The first is on Poker Stars where I need to collect 500 VIP points before August 16, 2009 in order to clear my 25% deposit bonus. From what I can tell, Stars gives 5 VIP points for every $1 in tournament fees. They also offer a similar amount of points for rake collected in cash games, but since my cash game is weak (at best) I will stick to tournaments on Stars. At this rate I will need to play/pay $120 worth of tournament fees in order to clear my $25 bonus, and it is an all or nothing challenge, so not reaching my goal means I get $0 in bonus (some sites do offer increments, but not Stars). Worth it, not really, but experience is key to becoming a better player and I'm up for a good challenge.
The second is on Red Kings where I need to collect 1000 points in order to cash out. Back in July of '08 I signed up for an instant bankroll of $50 on Red Kings and began playing there off an on. Unfortunately I didn't devote enough time there and my bonus period expired before I could make any bonus money. Now the only thing I can do is either let that money sit there collecting virtual dust or try to reach the points needed to cash out. Since this account was created with free money (I didn't deposit any of my own money), and the fact that I'm a lousy cash game player (I play 95% tournaments with an ROI of 5%, so that side isn't bad), I figured I'd play cash games here and if I lose, no big deal. The problem with cash games are Red Kings is that you only get 0.1 points for every $0.10 rake you pay, which means I will need to generate $1000 in rake in order to reach my goal (actually less as I have around 80 points already there). They do offer 5 points for every $1 in tournament fees, but I'm trying to use RK as my cash game learning ground, so I will try not to play tournaments there. I may play the odd one, but the thing with RK is that PT3 only accepts cash game hand histories and not their tournament hand histories (unless that has changed, but I haven't heard anything more about it), so trying to use PT3 to help me would be in my best interest. Another interesting point about Red Kings is that the lowest cash game they offer is the $0.05-$0.10 games with a max BI of $10 (100 BB). This means that if I max BI, 13% of my BR will be in play. This will make it tough to multi-table at first, as I don't want to over commit too much money in a game that I'm not that good at. What I plan to do is buy-in for $5 on 2 tables and try to play a slightly modified Short Stack Strategy (SSS), where I will follow the SSS rules for at least 3 orbits and then start to open my hands in position to mix it up. Overall, I see this challenge as two-fold. First I'm lacking in cash game experience, so this will be a good chance to improve my game and second the money is irrelevant so losing it won't upset me. And like my Stars challenge, I'm always up for a good one.
Both these challenges should take me some time, so check back often to see how I'm doing.
Good luck at the tables.
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1 comments:
With RK .05-.10 cash tables you need to be careful when it comes to playing a table with too small a stack. You will find yourself getting pushed around by guys with > $10 which every table will have. I've found that joining a table with the max BI tends to be a good way to go as you're starting with a fairly average chip stack instead of starting out behind so there's less pressure to make a move.
I play at the 5 player tables, I find the pace is better than a full table. But YMMV. Either way don't waste time at RK when you have a points challenge on PS.
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