Using Pacific bonus clearing to teach discipline / aggression
 

I don't know if this would be better suited to the Internet Gambling forum, but I thought I'd share this with the other microlimit players...

I've been playing for about 6 months now, starting at the micro-microlimits and moving on to Party 0.5/1 over the last couple of months. I started with WLLH and played a very weak-tight game; now after reading SSHE and lurking on these forums I'm trying to develop my aggession. However, I find my play has two structural weaknesses:

1) Too weak/scared: I suffer from Monsters Under The Bed syndrome. While I've dramatically cut my folding in big pots, I'm still not value betting enough

2) Too focused on short-term swings: If I start to play and find myself up early on, I often quit soon after and play weak-tight until I leave, to try and bank the gain.

One way I've found to help improve my discipline and aggression is to sign up for the $100 Pacific bonus and play the 0.5/1 table. The extreme difficulty in clearing the bonus (need to wager 20x bonus i.e. $2000 in raked pots) at this level has two side benefits:

a) It makes me keep playing rather than quitting with early gains, since I know I have to wager such a large volume of money to clear the bonus

b) it makes me more aggressive, since when I'm faced with a marginal decision to put money into the pot, I often find myself thinking 'at least this counts towards clearing the bonus'.

Anyway, if any other players find themselves with the same problems as I have, this might be one way to help, with the added bonus that the games are soft and, as you build your bankrolls, you can up to the 1/2 game, which people here say is softer than on Party. (Incidentally, I signed up to Pacific through cardplayer.com, which offers a 60% bonus, rather than the standard 25% - I don't know if there are better deals out there).