Pokeroom Reload Bonus $150 MAX/15% -THANKS

[serling]

You're correct, I should have applied that all the time, but I backed off the more I lost. Meant to also include splitting and doubling down hands 11 and below when dealer showed 4-6.

Could be mistaken about variance, but assumed more bets out there increases it (even if same value)?

[MicroBob]

If you're going to bet 20k hands at $1 apiece (for example) then it really doesn't matter a whole lot for your variance whether you bet them 1 at a time or 7 at a time I think. You're still playing 20k hands.
you just get to play them 7x as fast for the most part.

This is all under "I think this is how it works" so someone/anyone (everyone??) smarter than me can feel free to correct me.


However, if you got up to playing 1k hands at a time somehow (on a REALLY big table) then this should increase your variance since a streak of the dealer catching 21's would really hurt you....while a streak of dealer busts would be just joyous for you.

[Fraubump]

Doing it by BJ is a 140xBonus wagering req. You do get some extra benefits, like the freeroles and things you can spend points on, but really, this is a terrible BJ bonus. Many better opportunities.

[dfscott]

[ QUOTE ]
You're correct, I should have applied that all the time, but I backed off the more I lost. Meant to also include splitting and doubling down hands 11 and below when dealer showed 4-6.

[/ QUOTE ]

Even better would be to use a basic strategy chart:
http://wizardofodds.com/games/blackjack/

Makes it go quicker as well.

[MicroBob]

[ QUOTE ]
I should have applied that all the time, but I backed off the more I lost.

[/ QUOTE ]


Doubling your 10 v. 9 is +EV regardless of whether you have been winning or losing.
Not doubling your 10 v. 9 is -EV.

[serling]

Yep, yep, everything goes out the window in bj for me. I am definitely not the best bj player.

This stint just happened to work out. Most don't.

[mosta]

so I went into pokerroom to get the $200 from cardplayer and the $150 on this reload. to familiarize myself with the software and players I started at 3-6, two tables (and one pacific, and a free pokerroom tourney entry). after 440 hands I had 220 of the 1400 points I need for the first $200. This sucks. I'll try 5-T next time, and if it's not twice as fast I'm abandonning it. Also, for the free tourney entry, for some reason that java client anihilated my system. Constant max resources used. impossible to get the buttons to register. sometimes couldn't see blinds. phantom cards on the board. I've got 512meg and pentium 3M or whatever thinkpad. (it was just the tourney window with problems.) oh well. another reason to skip that site. also should because the graphics are so bad. everything is the same color. really hard on the eyes.

[MicroBob]

I've had some similar (occasional) problems on the download-version tables. Disconnects and disappearing cards and other weird stuff.
haven't played the java-client.
Hoping things are more stable in my upcoming p-room experience.


As for your contention that it is going really slowly:

440 hands on 2 tables should be 3 or 3.5 hours or so I guess.
1400 points for $200 means that each point is worth just barely over $0.14 of bonus.
So 220 points is $30.80 of bonus that you cleared away in 3 to 3.5 hours.

So this is about $10/hr.....or $5/hr on each table.
$5/hr is ALSO almost a full BB on each table.

if you are only breaking-even in your regular play then you are still earning almost 1BB/hr per table just on clearing the bonus.
Maybe only 0.75BB or 0.8BB/hr or so.


If your actual poker-playing win-rate is closer to 1BB/hr then you almost doubled that with the bonus.


I'll admit....it's not fantastic. But it's really not THAT terrible.
And it sure beats NO bonus.

I also believe it is pretty similar to bonuses at a lot of other sites.


On Paradise for example, you get $10 of bonus for every 100 raked hands.
At 3/6 lets assume that 80% of the hands are raked (??).
So for every 120 hands or so you are earning $10 in bonus or $0.083 per hand.

I'll assume 70 hands an hour. This would be $5.83/hr.
This is slightly better than p-room's $5/hr or so.....but it's fairly close.


Even some of the bonuses on party are about the same as this (1000 raked-hands to clear $100 worth of bonus) although the one's that are only 700 or 500 hands to clear for $100 are clearly better.


anyway, I don't think you will clear them THAT much faster at 5/10 but I'm not really sure.
you WILL clear them faster on the 5-max tables if you can play those games decently.
$350 of bonus will obviously take a long time to clear compared with $50 or $100 at other sites no matter what you play.
I started with $350 in bonus as well and it took me a couple of weeks to make it through all that.


Obviously if it REALLY frustrates you to play there then you shouldn't.

I just wanted to point out that the bonus-clearing there is pretty similar to other sites imo.