Sending Out An S.O.S.

Sadly, I did not win the trip to the WSOP on Saturday night. If I had I would have updated yesterday with an over abundance of enthusiasm. As it turns out I didn't make it past the first break. Recent tournament history has not been kind to me and I lost holding AK. An early position player raised and when it got to me in middle position I was going to be pot committed if I re-raised. The best thing to do in that situation is to go ahead and push it in if your going to play, so that's what I did.

My read on the player ahead of me was that he was holding a middle pair. We had similar chip stacks but he had me covered with about 200 chips left over. I really didn't believe that he would risk a coin flip this early in the tourney with so much at stake. When I pushed it all into the middle the rest of the field folded. With the decision back on my opponent he went into the tank. Having used up almost all his time before making the call I was shocked to see him flip over pocket 3's.

There is no logic to this move. I figured him for a middle pair but with this holding he had to figure he was dominated. Even if I was pushing with the hammer I'd have an overcard to him. He obviously knew more than me though and I never got the help I needed to double up.

With the tournament behind me I went ahead and made the plunge into Full Tilt Poker. The $600 bonus was to much of a lure and I eagerly took the bait. Having been hooked I realized too late that it was going to take an eon to be reeled in. I have never encountered a bonus that releases so slowly. After six hours of two tabling 1/2 I have only managed to clear about $11 in bonus.

I'm sending out an S.O.S. to anyone who has managed to clear the Full Tilt bonus. Any suggestions on what to play to clear the bonus most efficiently will be greatly appreciated. I know O8 is usually a good game for bonus clearing but the only game I've seen going is .10/.25 pot limit. I played it for a half hour and even though it was a profitable table the pots only averaged about $3. And that folks, isn't enough to help clear the bonus.

I'm going to keep at the Tilt bonus but Absolute is offering a 20% reload until midnight tonight. I'm going to hit that one before going back to Tilt. Absolute bonuses clear slowly as well but not at the excruciating pace I've been enduring the last two nights. I'll get Absolute knocked out over the next week and then with a little bankroll cushion I'll head back.