Started New Promo: Absolute Poker

I started a new PSO promo today for 9000 PSO points at Absolute Poker (AP). The promo clears after 400 raked hands with minimum $0.50 rake, i.e. $10 pot. This means that I will have to play at the $1/$2 limit hold'em tables if I want to clear this promo at a reasonable rate. This is higher than my usual limit of $0.50/$1; unfortunately, pots at this level don't go over $10 often enough to make it worthwhile to clear the promo at this level. AP also has a deposit bonus which clears incrementally at a rate of $10 per 100 raked hands.

Finished Bet365 Sign-Up And January Bonuses

I finished clearing the $100 sign-up and $50 January bonuses at Bet365, making $33 at the tables, for a net profit of $188. For a while, I was actually up about $150 at the tables, but my luck turned around and I was happy just to be on the profitable side.

Earnings-to-date: $1078

Withdrawing To A Canadian Bank Account

By now my bankroll is a pretty good size, so I decided to take some money out to pay bills. By far the best way to do this is to transfer the money into your PartyPoker account, and then do an electronic funds transfer into your bank account. You need to first register your bank account by giving them your account information from your cheques. Then they will make two small deposits of a few cents into your account, which you then need to verify with them before your bank account is fully registered.

The reason I go through PP is because they have the best currency exchange rates around. Their rates are even better than the Bank of Canada's posted US$ exchange rate, and are way better than Neteller's rates. However, you can't just deposit money into your PP account, and then withdraw it right away into your bank account. PP doesn't want people to use them as a bank, so if you want to withdraw some money then you will need to play some poker for a while after your deposit. And if your going to play poker, then you might as well try to clear a bonus at the same time.

This week, PP has a reload bonus of $100 cleared after 1000 raked hands (a reload bonus is basically a deposit bonus for existing customers). They also have another bonus going where if you join the Poker Players Alliance for $15, you can get another $100 bonus cleared after 1000 raked hands. I'll be playing at PP for the next little while to clear both these bonuses.

888.com Casino Bonus

I normally don't play casino games for profit because the house always has an edge. At least with poker, you play against other people, and if you are a better player then you will have the edge. The only way to show a profit at a casino game is if they give you a bonus which exceeds your expected loss due to the house edge. However, you still need to deposit your own money and put that at risk.

I have been following a thread on the PSO forums with interest. With the 888.com casino offer, they will match your $200 deposit with $200 in bonus money. You are then allowed to withdraw your original $200, and then play with just the bonus money risk-free. Any winnings you make above the $200, you are allowed to withdraw. To withdraw the $200 bonus money, you need to wager it 50 times over.

A few weeks ago, I decided to try this offer, since it is absolutely risk-free. As recommended by others in the thread, I played blackjack using a basic strategy chart to minimize the house edge. I also used a Martingale betting system where I doubled up my bet every time I lost (although to be honest, betting systems are all pretty worthless).

In my first session of blackjack, I ended up making $55. I withdrew this immediately, and after waiting about a week for this to clear, I started a second session of blackjack. This time, I made $360 in profit, which I withdrew. In my third session, I finally bust out, giving me a net profit of $415 for this promo.

If anyone wants to try this promo, just email me and I'll send you an invitation which will give you an additional $30 bonus for the referral.

Earnings-to-date: $890

Rakeback

I signed up for rakeback at UltimateBet (UB) a few days ago through PSO. Rakeback is where the poker room refunds you a percentage of the rake that you paid for the previous month. For UB, this percentage is 27.5% (edit 2006/06/01 - now 32%), and you are paid in PSO points (for some other rooms, you are paid in cash deposited to your poker account). So, for example, if the rake paid in all the hands that you played during the month totalled $450, and there was an average of 9 players at the tables you played, then the rake that you paid for the month would be $50, and you would get $50 x 27.5% = $13.75 (or 1375 PSO points) in rakeback for that month.

Rakeback is a good deal if you plan to play at a poker room for a long time. Compared to the regular PSO free gift promo which pays you a set amount after meeting the requirements, rakeback will continue to pay you indefinately as long as you continue to play at the site. I signed up for rakeback at UB so that I would have a place to play at when I'm not clearing a PSO promo, and also so that I have a way of earning more PSO points in case I am short some points to make a purchase.

I played some hands at UB just to get used to the software. UB is known to have a somewhat higher level of competition compared to other rooms, so I played fairly cautiously. I ended up more or less breaking even, taking the deposit bonus into account (which, BTW, gets paid out in small increments every time you leave a table).

Signed Up At Bet365 Poker

Normally when I sign up for a new poker room, I like to be clearing both a PSO promo and a deposit bonus at the same time. Bet365 isn't on PSO's list of promos, but I decided to sign up anyway because they have a decent sign-up bonus, plus they have a monthly no-deposit bonus. The sign-up bonus is $100, which clears after 500 raked hands (minimum $0.25 rake, i.e. $5 pot), and the monthly bonus is $50, which clears after an additional 500 raked hands.

Bet365 is on the Prima Network, which caters mostly to the Europeans. Traffic, then, is best during North American daytime hours, and is much lighter during the evenings when I usually play. I will try playing mostly during the daytime on my days off, when traffic is heavier and the players are generally looser and fishier ("fish" is a poker term which denotes bad players whom you are likely to profit from).

Finished Poker Room

I finally finished the Poker Room promo. I had to play about 1400 hands, and spend about 25 hours in total at the tables. The players are fairly loose, so I definately got my share of bad beats, but at the same time, they will also pay you off if you have a good hand and they miss their draw. The first night I played, I was down $60 already. I tightened up my play and managed to fight back to a profit by the fourth night, and from then on I more or less stayed profitable. I finished the promo up $35 at the tables, earned a $40 bonus, and got 12,000 PSO points ($120 value), part of which I used to get a $100 PartyPoker gift certificate, for a net profit of $175. I then proceeded to lose about $30 playing with the gift certificate money at PP :(

Earnings-to-date: $475