After clearing the Empire bonus last weekend I decided to make Poker Stars the next stop on my bonus whoring tour. I’d need 600 FPP to clear the $120 bonus.

On Monday night I fired up Poker Stars and went looking for $0.50/1 tables. The first thing I noticed was there weren’t many full tables to choose from. Next, I noticed the tables were much tighter than those found at Party Poker. Oh well, we’ll give it a shot.

Last weekend I said I would be moving up to $1/2, but for some reason I wasn’t quite up to it yet. On Monday I played strictly $0.50/1, ending up down about $10. On Tuesday I mixed in one table of $1/2 and was down $38. Wednesday I again played one table of $1/2 with 3 tables of $0.50/1, ending up down $41. At this point I was pissed off and decided a couple of SNGs would be the thing to do. Wrong! I played like an ass and blew another quick $22. As I played I kept checking my FPP balance, which was moving at a snail’s pace. In three days I was down $112 and had earned just over 100 FPP. Not quite how you’d like to clear a bonus. The object is to make money and if this pace continued I’d be down over $600 when I finally cleared the bonus. A $120 bonus just isn’t worth it to end up down almost $500 total. I fucking hate Poker Stars!

I needed a new plan. On Thursday night I decided it was time to move up to $1/2 full time again. I kept telling myself the Poker Stars tables were tighter by quite a bit, so I’d have to adjust my strategy. I’d have to tighten up a bit and fold to raises more often pre-flop. I 4-tabled $1/2 for just over 2 hours and finished over 40 BB ahead for the session. Hey…these games can be beat. I earned another 200 FPP, so I was halfway to clearing the bonus and was only $30 in the whole.

Last night I stuck with the same plan. After nearly 4 hours of play I had doubled my 30 BB buy-in at 2 tables and came out a little ahead at the others for a profit of $135. As soon as I hit the 600 FPP mark I cashed out and signed off. During the course of clearing the bonus I played about 11 and a half hours, coming out $105 ahead at the tables and $225 ahead with the bonus. I love Poker Stars!

After my stay at PS, I’m wondering what type of tables are best suited for my style of play. At the fishy tables found on Party and Empire you’ll get paid off more often with your big hands, but you’ll also get sucked out on much more often. At the tighter tables of Poker Stars, your big hands will hold up more often and you can steal pots more easily. You’ll still get sucked out on, but not nearly as often. Both types of tables present good playing conditions, but is one more profitable than the other in the long run?

Looking through my Poker Tracker stats I found out that pocket rockets were 12 for 13 at Poker Stars, accounting for $86 of profit out of my total $105 profit. I won the last 10 times I held them, only having a showdown 4 out of those 10. This might be where the tighter tables show a slight advantage. When big hands hold up, it’s easy to stay on top of you game. At looser tables, the big hands will lose more often to junk and tilt tends to follow.

Since starting over on March 4th, I’ve watched my bankroll climb from $300 up to over $1,700 where it now sits. In a little over a month I’ve cleared $720 in bonuses and made $740 playing poker. I have a big enough bankroll to support playing $3/6 online but I’ve never liked moving up too fast, so for now I’m going to stick to the $1/2 tables. Maybe I’ll jump to $2/4 when my bankroll hits $2,500.

Next up on the bonus whoring tour will either be Full Tilt Poker where I have a $50 bonus waiting or Ultimate Bet where I have $325 in bonuses to earn. I wish I had taken full advantage of Full Tilt’s $600 sign up bonus, but at the time I had just cashed out my bankroll and didn’t have the necessary funds.

See you at the tables…