Week 4 Report

Stats:

Poker Play: +$38.75
Casino Bonuses: +$169

Total: +$207.75

Finally I'm starting to see a turn around in my poker play. I'm starting to get the preflop strategy cemented in my head, although I still keep the hands table next to me so I can refer to it if need be. My game has really taken the first leap towards becoming a true winning player. I got down below 200 in my poker stars account but finished strongly at 270 at the end of the day. I managed to win $38.75 over the course of the week, where I played between 800-1000 hands total.

The casino bonuses went well for me this week too. I only played one bonus over the course of the week and that was VIP casino, but I did very well, finising up by $169. I also just started on the Private Casino bonus today (100% up to 75 Euro's), it shouldn't take me long to finish that. Then I'm gonna to Euro bet, finish of the sportsbook.com group (3 casino's) then do a bunch of cashable video poker bonuses. Then the fun really starts as I move on to the semi- stickies. I'm hoping my bankroll will be up over 3 grand before I hit the semi stickies, ideally I'd like it at around 3500.

This blog probably seems to be somewhat boring for someone reading it. As at the moment its only weekly reports. I often think at points throughout the week that I could go do a post about something, like a big hand in poker or a bad beat or something, but I am usually to lazy to get started. Its the getting started thats the hard part, once I get started its easy. Although I do have another excuse, I've been doing another blog project called 'The Greatest Blog Experiment.' Its like a blog directory where I do 'blog of the month,' and 'blog of the week.' Its beggining to grow quite big, I've now got around 85 blogs linked to me, and fast approaching 700 hits, so that cool.

I still stick by my 'Goals' that I stated in an earlier post, although I've added in some more parameters.

1. I'll more up in poker stakes from 1/2 to 2/4 when my total bankroll is at least $3000, AND I'm up at least $400 from poker play.
2. In order to start playing semi-sticky casino bonuses, my bankroll must be at least $3000.
3. When my bankroll reaches $5000 I will withdraw $1000 ( AU$1300) back to my actual bank account.
4. Before I move up in stakes from 2/4 to 3/6 I need to make at least $1000 at 2/4 AND my bankroll must be at least $4000

In other news, I've got myself a job, I'm gonna do one day a week at my dads office, just crappy filing and stuff, but hey... its money. Hopefully by the X-mas holidays or first break next year, I'll be making enough from poker that I won't need to work in a 'Real Job.'

Week 3 Report

Stats:

Casino Bonuses: +$49
Poker Play: -$95.50

Total: -$46.50

Unfortunately this is my first losing week, however, I didn't play a lot of either poker or casino bonuses at all this week. However I did finished my poker strategy essay on monday/ tuesday, so I was able to get back into actual poker play, but only played about 400 hands for the week.

So far I've just been trying to get the pre-flop strategy in my head while also trying out various strategies that I could remember off the top of my head. I intend to go throught the strategy bit by bit until I'm playing by all of it, then double back and work on different problem areas, so of course the preflop stuff is first. I'm also trying to get into the habbit of counting the pot in bets (SB and BB) instead of money, and actually counting the bets, not just looking at the pot summary that the program gives you. So I guess that my bad poker play run this week could be accredited to the fact that I'm just starting out with this new strategy.

The worst thing at the moment is that I don't know whether I'm just another losing player, or I'm a winning player who's just having a run of bad luck, and I don't know how much I would have to lose before I decided that it wasn't bad luck but bad play. Luckily my bankroll is over 2000 big bets so I've got a bit of room to move. I've decided that I'm just going to work on my game until I get better, never give up.

In terms of my goals for moving up in stakes, I've decided to alter them somewhat because it looks likely that my casino bonus playing will bring me to 3 grand much quicker than poker play, hence in order to move up to 2/4 I need a 3 grand bankroll, AND I want to have won at least double my lowest point at 1/2 stakes. Therefore I need to win about $400 at poker in order to move up the stakes.

I've also scaled back my effort with regards to poker bonuses. I've taken all my funds out of Titan Poker because I was unable to find games with 30% of people to the flop consistently, also its not poker tracker compatible, so I can't analyse my play. I am now playing at poker stars, where I'll probabally remain until I'm sure I'm a winning player.

Poker Play:

Titan Poker: -$26.75
Poker Stars: -$68.75

I only finished off the Casino Euro bonus this week, as it took quite a while. I ended up finishing with a profit of $64 which wasn't too bad. I'm now doing the sign up bonus at VIP casino which has just increased to 50% up to $100, $2500 WR. I've got about 6 more good cashable BJ bonuses still to do, then about 8 cashable video poker bonuses, and then its on to the semi-stickies. Hopefull I go well, because it looks like I'll be relying on casino bonuses to replenish my bankroll while I work on my poker play.

I'm also back at uni next week. This is good and bad for my poker play. It means that i'll be doing work and will be out and won't have as much time for poker, however the time that I do have, I'll probably have the computer to myself as my bro will be back at school. I'll also be looking forward to it more as a break from study.

Week 2 Report

Stats:

Casino Bonuses: +$149.45
Poker Bonuses: +$42
Poker Play: -$87.75
Expenses: -$55

This week WAS better than last week in terms of money, however not much better, and it wasn't down to better poker play (or increased poker winnings). I started the week off well at the poker tables quickly getting up 20 odd dollars at Will Hill while clearing the last of the monthly poker bonus. However I proceeded to go on a nasty down turn, and once I had unlocked all the bonus I was down $61 on poker play. Titan poker didn't go much better, and I ended up down $26.75, and managed to unlock a very small portion of the bonus, $5.

The above poker play happened over monday, tuesday and wednesday morning, then I didn't play any more poker for the rest of the week. This was due to the fact that I was, and am currently, reviewing my poker strategies, by writing a strategy essay on the content of Small Stakes Hold'em. I have decided not to play any more poker until I have gone through the entire book and I have digested and understood the content, I am currently about 1/3 of the way through.

Poker Summary:
Bonuses:

Titan Poker: +$5
Will Hill: +$37

Play:

Will Hill: -$61
Titan Poker: -$26.75

Poker Expenses:

Poker Tracker: -$55

In other poker news, I FINALLY got my Neteller Account ceritified after sending heaps of emails and spending about half an hour on hold sorting it out with customer support. I bought poker tracker and I downloaded pokerpatterns which is a poker tracker compatible program for graphing. Poker Tracker is very cool, however I don't really have enough hands recorded to make any analysis meaningful, but I did have fun playing around with my stats etc. and looking at the graphs. Unfortunately though Poker Tracker doesn't support Titan poker, which is where I'll be playing for the majority of the coming weeks to unlock the sign up bonus. I haven't worked it all out yet and how to analyse opponents etc, but I will look more closely into once I get back into poker after finishing my essay. I've but the cost of poker tracker ($55) as a poker expense, because I paid for it out of my Neteller account, so I no longer have the money, and it is poker related, so it fits that it should come out of my bankroll.

Since I was wasn't playing much poker, I had more time to spend doing casino bonuses, and you can check out the write ups in my Casino Bonuses Played thread (link in sidebar).

Casino Bonus Summary:

UK Betting: -$30.20
Cherry Casino: +$104
Sportingbet USA: +$75.65

Therefore my overall result for the week was a profit of $48.70. Still not all that great, but better than last week. I am glad that I'm still moving forewards, rather than back. Currently I'm aiming for the $3000 bankroll goal in order to move up stakes from 1/2 to 2/4. I've also got some casino bonus plans brewing, but I'll post about them another time.

Poker Strategy

I have been somewhat reluctant to post anything about the poker strategy that I follow, incase someone reads this then somehow makes the connection when playing against me, which leads to my ultimate downfall. However, I have decided that players at lower stakes likely wouldn't go to that much trouble to discover their opponents strategies, and even if they did, they wouldn't know my player nickname or the sites I play at.

Anyway, the strategies I've been playing thus far are not secret, and are well known to all. I have been playing the 'Grinder' strategy, where you, as Matt Damon's character says in Rounders: "get your money in when you have the best of it, and protect it whent you dont. Don't give anything away." Neteller has yet to cerifty my account, so I STILL haven't got my hands on the full version of poker tracker in order to analyse my play. Hence I don't really know if I'm actually a winning player yet. I haven't played anywhere near enough hands to be statistically significant, so the flucutations that I'm experiencing now don't really mean anything. It has come to my attention, however, that I'm possibly not a winning player, or that I'm only marginally +EV or a break even player.

What I've decided to do is move away from my Grinder strategy and addopt the play style taught and recommended in 'Small Stakes Hold'em,' by Miller, Sklansky and Malmuth. I bought it last year and have already read through it twice a couple of months back, before I started the blog. The material is very specific to small stakes holdem, which is obviously what I play, and takes advantage of mistakes made by other players, typical at lower stakes. The book has 350 plus pages and is very dense in information, so I had no hope of absorbing all the content the first couple of times I read it. Basically it recommends are more looser preflop strategy than I've been playing, and emphasises more on good post flop play than pre-flop, as that is where others make the most mistakes.

In order to help my digest and remember all the information I'm going to write an essay on the book, for my personal use only. I will post back in the future with my progress in following the strategies in the book.

On the bonus front, I haven't started the week very well at all. Almost all of the good sign up bonuses I have already done, and those left have large WR which leads to more fluctuations and me pulling my hair out. I am getting better at keeping track of funds and moving money around etc which is good. Soon I'll be tackling the video poker bonuses, then follows the Semi-stickies (I'll explain later) and Stickies. The semi stickies and stickies have more risk involved but also give the opportunity for me to make big scores, to the tune of 400-800 bucks profit, so I'm looking forward to them too.

Well I'd better get started on that essay then, toodaloo.

Goals

I have formulated some 'goals' that I am going to aim for, so I thought I'd better post them here. First of all, they're not really time goals, like: 'I want to win two grand by the end of July,' they're more like check points which, when reached, will trigger something to change.

1. When my bankroll reaches $3000 I will move up in poker stakes from 1/2 to 2/4- this is very conservative in terms of bankroll, as I've read that 500, and even 300 big bets is all thats required in a bankroll. Three grand is 750 big bets.

2. When my bankroll reaches $4000 I will move up in poker stakes from 2/4 to 3/6- again this is farely conservative bankroll wise.

3. When my bankroll reaches $5000 I will withdraw $1000 from my Neteller account, but not before.

Obviously these check point goals aren't set in stone, as I may have to move back down in stakes if I find I'm getting killed at 3/6, but the third goal I'd like to try and stick to.

Casino Bonuses Played

Rather than reporting my casino bonus results in my day to day posts, I've decided to keep a running tally of them here. I'll update this post every time I do another casino bonus, and I have also linked to this post in the side bar.

The first few bonuses here are from before I started keeping this blog, and they detail how I built my original bankroll. If you want to do any of these bonuses for yourself, remember to check the current terms and conditions, as they often change. If you are unfamiliar with the process of bonus swindling, check out my strategy guide, Bonus Swindling

#1. Deposited $200 at Bet365 for their 100% sign up bonus up to $200, with a WR of $4000. I started off betting $1/ hand then got ahead a bit so I upped it to 5/hand, and went on a large losing streak. I proceeded to up my bets to $100/hand to chase my losses- which you should NEVER NEVER do, however on this occasion I got lucky and ended up with a $350 profit.

Result: +$350

#2. Deposited $100 at Casino Elegance for what I THOUGHT was a cashable bonus of 100% up to $100, but it turned out to be sticky. Moral of this story- READ THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS CAREFULLY. I finished the WR about even, but then, realising that I had no profit upped my bets to 100 and lost it all pretty quickly.

Result: -$100

#3. Reading the posts at Blackjackinfo lead me to believe that the bonus at Golden Palace was a sticky bonus. I read and re-read the t & c's but it still appeared to be cashable to me, however since I had already made that mistake previously with Casino Elegance, I decided to play it as a sticky bonus. I deposited $100 for the 300% bonus up to $300, which gave me $400 on the table to start. I aggresively bet $100 per hand and ran my balance up to $900 before settling back to grind out the WR. It was as around this point that I read on in the thread at Blackjackinfo and discovered that the Golden Palace bonus WAS now a cashable bonus (it had previously been sticky). This was GREAT news, I finished the WR up some more and cashed out of this one with a proft of $840.50.

Result: +$840.5

#4. Deposited $100 at Starluck for the 100% sign up bonus up to $100. I ran well on this one betting the minimum $1/hand and finishing up above EV.

Result: +$125

#5. Deposited $100 at Planetluck (sister casino to Starluck) for exactly the same sign up bonus as Starluck. I absolutely killed this bonus, starting off betting $1/hand at the beggining then upping it to $5/hand at the end when I was well ahead.

Result: +$224

#6. Deposited $80 at at Will Hill for the 100% sign up bonus. I did really well here and withdrew with a profit of 180 bucks. Will Hill also offer a $40 monthly bonus and another $40 monthly poker bonus- I will hit these later.

Result: +$180

#7. Intercasino offer a great sign up bonus of 100% up to $100, but they also offer this same bonus EVER month. The WR isn't bad at 25x bonus ($2500), and is generally easy money. I decided to bet $5/hand so it would clear quicker and because I could handle the variance better now as my bankroll was bigger. I went on a losing streak and lost the bonus and deposit.

Result: -$100

#8. Littlewoods offer a 25 pound sign up bonus as well as a recurring 25 pound bonus every month, so thats 50 pounds for the first month. I absolutely murdered this bonus, finishing well up after betting 2 pounds/ hand. Littlewoods also has a reacurring monthly poker bonus which i'll hit up later.

Result: +$295

This is the point where I started keeping this blog. In actual fact, the next two bonuses I was already doing before I officially started the blog, but as I hadn't finished them yet, I decided to count them as entirely in the blog documented period.

#9. Deposited $100 at Aceclub for the 100% sign up bonus. The bonus for Aceclub is rather high ($6000), considering the value of the bonus, so I was ready to expect more variance. This was lucky because I proceeded to go on a bad losing streak and lost the bonus and the deposit, betting $5/hand.

Result: -$100

#10. Window's Casino was an utterly terrible experience for me, read more about it here. In summary; I deposited $150 for what I thought was a cashable bonus with low WR and good blackjack rules, however it turned out that the WR was MASSIVE (10500) and the rules were terrible (dealer hits soft 17). But since I had already deposited I decided to play anyway, and after being mostly up throughout the WR, I finished it at my all time low, got stroppy, upped my bets, and lots it all. I repeat: NEVER NEVER NEVER RAISE YOUR BETS TO CHASE LOSSES.

Result: -$150

#11. As its now a new month, I doubled back and did the Intercasino monthly bonus, $100 match. After a couple of bad bonuses I needed a winner and, thankfully, Intercasino delivered this time and I finished well up.

Result: +$189

#12. Doubled back for Will Hill monthly bonus, $40 match. I finished the WR at -$17 and decided to cash out at that point, not raise my bets to retrieve losses, which I'm happy I was able to avoid. Looking back, I was quite stupid with this one, as with Will Hill you wager through the bonus first, so once i'd lost back to my original $40 deposit I could have simply cashed out even, oh well, I'll remember that for next time.

Result: -$17

#13. Deposited $188 over at UK Betting for their monthly bonus of 100% up to 25 pounds. The reason I deposited so much more than the value of the bonus was that its a bonus thats added AFTER you have wagered through the wagering requirement. Its another crypto bonus like Intercasino, Will Hill, and Littlewoods so I had to wait for a pin code to cash out. The WR for this one was 500 pounds, which I completed in one session, betting 2 pounds/ hand, and finished down 36 pounds, so once the bonus was added my result was -11 pounds (about -$20.20).

Result: -$30.20

#14. Cherry Casino was a HUGE head ache for me, but it turned out alright in the end. I deposited $222 for the 50% sign up bonus up to $111, which had a WR of 13 x bonus and deposit= $4329, a pretty big WR as it is, but I decided to bet 5/ hand thinking I'd finish it in about 4 sessions. I proceeded to go on a terrible loosing streak, I just couldn't seam to buy any luck... by the time I'd wagered though $4500 I was down to $195, so I'd lost the bonus and about $30 of my deposit as well. However my low point was around $160, so I was glad that I'd recovered somewhat and has happy to cash out only down 30. I went to the cashier and my balance available to withdraw was much less than my total balane. I was about to send an email in my rage, then I checked my bonus WR level and saw that the unthinkable had happened. Between the time that I looked at the Terms and Conditions for this bonus and the time that I'd actually deposited (about two weeks) they'de changed the WR to 20 x deposit and bonus = $6660. I was faced with a predicament, I was already down but 30 bucks and I still had $2000 of WR to fulfill, which could lead me to being down further. In the end I decided that I'd continue to play but play it like a semi-sticky, that is I would bet higher amounts and try and run my balance back up then grind out the rest of the WR. I did this, and after some nervous moments managered to run my total back up to $333 (orginal deposit plus bonus). I then dropped back to betting 2/hand and ground out the remaining WR, finally finishing with a good profit.

Result: +$104

#15. Deposited $50 at Sportingbet USA for the $30 sign up bonus (10% of deposit plus $25 free). This bonus is pretty borderline in terms of hourly winrate, but hey its free money. I bet $1/ hand for this one which took a little while because the software is very slow. The WR is only 20 x bonus so that wasn't too bad. This bonus is a little bit different to the others, because you must deposit into your account and they will give you the 10% of sign up bonus, then wager through 10 bucks and they will credit your account with another $25 within 24 hours. This bonus is also good because it is released into you withdrawable balance bit by bit as you go through the WR not in one lump sum and the end. I ran pretty well with this one finishing up with a nice profit.

Result: +$75.65

#16. Deposited Casino Euro for 50% up to 111 Euro, this is the same as Cherry Casino, these two are in the same group. However the WR for Casino Euro was only 3330 Euro. This one looked like it was going to be a white wash, as I lost every session and was right down to my original deposit, but I had a nice little run at the tail end of the WR and finished up by 49 Euro's. However there was some trickery at work. When I deposited the 222 Euro, US$288 was taken from my Neteller account, applying the same exchange rate to my withdrawal (as most casino's do) my cashout amount should have been US$69, but I only received US$49 back in my Neteller account. I sent an angry email to support explaining all this, and they said that they must follow the exchange rate as it changes and that the apparent loss of $15 was from the change in exchange rate from time of deposit to time of withdrawal. I am no expert in finance, but that change in ex rate seems a little high. They gave me the website that tells them the ex. rate but I haven't got around to checking it yet. All in all I was somewhat peeved, and felt like I was cheated out of $15. In other words, if I'd waited until the ex. rate went back to what it was when I deposited and then withdrew, I would have got the correct amount.

Result: +$49

For those of you playing at home, I would caution you to be careful when tackling the bonuses at Casino Euro and Cherry Casino, and had problems with both. And, despite coming out with a profit from both, I only had 1 winning session out of the 10 I played at the two casino's. Don't avoid them, they are still good bonuses, just be warned.

#17. I had a much better experience at VIP casino which is another crypto. I deposited $200 to take full advantage of the 50% bonus up to $100. For some reason the software was really slow the first couple of sessions, but after that it improved to its normal speedy self- I think it was a connection problem from my end. I ran really very well with this one betting $2/hand, and finishing up $169. However I feel like I lost a bit because I was up by $250 at one point, but $169 is still pretty awsome.

Result: +$169

#18. Deposite 75 Euro's (US$97.55) at Private Casino for 100% deposit bonus up to 75 Euro's. This is a great casino and bonus, fast software and quick cashouts. The WR is only 20x deposit which leads to a good expected value. I went well with this one finishing above EV for a profit of 110 Euro (US$134). Private Casino is definately going on my top 10 list.

Result: +$134

#19. Deposited $50 at Players Only Sportsbook and Casino for a 50% bonus up to $25 plus $5 free money. This is in the same group as Sportingbet USA which I did earlier, its a small bonus, but hey... its still money. The WR is $600 and I finished up above EV with a profit of $38.

Result: +$38

#20. Its another month, so back to Intercasino for the $100 monthly bonus. Finished a little below EV for this one, but still a tidy profit.

Result: +$79

#21. Littlewoods monthly was next, another 25 Pound bonus added after finishing WR. I finished up by 4.5 pounds for this one but due to a changing exchange rate my net result was even, oh well.

Result: $0

#22. UK Betting monthly- same as littlewoods, 25 pounds added after completing WR. Finished up above EV at +43 pounds but similar to Littlewoods got hit by the exchange rate and had a smaller profit than expected, but hey thats still good.

Result: +$71

#23. Ran well with the Will Hill Monthly too, finishing with a good profit.

Result: +$63

#24. Finally time to hit the video poker bonuses. I started off with Sterling House Online Casino, and deposited 50 Pounds ($96) for the 100% sign up bonus. The WR was large and video poker has a higher house edge and variance than blackjack, so the strategy was to try and double up first at BJ, then drop back and grind out the WR at Vid Poker Aces and Faces. However I lost the bonus and deposit while trying to double up. Not such a good start.

Result: -$96

The next group of Vid Poker bonuses are all part of the same group and offer similar bonuses. The good thing is that they use software that has an autoplay feature so you don't actually have to play the hands urself... you just set the number of hands to play and the software will play automatically applying expert strategy. The aslo allow 20% of the WR to be cleared at BJ, then the rest must be cleared at certain Video Poker games, with the best allowable game being Aces and Faces.

#25. Fortune Room Online Casino: 100% up to $50, WR= 20x (d&b)

Result: -$50

#26. Royal Vegas: 100% up to $100, WR= 20x (d&b)

Result: -$100

#27. 7 Sultans Online Casino: 100% up to $85 plus $15 free, WR= $3775

Result: +$42

#28. Desert Dollar Casino: 150% up to $90 plus $10 free, WR= $3250

Result: -$60

#29. Vegas Towers Casino: This one was unique, a 100% STICKY up to $50 with NO WR. Since this was a sticky I decided to aim for an aggressive target of $300. WR allowable games were anything so this wasn't actually a Vid Poker bonus but BJ bonus. I lost my bonus and deposit trying to hit aggressive target.

Result: -$50

#30. Platinum Play Casino: 100% up to 100 pounds, WR= 20x (d&b)

Result: +$26.50

#31. Vegas Palms Online Casino had a unique bonus where you deposit $100 and then get unlimited free money to play with in a mini casino but only on slots. Then you could claim the amount you made over the top of the original free money balance. I claimed the maximum of $200 then had a WR= 20x (d&b)

Result: -$8.75

Net Result for all Vid Poker Bonuses above: -$300

#32. Its a new month so hit back at Will Hill for the monthly bonus. I had a pretty bad run here, and to make matters worse, I accidently changed my bets from 2 bucks to 5 bucks at one point which really compounded my losses. I orginally deposited $200 and was all the way down to $88 when I got frustrated and did the unthinkable of betting it all... luckily I won and ended up finishing the WR at down only $39.

Result: -$39

#33. Hit back at Intercasino for the monthly bonus again. I decided to play it a bit differently this month to make it less of a grind. The plan was to play it like a semi sticky, that is make big bets of $25 a hand and run my total up to something like $400 then drop back to smaller $5 bets to clear the rest of the WR. Unfortunately, I busted out in the first stage of $2 bets, oh well, thats the way the cookie crumbles.

Result: -$100

#34. Deposited $100 at Sports Interation casino for a 125% sign up bonus up to $125. I played this one like a semi sticky, betting $50 a hand to reach a target of $375, however busted out before reaching it.

Result: -$100

#35. Deposited $50 at Sands of the Caribbean for a 100% sign up bonus up to $50. Again, played this one as a semi sticky, $50 bets towards a target of $200. Busted out after only 4 hands, :(

Result: -$50

#36. Deposited $30 at Pharaohs Casino for a 100% bonus up to $30. Played as semi sticky, busted out making bets of $30 towards a target of $120.

Result: -$30

#37. Deposited 50 Pounds at Ladbrokes for a 100% up to 50 GBP sign up bonus. This is a great bonus as teh WR is low, only 200 GBP, however 5GBP is the minimum bet that can be made. I ran well with this bonus finishing up.

Result:

#38. Deposited $100 at Omni Casino for 100% sign up bonus up to $100. The WR for this one was high ($5000) so I needed to play it like a semi sticky. I started off with $50 bets and ran my total up to $400, then dropped back to $10 bets to grind out the rest of the WR, however my balance dropped back to $195, so I played $50 bets again and unfortunately busted out.

Result: -$100

#39. Deposited $200 for a 100% sign up bonus up to $200 at casino on net. The WR for this is $10 000, so needs to be played as semi sticky. I made $50 bets and hit my target of $625 very quickly which meant I had a lot of bets to make to grind out the rest of the WR. It took almost 2000 bets, but I finally finished with a good result.

Result: +$205

#40. This bonus was great, and very satisfying. Windows casino gave me a birthday bonus of $25 of free money with no deposit required and a WR of $1000. I made $5 bets and went on a hot streak, finishing the WR well up.

Result: +$140

#41. Doubled back to Littlewoods for the monthly bonus, depositing 80 GBP to complete the WR of 625 GBP and then have the bonus added afterwards. I finished this one even.

Result: $0

#42. I received an email from Casino Elegance offering me a 300% reload sticky up to $60. With a starting BR of $80 I managed to make it through 625 of the 900 WR betting $10 a hand, but then unfortunately busted out.

Result: -$20

#43. Oops, these two belong back between #32 and #33, but I guess I'll just have to put them here. Hit back at Intercasino and Will Hill for the September Monthly Bonus. Bet $5/ hand and finished down a bit for both.

Result: Int: -$18.50
Will: -$39.00

What a Massive Week!

The first week of my attempt to derrive my income from only poker and bonuses has come to an end with an amazing profit of... +$18.76... Oh... Yehh.. Ok, so it wasn't that great, however I am glad the I managed to finish in the black, after a week of crazy ups and downs. Heres an overview of my stats:

Casino Bonuses: -$78.00
Poker Bonuses: +$89.26
Poker Play: +$7.50

First of all I should first review my goal for the week, which was to acheive 10 000 hands. I really don't know whether I reached my target, as I still haven't got Poker Tracker yet, but I doubt it. I started off the week playing Full Tilt Poker to unlock as much of the sign up bonus as possible before it expired on friday. Over the first two days of the week I managed to win $60 and unlock $40 of bonus to be up about $100. Then wednesday brought be a massive losing streak of $150, to fall back down to -$50 for the week. I think this was a result of some bad play, bad luck, and playing too many tables (I was multi-tabling at 3-4 tables most of the time). I then decided to drop back to only two tables and concentrated on playing well and making good decisions. This, combined with the fact that I was getting less hands per hour than I orginally thought (see previous post), as well as not as many hours put in led me to not getting as many hands in as I had originally planned. I continued playing thursday and friday and unlocked 40 more of the bonus, finishing up a total of 50 for Full Tilt, however down 30 for actual poker play.

Saturday I set up a Titan Poker account and deposit $500 for a $500 sign up bonus, and started to chip away at that. I finished up $8.75 for Titan Poker for the week, however only played a few hours, and none of the bonus unlocked yet. I also deposited $200 into Will Hill Poker for their great monthly bonus where the pay you 5 pounds for every hour you sit at the tables (not raked hands). I unlocked 1 hour of this ($9.26) and finished up 28 bucks 74 from poker play.

Poker Summary:
Bonuses:

Full Tilt: +$80
Will Hill: +$9.26

Play:
Full Tilt: -$30
Will Hill: +$28.74
Titan Poker: +$8.75

My week was all over the place (generally bad) for casino bonuses. First of all I had to finish the WR for Ace club and Windows casino's sign up bonuses which I'd started previous to the beggining of this blog. I busted out of Ace club pretty quickly, betting $5 a hand- it was a run of really bad luck. My experience at Windows casino was much worse, a combination of bad luck and my stupidity, mainly my stupidity. The WR was massive ($10500, but still +EV) so I'd decided to bet $10/ hand which is already pushing it. I had some pretty good runs throughout clearing the WR, twice making it up to $500 but then dropping back down to the original $300 ($150 deposit + $150 sign-up bonus), but my lowest point had only been about 250. Finally as i was reaching the end of the WR I hit a bad run and ended up clearing it at $210, a profit of $60. I was pissed off that I'd up so high ($500) twice and my losing streak and brought me to my all time low as the WR was finished, below my EV ($100). However I still had a profit, so I decided to play one more hand then cash out. I played one more hand and won it to be at a total of +$220, but then I thought that I was only $30 away from my EV point, so I thought I'd play one more and try and get a bit closer... you know the rest. I proceeded to lose that bet, then a string more till I found myself at $160 (+$10 overall). I thought what the hell and bet $100 which I lost to a dealer blackjack, then bet the remaining 60 which I also lost. So in a matter of minutes I went from a perfectly safe +$70 to -$150, and a waste of time. This is an examply of what not to do with casino bonuses- absolutely terrible- NEVER NEVER NEVER up your bets to chase losses. NEVER keep playing after the WR is cleared (except for cover in certain situations). I beat myself up about this occasion for the following two days, so hopefully I've learned my lesson for next time.

I went much better with the Intercasino monthly bonuses and finished up $189. I didn't do so well with the monthly Will Hill casino bonus and finished the WR at -$17, so in summary my casino bonus results for the week were as follows:

Ace Club: -$100
Windows Casino: -$150
Intercasino: +$189
Will Hill Casino: -$17

I probably won't report my Casino Bonus happenings as I have above in my normal posts, except in passing comment. I'm going to post a running account of all my bonuses from start to finish, and put a permanent link to it in the side bar. I will use the posts for mainly poker play results and poker bonus results. Poker bonus results will always be easy, as you can't lose a poker bonus, only unlock it slowly- so there won't be much to report. I'm almost done certifying my Neteller account so I can pay for Poker Tracker, I'll hopefully get this done in the next couple of days, so I'll be able to analyse my play and the play of others which I'm very excited about. It will also allow my to create some graphs, which I'll start to post up here when I can enough hands down.

I've also been thinking of some more goals which I was going to post here, but I've run out of time, so I'll post them another time. Also look out in the sider bar as I've added some links and something that shows my current bankroll- I'll update this as I go along. I hope this coming week as more fruitful than the last, however it is all a learning experience so i'm not particularly upset with this weeks results. I'll post again soon.

Day 1 Report

Starting Bankroll: $2187
Results:
-$100 : Lost Ace Club sign up bonus and deposit
+$22 : Playing 1/2 Limit Holdem at Full Tilt Poker
End Bankroll: $2109

I decided to play only Full Tilt this week, as I still have $120 of my sign up bonus left, and its only valid for another 4 days, so I want to unlock as much of that as possible. I think I was a little bit optimistic about the number of hands I could crunch an hour. The tables I were playing at were averaging between 50 and 70 hands per hour, with an average of 30-50% of players to the flop. I still stand by my goal of 10 000 hands for the week, I'll just have to put more hours into achieving it than I originally thought. I think I will aim to play at tables with at least 30% of players to the flop.

I started off the day well, winning some biggish hands early, but then altimately got too loose and was chasing too much and took a nasty down turn to being under by about $40. I then had to dig my heals in and focus and I ground it out and ended up finishing strongly with some big hands at the end: result: +11 BB. I played about 3 1/2 hours mostly with 3 tables open, but up to 4 for a little while, then down to 2 near then end. I probably played about 630 hands, which would give me a winrate of 1.75 BB/100 hands. However its still very early days yet and these statistics mean NOTHING in the short run.

I also played some more of the WR for the Ace Club deposit bonus, but ended up losing it all (I was already down to 80 from 200 from previous play). I also chipped away some more of the massive WR for Windows Casino deposit bonus, and I should complete that tomorrow.

Finally I downloaded poker tracker for the trial, however I intend to buy it anyway, but I'm having some trouble with my hand histories... they seem to have not been recorded, so i'll have to work that out. I'll have to spend some time over the next few days learning how to use the software, but it should be very helpful to keep track of my stats.

I won't be doing a report every day for this blog, but of course I had to for the first day.

The Story So Far...

In my entire life (i'm 19 now) i've never had a job for more than five weeks. The jobs i've had were short term and have been few and far between: swimming teacher, tree planter, personal seller and office assistant. I've never been all that fond of authority, nor of doing things the same as everyone else. I have always looked at "alternative" ways of making money, and online poker and bonus swindling has given me the perfect opportunity to do that.

One of my mates is always telling me to get a job, or get a real job, so that is the inspiration for the naming of this blog. The possibility that I could earn an income this way is very appealing. The "pay" is potentially very good, in Australia gambling winnings are untaxable, I can work when I want and take breaks and holidays when I want, I don't have to "travel" to work, and I'm doing something unique and different- which I always strive to do.

About 3 months ago I deposited US$220 into a Neteller account (online bank account) to try my hand at online poker. I didn't do too badly, and was up to about $750 after about two months of playing about 5-10 hours a week. My biggest accomplishment was winning a $10 buy-in tournament of 150 ppl- I got about $270, plus I won a satellite tournament and got some other MTT finishes in the money. Overall, I made most of my profit at MTT's, I broke about even at SNG's and I consistently lost money at cash games. Almost all of my play was at No Limit Texas Hold'em, with some at Limit Hold'em. I think the major flaw in my game was my tendency to get emotional in the game, when I lost a big hand or pot I would often throw things against the wall- and I ended up putting some holes in the wall and door, and breaking a bunch of stuff. It was one such incident, about a month ago, when I'd had a bad day and I lost yet another buy-in at a low limit cash game, and I went on "extended tilt" and deposited $200 of my bankroll into a $1/$2 NL cash game and went all-in on a hand when I was pretty sure i was beaten- it was out of shear frustration from my tilt. I lost the 200 then took all my money back to Neteller so I wouldn't play anymore.

I took a week off, then decided to see if I could do some bonus swindling which I'd heard and read could be quite profitable. To cut a long story short, my bonus swindling has been successful and I built my online bankroll from $480 (where it was after poker) to about $2000 in about 3 weeks of playing about 2 hours each day.

I have just finished my mid-year uni exams, and now have three weeks off. I have decided to return to poker, as well as spending much more time doing bonus swindling to try and earn a lavish income. I'm going to continue to play casino bonuses as long as i can, then move onto poker bonuses after that. On the poker front, I want to start out as 1/2 limit holdem grinder, and move up the stakes as I get better.

To this day, I haven't told my parents or any of my family (there's 5 of them) of my online poker or bonus exploits- I always tell them I'm just playing play money (which I did used to do for poker). My mum is VERY anti gambling and thinks that if I even gamble once I'm going to become addicted- shes very paranoid. Dad is allllll business and see's gambling as a waste of time and money- when I tried to explain to him that card counting in blackjack can be profitable for the player he said that theres no way that it would work, or that it would be a waste of time etc etc. I know the only way that he will understand is if I put it in "his" words, ie. show him business style reports etc. and graphs and tables that show my profits.

As well as simply being a record of my play, I intend this blog to serve two main purposes. One is a step by step record and explanation of my means and results which I can later use to explain to my parents where I've been getting my money from. The other is to act as a venting medium for poker so that I don't go on tilt or break things.

Tomorrow is the start of the Official record of my play. I think that one thing that could help me avoid tilt is to try and think of the money in terms of units and not the actual value. Hence my target for my first week of play, in terms of poker, is 10 000 hands (or more). Assuming about 100 hands per hour and multi tabling at 4 tables at a time, I think I should be able to reach that goal by playing about 5 hours a day. If I get board with poker I will do some bonus swindling to break up my play- I'm currently clearing the wagering requirement for cashable bonuses at Aceclub and Windows casino.

Wish Me Luck!