Getting Absolutely Smoked on Absolute Poker

[Bubbagump]

DISCLAIMER: I'm not posting this to claim the site is rigged so if your going to flame me, find another reason.


I put $500 into Absolute Poker last week to get their $100 bonus. I know the bonus is not as easy to clear as it once was but I've heard the games are soft and seeing as I had no trouble clearing the Stars bonus, I fealt up to the challenge.

Since depositing my money, I have not been able to get a hand to hold up on this site. I've played 220 raked hands at 1-2 since last week and have probably played twice as many hands altogether and I can't seem to win a hand.

The purpose of this post is to find out if anybody has ever lost money going after a bonus and how they handled it. I'm already stuck more than the bonus is worth and I still have another 800 raked hands to play which seems like an eternity. I am debating just withdrawing the rest of my money and looking for a better game elsewhere.

At what point would you ever consider giving up on a bonus?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Bubbagump

[LondonBroil]

If your down over $100 after 220 raked hands on their 1/2 tables, your either not a good player, or you've just been incredibly unlucky.

Or maybe everyone from 2+2 is playing on those tables also clearing the bonus.

[westmt01]

I was in much the same situation at Absolute a few months ago as you. At one point I had lost the bonus and part of my own money, which I had never done before. I don't know what it is about that site. I'm not saying the site is rigged either, but I never in my life saw so many people suck flushes and straights out of the river. The players on Absolute are SO INCREDIBLY BAD, yet they were winning. But I posted a similar question here, and people said just continue to play sound poker, and things will turn around. They were right. I wound up getting back part of the bonus, and the instant it was cleared I was long gone. I never plan to go back.

So I think you should stick it out and continue to play sound poker. The people that raise BTF with 72o will have it catch up with them eventually, just as playing good poker will reward you in the long run. But there is something strange about Absolute. I avoid it like the plague now.

[ewile]

if it makes you feel any better, I've lost in bonus situations. Actually, this month I deposited $100 on Intercasino as I do every month to play 300 hands for the $50 bonus and I cashed out like $53 at the end. It takes alot to admit that here, but it's true. (I KILLED them on the Black Jack end this month though so it's all good!)

Play on.

[n1stunnor]

LOL

You better stop playing at Party too.I hear people there like to raise UTG with 72o also and sometimes they get lucky and win.

Better yet,you should just quit playing poker altogether.

[tiltboy]

I've been playing at Absolute the last few days clearing that latest bonus (both of them) as well and I don't think I'd describe the tables as 'soft' exactly. I've played 2/4, 3/6, and 5/10 and considered the 10/20 but it rarely seems to get more than 4-5 players with small pots when I've checked. There are some good players there, and some really awful players, but the ones I can't figure out are the kind of bad--My Opinion (TM)--players who I've seen there regularly multitabling the 5/10 even 10/20 over a period of many months while seeing way more than 50% of the flops on a full table. They don't seem to be selectively aggressive or play particularly well after the flop but seem, honestly, to depend on luck. Their rolls go up and down more than heads at a Metallica concert but there they sit, day after day. I just wish I could get an Omaha or Omaha/8 limit or PL table going there bigger than $.5/1.

[jamesburke]

nah come on these players are great!

###############################################
Stage #32164452: Holdem Normal $1/$2 [2004-06-23 01:36:54]
Seat 1 - PEACEMAKER22 $49.75 in chips
Seat 2 - MISTERGMB $218.34 in chips
Seat 3 - JAMESBURKE $30 in chips
Seat 4 - GAMMASPHERE $40 in chips
Seat 6 - ADAM29 $42.08 in chips
Seat 7 - INCOGNITO21 $42 in chips
Seat 8 - DAYSTAR $120.25 in chips
Seat 9 - KINGOTTO $14 in chips
*** BLIND [dealer 7] ***
DAYSTAR - Post small blind $0.50
KINGOTTO - Post big blind $1
JAMESBURKE - Pocket [Ac,Ah]
PEACEMAKER22 - Calls $1
MISTERGMB - Folds
JAMESBURKE - Raises $1 to $2
GAMMASPHERE - Raises $2 to $3
ADAM29 - Calls $3
INCOGNITO21 - Calls $3
DAYSTAR - Folds
KINGOTTO - Folds
PEACEMAKER22 - Folds
JAMESBURKE - Raises $1 to $4
GAMMASPHERE - Calls $1
ADAM29 - Calls $1
INCOGNITO21 - Calls $1
*** FLOP [4d,2c,3d] ***
JAMESBURKE - Bets $1
GAMMASPHERE - Raises $1 to $2
ADAM29 - Calls $2
INCOGNITO21 - Calls $2
JAMESBURKE - Raises $1 to $3
GAMMASPHERE - Calls $1
ADAM29 - Calls $1
INCOGNITO21 - Calls $1
*** TURN [4d,2c,3d,8s] ***
JAMESBURKE - Bets $2
GAMMASPHERE - Calls $2
ADAM29 - Calls $2
INCOGNITO21 - Calls $2
*** RIVER [4d,2c,3d,8s,8h] ***
JAMESBURKE - Bets $2
GAMMASPHERE - Calls $2
ADAM29 - Folds
INCOGNITO21 - Calls $2
*** SHOW DOWN ***
JAMESBURKE - Show cards [Ac,Ah]
GAMMASPHERE - Lost mucks
INCOGNITO21 - Show cards [Jc,8c] (Timeout)
*** RESULT ***
Total Pot($44.50) Rake ($2)
Board [4d,2c,3d,8s,8h]
PEACEMAKER22 - Folded on the POCKET CARDS
MISTERGMB - Folded on the POCKET CARDS
JAMESBURKE - HI:Two pair, aces and eights [Ac,Ah - P:Ah,P:Ac,B:8s,B:8h,B:4d]
GAMMASPHERE - HI: [Lost mucks]
ADAM29 - Folded on the RIVER
INCOGNITO21 - Total ($42.50) HI$42.50)Three of a kind, eights [Jc,8c - B:8s,B:8h,P:8c,P:Jc,B:4d]
DAYSTAR - Folded on the POCKET CARDS
KINGOTTO - Folded on the POCKET CARDS

[dogmeat]

I feel for you. I am in the same spot at Ultimate Bet. I took their 33% bonus (which is huge) and have been playing 2 tables and can't make a run all week. I've played mostly $2/4, but now even some $1/2 - and I'm losing $55 after the bonus (of which I still have about $10 to clear). I guess I stink and the only games I can beat are at Party.

Dogmeat [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

[JayLeno]

I pretty much NEVER give up on a bonus no matter how much I have lost. I have lost the last 4-5 times at UB - not more than the bonus but almost the same. Only once have I given up the bonus: last time I did True poker(1/2 year ago) I was down 400$!!!!! and had about 20 bonus$ left. Then I cashed out and erased the software(very childish but I dont like that 1 table only policy).
I think if you are a good player, you have to keep up the work. You have just been unlucky.

[Mike Haven]

when regular social players often play with the same people with the same style and when they play almost any hand the money just goes round and round the table, night after night

no one wins or loses very much, except slowly to the rake - but this is an acceptable (and probably unrealised) cost for the entertainment, and, of course, on different days some one or two of them bag a nice win to keep them happy for the next week or two

if a new player to the table plays a different style, probably tighter or more aggressive, there is tacit collusion by the regulars - it's not pre-organised - but the regulars don't want the unknown player to win "their" money, and the "best" two or three or even four hands always go after the newcomer, probably passively, to "keep him honest" - they see AKs being played hard to the river as a bluff, and they think nothing more than that they have picked off a bluff when their J7o wins on a Q83 7 Tr board

imo, in this type of game, every time you enter a hand, with relatively premium cards, you should be prepared to drop or stop on the flop - if you raise your AKo pre-flop, you can bet your boots someone has made a pair when the flop is Q83r, and that they won't be going anywhere, whatever you do from now on - it's up to you if you think it's worth trying to hit an A or a K on the turn or the river, but i believe you will need to hit one of them for you to win the hand, far more times than not