A Full Tilt Bonus

I made the realisation last night that I only had 3 days remaining to claim my Full Tilt first deposit bonus and I still had outstanding bonus credits to pick up. Bugger! I was so busy grinding away at the Party Poker tiny stakes tables that I completely let the Full Tilt bonus slip.

So it was off to Full Tilt to get involved in some of the action on the $10 NLHE cash games and build those all important Full Tilt points. As it turned out, I happened to pick one of the tightest, most un-micro, micro no limit table I have ever come across. When you’re trying to rack up the Full Tilt points you need at least a couple of loose aggressives around to force the pot sizes up. The LAG’s obviously had better things to do and after we had gone two complete orbits 9-handed without a flop being seen I was starting to wonder whether I was completely wasting my time. Fifteen minutes had passed, my stack was slightly depleted and I was still no closer to picking off another cash bonus.

Fortunately the table began to loosen up a bit and the pots began to build. (You ever notice that it only takes one guy to start trying to push people around to get things jumping?) On top of that I managed to pick up a few good hands and soon found myself with a little profit for my effort. The prospect of my main goal – more free money – was slowly drawing within reach. Gawd if ever there was a definition of low limit grinding then trying to pick up enough Full Tilt points to trigger a bonus payout would have to be it.

And then came the icing on the cake for my efforts. I was dealt KJo in the BB and was met with a small raise from the SB so I called as did the button who had earlier limped. Hit my K on the flop and bet, button folded and the SB called. I reckon I’ve at least go the guy beat here, so when a blank lands on the Turn and SB chucks ‘em All-in I was more than willing to make the call. He flips over QQ and I’m golden when he fails to pick up a set on the River.

So my little run at picking up some bonus cash has so far managed to earn me a tidy profit to bolster my Full Tilt bankroll.

So back on January 10 I reported a starting bankroll of 10 pitiful dollars and a self-imposed challenge that I would build it up. After considerable neglect and sporadic play, I have increased this bankroll to a still tiny (but at least a little bit bigger) $19.86. Go me!

Party Poker may have to take a back seat for the next 3 days.

Freerolling At Full Tilt

I’ve been easing back from Party Poker’s cash tables over the last few days for a variety of reasons, one of which was that I wasn’t particularly happy with my style of play and felt it could do with a brush up. So rather than take a break from poker altogether I’ve been sitting down at the nightly Freerolls in a bid to nurture a more aggressive game and to try it out under ‘match conditions’.

My preference is to play in the Full Tilt Freeroll even though the payout at Party extends all the way down to 80th and the field is a lot smaller. At Full Tilt there are regularly over 1500 starters in the Australian Freeroll and they only pay down to 27th place, however the blind structure is a lot slower giving you a realistic chance to recover from a beat without being blinded out.

Last night was the first time I made to the money in a Full Tilt Freeroll and, not only that, I went deep finishing in 5th place.

The most satisfying part of the tournament was a comeback from dead last place when there were 57 remaining. I was in a comfortable position with around 55,000 chips until I basically threw away all but 4,500 of them. With the blinds at 3,000 / 1,500 and the ante at 100, I wasn’t going to last very long and it certainly didn’t look as though I was going to cash. So, when I was UTG I chucked my last 4,000 chips in with J 8c and resigned myself to closing up shop. Three callers were all over me, but when I flopped trip 8s I was pretty sure I was saved.

I picked up QQ the very next hand, threw it all-in again and my tournament was alive and kicking once again. But then, I not only get back in the game, I proceeded to race through the field until I was chip leader heading towards the final table.

So what did I win for over 5 hours of hard work, good play and good luck? $6!!!

Read it an weep suckers

A Second Grinding Challenge

So, I have managed to add a lucrative $6 in freeroll earnings to the sick and sorry Full Tilt account to bring it up to the grand total of…um…$10.

I’ve been bleeding cash badly at Full Tilt and the situation’s dire. The main problem is that I haven’t been preserving my profits when I’ve been ahead at a table. It’s the same story as before, I’d be sitting on a handy profit for a session only to eventually bust out due to bad play or bad beat.

As with what I’ve been doing at Party Poker for the past 2 and a half months, I propose to devote some time at Full Tilt to build up my bankroll using a similar bankroll strategy. I’ll be playing the $10 NLHE tables and will leave a table AS SOON AS I make a profit, regardless of the size of the profit. I’ll then move over to another table and (hopefully) repeat the process.

Starting bankroll is $10.