The other day my 15 day trial version of Hold’em Manager ran out. Well, that sucked, so I decided to aquire the software. Being the cheapskate bargain hunter I am, I thought: Why not try and earn it for free?
It’s sort of the classic bonuswhoring scenario: Download a poker client of your choice and chip away. When you reach a certain number of points (read: when you’ve paid a huge amount of rake and probably also lost a large lump of your stack), you get the license key. It’s always seemed to me, that bonus whoring is like playing against the house. Which means the house has the edge, and I always stay away from those games where I can’t control the final outcome myself.
Whatever, I picked – for no particular reason – Pacific Poker. Installed and deposited $50.
I wasn’t really able to figure out, how long it would take me to clear the 75 reward points that were required, but I figured that the higher the limit, the less I’d have to work per point.
So, in my infinite wisdom, I sat down at a .50/1.00 limit Hold’em table and quickly got my lilly ass whooped good. In fact, it took me like less than an hour to get stuck $47. That game was definately not how I remembered it from Pokerstars, that’s for sure. Seemed like nobody liked to fold a draw. And for good reason, as they all would hit anyway. And if they couldn’t beat me silly with a draw, why not suck out with overcards or simply slowplay KK against my QQ. Wow!
Dropping down in limits didn’t do me much good either – same shit, different color…I went to bed, kicking myself, thinking it would probably turn out to have been a lot cheaper to just buy the damn license in cash. I felt really fishy and stupid for falling into a trap like that.
So today, I evaluated the situation: The account was down to about 14 buck (EDIT: including an instant bonus that got payed to my account upon sign-up). I could reload and go at the ring games again, but I felt I wouldn’t have much of an edge. So I noticed, that they had $0.15/0.30 heads up games. Figured that would probably be my best shot, even though heads up for cash isn’t something I’ve done much of.
So I sat down with $12. A few minutes later, I got 151 hands worth of action, earning me $20. Excellent!
So encouraged, I took a break and went back after dinner. Sat down at the same limit, but this time with a full stack, $30. Same routine, 154 hands, and my account was now $15 richer.
I figured I was on a roll, so a cup of coffee and a bar of chocolate later, I sat down for one more go. This time, the session took 249 hands. But it was worth it.
Paradise Pacific Poker has a pretty weird hand history thing, so I can’t post hands without digging into the files on my computer. Time being 1 a.m, I’m not really in the mood to do so, which means less fun for you, but also less work for me…
Anyway: He was pretty aggressive, maybe even too much. In those cases, I just lean back and let the other guy hang himself. I know from experience, it will happen, sooner or later.
This time, it was sooner. 10 hands into the match, I Turn top Two pair against his middle two pair. Money goes in the middle and I’m up a buy-in.
We battle it out for a bit, and I make some loose calls now and then, which he exploits well, so my stack dwindles somewhat.
Then I find myself with [AK].
There was some three and four-betting preflop, so the pot got pretty big. The Flop came out all low cards. He bet nearly the pot, so I figured he must have something, but I decided not to believe him, so I pushed. He had pocket Queens, but I spiked an Ace on the Turn, and I was up another buy-in.
Which was good because in the next 30-40 hands I slowly bled my stack off, falling back to about $47, before things slowly turned around. There were some bad calls and some hands that should have been folded preflop. Like I mentioned, he was pretty aggressive and raised almost every hand on the button, 2.5 x BB. For some reason, I had problems adjusting to his style, but eventually it came around.
I would mostly min-raise from the button, and he would mostly call. Fine. So I picked up suited [Ac8c]. Did my minraise thing and he called. Flop was pretty good, [QhTcJc], giving me a world of outs (9’s, K’s and clubs). So I’m roughly 60 percent to hit any hand that will give me the nuts, and he starts to build a pot!
Well, I definately wanted to accomodate. Turn was a blank, but this was really too good to fold. River card was [7c] and he figured his hand to be the best. He turned over [9c2c], which I guess means we had almost the same number of outs, only mine were stronger, of course.
Stack: $90+
About 20 hands later, the perfect wave came in:
Me: [Ah5s] on the button.
Minraise to $.60, he calls.
Flop: [7d5h5d]
He bets the pot ($1.14), I call. No point in raising him off the hand.
Turn: [5c]
He bets half pot, I call. I didn’t raise here either, because I thought he was trying to steal, and I didn’t want to lose my customer yet.
River: [6d]
He bets the pot, so he must have something. Either a straight or a full house. I was hoping for the latter, of course.
I push and lo and behold, he calls, turning over [Q7s] for a boat.
My stack: 134.55
Then he finally had enough and sat out. All the same, I was pretty done for myself, so I didn’t really mind.
—
Oh, and the bonus clearing: I made 58 of the required 75 points tonight. Somethimes, poker is just so easy, isn’t it?!
Bedtime,
/j.
joxum Hold'em Manager, Limit Hold'em, Running good, Upswing, downswing, heads up, poker software
Never mind the non-cash and the rather bland exit when I rammed 7’s right into a pair of Aces. (It was an obvious fold, I can only blame myself).
