Party for game selection and just sheer volume of bad players at this point.
That said, I had a chance to dust off my semi-bluff (and stone-cold bluff) skills a bit, as with fewer people seeing the flop, bluffing opportunities presented themselves more often. Some bluffs went down in flames as my opponent actually had a hand (dubious as it was at times), but some worked as planned, so I’ll just file those experiences away for next time I run into a tighter game.
Interestingly, I found the tables at Paradise to be more friendly than the tables at Party for some reason. Again, it’s probably just coincidence, but I found that somewhat surprising.
A hand for those who like to play tricky:
Hand 1 – Slowplay schmoplay
4 limpers to me in the SB with A /images/graemlins/club.gif A /images/graemlins/spade.gif. I raise, and the BB 3 bets us. We lose one limper, and everyone calls my cap.
Flop: 5 /images/graemlins/diamond.gif A /images/graemlins/diamond.gif K /images/graemlins/club.gif
Hmmm… What to do… Well, 2 diamonds there, better betraisefoldcallcall… Whoa. I guess people like this flop. Ok then, raisecapcallcallcall.
Turn: 2 /images/graemlins/heart.gif
I have the feeling we’ll lose the limpers if I bet and BB raises again, so I check, BB bets, and we callcallraisecapcallcallcall once more.
River: 9 /images/graemlins/heart.gif
I feel good about this, but I hear my gut mumbling something about “the other limper has 43o, just you watch…” I ignore it and bet out since I don’t expect the callers to hang around now that the draws have missed. We go raisefoldcallraisecapcallcall and my hand beats K /images/graemlins/diamond.gif K /images/graemlins/spade.gif and (God bless him) A /images/graemlins/heart.gif J /images/graemlins/club.gif for a 45½ BB pot. In a higher limit game, I make a third of this, but with opponents this eager to play, one has to take advantage of it.
Bet your hands people! /images/graemlins/smile.gif
Wife update: She just won a $5 NL SnG tourney. The beat goes on…
So I now have a choice. I’ve cashed out of Party at this point, so I can stay at Paradise for a while and then take advantage of a “please come back and play” bonus deposit offer from Party, or I can take my winnings over to Empire poker and hit them up for a new player deposit bonus. They’re offering a 25% bonus up to $75, so I’ll need to win a bit more at Paradise (I’m sitting just shy of $300 now after a $200 deposit and a $50 bonus) first. Or, I could just stay at Paradise and wait until I have a reasonable 2/4 bankroll and then head back to the Parquarium. So many choices… I’m leaning towards the Empire deposit bonus at this point. Once I clear that, I should have a healthy 1/2 bankroll.
Healthy bankrolls are very important. I seem to remember hearing that somewhere…
A local 2+2er invited me out to chat about PokerTracker and online poker in general. He told me that the lower rake at Paradise would positively enhance my winnings. The topic had been broached in previous diary entries, so that combined with the lure of a 25% deposit bonus prompted me to shift the ol’ bankroll over to Party’s older, stuffier brother.
I have to admit I felt like a donkey with a carrot in front of him, as every now and then a window popped up telling me that Paradise had given me $10 of my bonus since I was nice enough to play some hands at their site. I finally caught my carrot tonight, and I thought I’d present some first impressions of the games at Paradise.
While there’s still plenty of poor players there, it seemed like the skill level was just a touch higher. Guys picked better spots to bluff in, and the overall competition was a little trickier. Now, I only have 16 hours of experience there, so it may simply have been the tables I chose, but it was somewhat challenging to find tables with an average pot size in the double digits. The only time I see that on Party is at about 4 in the morning when all of the casual players have gone to bed. Are the games unprofitable? No, but I’d lean towards Party for game selection and just sheer volume of bad players at this point.
That said, I had a chance to dust off my semi-bluff (and stone-cold bluff) skills a bit, as with fewer people seeing the flop, bluffing opportunities presented themselves more often. Some bluffs went down in flames as my opponent actually had a hand (dubious as it was at times), but some worked as planned, so I’ll just file those experiences away for next time I run into a tighter game.
Interestingly, I found the tables at Paradise to be more friendly than the tables at Party for some reason. Again, it’s probably just coincidence, but I found that somewhat surprising.
A hand for those who like to play tricky:
Hand 1 – Slowplay schmoplay
4 limpers to me in the SB with A /images/graemlins/club.gif A /images/graemlins/spade.gif. I raise, and the BB 3 bets us. We lose one limper, and everyone calls my cap.
Flop: 5 /images/graemlins/diamond.gif A /images/graemlins/diamond.gif K /images/graemlins/club.gif
Hmmm… What to do… Well, 2 diamonds there, better betraisefoldcallcall… Whoa. I guess people like this flop. Ok then, raisecapcallcallcall.
Turn: 2 /images/graemlins/heart.gif
I have the feeling we’ll lose the limpers if I bet and BB raises again, so I check, BB bets, and we callcallraisecapcallcallcall once more.
River: 9 /images/graemlins/heart.gif
I feel good about this, but I hear my gut mumbling something about “the other limper has 43o, just you watch…” I ignore it and bet out since I don’t expect the callers to hang around now that the draws have missed. We go raisefoldcallraisecapcallcall and my hand beats K /images/graemlins/diamond.gif K /images/graemlins/spade.gif and (God bless him) A /images/graemlins/heart.gif J /images/graemlins/club.gif for a 45½ BB pot. In a higher limit game, I make a third of this, but with opponents this eager to play, one has to take advantage of it.
Bet your hands people! /images/graemlins/smile.gif
Wife update: She just won a $5 NL SnG tourney. The beat goes on…
So I now have a choice. I’ve cashed out of Party at this point, so I can stay at Paradise for a while and then take advantage of a “please come back and play” bonus deposit offer from Party, or I can take my winnings over to Empire poker and hit them up for a new player deposit bonus. They’re offering a 25% bonus up to $75, so I’ll need to win a bit more at Paradise (I’m sitting just shy of $300 now after a $200 deposit and a $50 bonus) first. Or, I could just stay at Paradise and wait until I have a reasonable 2/4 bankroll and then head back to the Parquarium. So many choices… I’m leaning towards the Empire deposit bonus at this point. Once I clear that, I should have a healthy 1/2 bankroll.
Healthy bankrolls are very important. I seem to remember hearing that somewhere…