bonus chasing grinder: April 2009 summary

That's another losing month on the tables making it two in a row. Perhaps May will be better?

I still ended up in positive territory overall though making about $150 - at an hourly rate of $6/hour. Great. Even my BB/100 at Bodog $1/2 is now back in negative territory again after a horrible run this month.

Having a quick look at my stats, i'm still playing fairly solidly so can't spot any leaks that jump out at me. I suspect i've just been running a bit cool. If I look at every time i've had AA over the past 6k hands, i've actually only won 15/42. I'm sure that's a long way below expectation.

I think the month can be best summed up in the following hand from last night. Although there were actually many worse beats.

$2/$4 Limit Holdem • 6 Players
UTG 157.65 (unknown)
UTG+1 16.02
CO 26.2 (50/10 fish)
Hero 97 (me)
SB 6.15
BB 123.05
Pre-Flop (1.5 SB, 6 players) Hero is BTN with AcAh (nice)
UTG calls, UTG+1 calls, CO raises, Hero 3-bets, 1 fold, BB calls, UTG calls, UTG+1 folds, CO 4-bets, BTN calls, BB calls, UTG calls (thanks mr CO
Flop (19.5 SB, 4 players)

9s2h6s (fairly nice flop. spades are not particularly friendly)

BB checks, UTG checks, CO bets, Hero raises, BB folds, UTG calls, CO calls
Turn (12.8 BB, 3 players)

7c (nice ... a blank)

UTG bets (umm wtf does this donk mean? how did the 7 improve him? would he donk a set - surely you'd c/r? Maybe he's on the spade draw and waited for the turn? I am confused), CO calls, Hero calls (the donk into 2 players has put me off. I will call)
River (15.8 BB, 3 players)

Qs (bah, the flush got there)

UTG bets, CO raises, Hero calls, UTG calls (i still suspect i've got enough equity in this pot. the CO raise here seems odd since he 4 bet preflop, unless he's AKs)
Final Pot: 20.0 BB
CO shows KcQh (nice river raise muppet)
UTG shows 8c5s (ummm. wtf. f me)

UTG wins 20.0 BB ( won +14.0 BB )

I'll be taking up the offer from RakeTheRake for 50%+ rakeback at William Hill in May. I'm not expecting a huge volume again in May as I'm going to be fairly busy. Hopefully I can actually make a profit though!

Last month's goals for April

Clear as much of my Bodog reload bonus as possible (cleared about $110ish)
Clear the remainder of my Cake reload bonus (please give me another one Cake!!) (done, but no reload unfortunately)
Spend some more poker points and hopefully convert some to cash (fulltilt?) Spent a few and lost :(
Play some more Pacific if it seems fishy (Played a stack and came out fairly even)
Maybe sign up for Noiq through RakeTheRake if their race is generous enough. (race wasn't worth taking up)

The gain of $150 for the month was made up of:

Bonuses/vip: $205

Bodog $110
Cake $20
Pacific $75

Rakeback: $100

Fulltilt $10
Cake $20
William Hill $70

Poker bankroll Interest: $50

Poker losses: ($205)

For May the goals in order of priority are: