They’ve revoked the bonus. They didn’t just expire it, they took it back from anyone who used the code. There’s a consolation 10% retroactive bonus with no hand requirements, so I get fifty bucks for my troubles. That’s nowhere near as good. Ten percent I could make on my own fairly easily. One hundred percent would be tough. Oh well. Time to cash out my deposit.
Posted on September 29th, 2004 § 0 comments
All the reasons for cashing out of my online poker account remain true. But that Empire reload bonus tipped things in the right direction for me to make time for poker. I’ve only played just over a hundred hands, but so far I’ve made a few big bets here and there, playing 1/2 and $25 PL, and I’m 1/25th of the way to my rake refund. I checked PT to see how much I’ve paid in rake, and it’s a whopping $700+ since I started keeping track back in mid-March. The way I see it, Party/Empire/Multi owe this to me.
Tonight I got more than my fair share of playable hands–oh yes, I’m being set up (once again) for the fall. But while you’ve got the advantage, you’ve gotta push it as far as it will go. That said, the 1/2 table I spent the most time at tonight was tough. Some good players there, which is not usually the case at the Party skins. But this late at night, I’ve tended to notice the limit tables are full of maniacs or sharks. I won some big pots, but I also paid a lot into some pots I didn’t win. After a few of those, I decided to change gears and move on to the pot limit tables. There I did much better, offsetting my short-run losses at the 1/2 table. The two big pots I won were those where my victim flopped the nut straight or flush draw and decided to raise on the draw that never completed. My gut tells me that this is not a good strategy. And as HD will tell you, at a low-limit table on Party (or any aquarium), with a family pot at stake, this is definitely not optimal strategy. Of course, I was playing PL and after the drawfish raised, it became heads up. So all you poker strategists out there, if you have any thoughts on semi-bluffing with a raise in PL or NL where you’re unlikely to get more than one or two callers, let me know. Since you have a greater range of what the bet could be, this certainly does open up possibilities. I suspect that these will depend heavily on your read of the other guy’s hand and betting style.
This brings me to the last thought of the night. I really need to mix up my play. Not to the extent where I find myself severely short stacked, but every so often I need to throw in something the table hasn’t seen before.
Posted on September 29th, 2004 § 0 comments
I said I was giving up the online poker, but then Poker Grub came along with this crazy reload bonus for Empire:
Bonus update: Empire has a phenomenal reload bonus of 100 percent up to $500 using the bonus code MATCHBONUSEP. You’ll have 30 days to work off 2500 raked hands (only 5x). I suspect this is a mistake, so I don’t anticipate it working very much longer. Take it while you can! Once it’s sitting in your account, they’ll honor it.
I couldn’t resist. I IGM-PAY’d an e-check and now I’m $500 poorer and my bankroll is $500 bigger. My God, what have I done?!
Posted on September 28th, 2004 § 1 comment
Back in the day (circa 1999), we used to go to this Britpop club called Popsuperstar. Its best incarnation was Sunday nights in West Hollywood at the Firehouse. It was a big space with smoking areas front and back. We went nearly every week and came home drenched with sweat (not pretty). At some point we stopped going–I think it was a combination of a change in venue and the fact that EM was going to become ER and was too busy to go. At any rate, Popsuperstar disappeared from the club lists and hasn’t been seen since. Since then, we’ve tried Bang!, Underground, Hang the DJs, and some of the other established/startup Brit/New Wave/Indie type places and have mostly come away dissatisfied.
Endtroducing…
There were signs this might be good: West Hollywood, Sunday night, sample setlist, and the graphic used to advertise opening night (above).
The place was great. We were there from just after opening to just after closing, grooving to the Charlatans, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Blur, The Strokes, St. Etienne, Pulp, The Cure, Duran Duran, Depeche Mode, Suede, The Stone Roses, New Order, and much, much more. Drinks were pretty cheap, too: Bushmills for five fifty, draft beers for less than five. Unfortunately, I think our group was really the only people there, and that doesn’t bode well for Vox Pop. But we’re going to try to enjoy it while it’s still with us.
Posted on September 27th, 2004 § 0 comments
