I think Bonus whoring is making me play a bad game.

[bonaparte]

I just cleared the Empire bonus last night, but I know towards the end of the evening there was only one thing on my mine: Clearing my last 100 hands. I was tired, a little grumpy because I had just gotten most of yesterdays 33BB loss back, and now everybody was sucking out on me. I know I should have stopped playing and taken a break. What did I do??? I kept playing. One of my tables was a VPIP of like 24%. I know I should have gotten up and walked away. I want to learn how to play better poker, and part of that is getting up and leaving a bad table. NO, I stayed because every hand had a pot over the $5 minimum needed to clear the bonus. At a second table I was continuaouly being sucked out on my a person with a 77%VPIP and a aggression factor of about 3.5. I knew he was going to get into almost every pot, and I knew he would be raising the whole time through. I should have stopped right there and reread the sections in SSH and HEFAP on how to play against maniacs, as I was weak on this last night. Again I should have left the table (even though some would argue that I shouldn't have because I had a couple nice money spewers there) and adjusted by learning how to play against this maniac who was quite successful at taking all my money.

The point is I wasn't doing what I should have been doing because I wanted bonus money. I'm new to .50/1 (2600 hands) and I need to take the time to learn how to beat it before I move up again, but I have the dilemma between playing almost good poker and getting great bonuses (short term money), or actually working more on my game (long term money). Apparently the former is winning because I signed up at another site for a $200 bonus so I would have something else to clear this weekend.

Anyway has anybody else had this problem? How did you deal with it? It is hard for me to leave (bonus) money on the table for the sake of improving my game.

I think that in and of itself might make me a weak player.