Game selection?

ThaHero · #1 04-05-2005, 09:11 PM

I'm a beginner myself, but will take a stab at giving some advice.

If you are going to stay at $25NL, I wouldn't read SSH. I'd say it's mostly a limit book. Although I'm sure some of the principles in it would apply for NL, it would probably be best to read some other books out there. This is just my opinion though. Maybe SuperSystem would be a better option. Or HEPFAP. I'm not sure which books contain a lot of NL advice since I mainly stick to limit right now.

Also, if you read SSHE, it's perfect for .50/1 and similar games. I'm currently beating the microlimits using SSHEs guidelines, trying to build my BR up level by level. 100% of my profits so far are going back into my bankroll. But it's only like 5 bucks of profit so far, so it's really not even worth taking it out lol. Anyway, good luck! Sounds like you are on the right track, because you came here [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

agar316 · #2 04-05-2005, 09:30 PM

thanks for all the feedback, ecspecially yours b. a buddy of mine once "bonus whored" on the black jack sites but he used basic strategy and never lost any money. he simply broke even at the tables and pocketed all the bonuses. don't you have to be a decent player to bonus whore in poker? I mean what good is it to earn a $100 bonus if you lose $200 at the tables? am I missing something? I guess what I'm saying is it isn't fool proof...or is it?

MagicFlea · #3 04-05-2005, 10:18 PM

I had your experience or less when I picked up SSH, and found my way here. My experience playing low limits and bonus whoring has been great so far, and I'd definitely recommend it. You should have no trouble beating .50/1 to a level that will probably match or exceed your bonus money. If you need to keep taking money out of your bankroll, I'd recommend picking a small amount that you're confident you can exceed, and leaving the rest to build your bankroll... your bankroll is like an investment, so the more you leave in now, the more you get to take out later

Pov · #4 04-05-2005, 10:22 PM

Well first off you can't break even playing basic strategy at blackjack. The house has an edge and you will lose money the longer you play. You can successfully bonus whore blackjack when the bonus you're given is larger than the house edge times the number of hands you're required to play to clear said bonus.

Poker is pretty much the same except instead of being guaranteed a losing long run, you can actually be a long term winner PLUS earn your bonus. Even if you are not a particularly good player as long as your winrate is not too negative your bonus will overcome your small loss as you improve. If you can play break even poker then you will earn the bonus as profit.

So yes, you need to be a "decent" player, but if you're not decent you're going to lose regardless so you might as well be earning a bonus while you lose to help cancel out your losses while you learn. It's good to be "paid" to learn. If you don't think you can learn to be at least break even then bonus whoring poker is a bad idea.

agar316 · #5 04-06-2005, 10:22 AM

thanks POV. makes sense. I feel like I'm bothering people but I'm gonna continue asking until I get told otherwise. How does bonus whoring work? Am I basicly going to be playing .50/1 at numerous sites reopening new accounts each time to take advantage of the deposit bonuses? how many sites do you guys play at once? can it be difficult to manage? do you track your playing somehow (other than poker tracker I mean)? is there a bonus whoring end all be all site to get me started? also, if you're playing at different sites all the time how do you build your roll? I mean do you have one "main" site or do you consider your bankroll to be all your online accounts added up? again I appreciate all the feedback and I look forward to taking you guys money in the future [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

SheridanCat · #6 04-06-2005, 12:23 PM

[ QUOTE ]
thanks POV. makes sense. I feel like I'm bothering people but I'm gonna continue asking until I get told otherwise. How does bonus whoring work?

[/ QUOTE ]

See the FAQ link below for pointers to bonus whoring information.

One of the nice things about the beginner's forum is, unless you just don't want to learn or troll just to bother people, you can't bother anyone here. This is a place to ask whatever question you might have.

Regards,

T

Beginner's Poker FAQ

agar316 · #7 04-06-2005, 02:27 PM

"In order to clear the bonus on a $500 deposit, you need to play 500 raked hands (5x). It works out to be about $8-10 per hour/per table."

can someone ellaborate on this? is he saying it's going to take about 10-13 hours of 5 tabling to clear the $100 bonus?

bholdr · #8 04-06-2005, 03:40 PM

it takes nowhere near that long to clear a bonus (at sites like party, empire, etc).

at the avarage .50/1 or 25$NL table, one can expect about 50 raked hands and hour- more if the game is shorthanded (6 max). that works out to about 20$/hr if one plays four tables at a time, or about 5$/hr/table. 4 tabling clears a "100$ 5x raked" bonus in about 5 hours.

at 1/2 6 max or 50$ NL (the games that most hardcore whores use to clear bonus, it's a bit faster, about 70 raked hands/hr, or about 7$/hr/table.

here's a link that shows the various clearance rates vs the various games. you should bookmark this site.