Over the long holiday weekend I bonus whored Empire Poker for their quick 3 day reload and then Party Poker. I’m a sucker for the free $100 each site gave me. Or are the poker sites the suckers?

Playing 4 tables of $25 No-Limit 6-max it took about 5 hours to clear the Empire Poker bonus. I was up, down, up, and down again. With only a couple of hands left to clear my bonus I was up $20 and felt good. I was going to log my first winning session in a week. I cleared the required number of raked hands and played out my orbits, which I always do. I was still up about $20. On the 2nd to last hand I pick up KK. The board wasn’t scary at all and I ended up losing to a slow-played AA. It felt like a kick in the junk. So much for that winning session. I finished down $2.90 for the 5 hours, but still made about $20/hour because of the $100 bonus.

Next up was Party Poker. Iggy had mentioned on his site that the Bad Beat Jackpot was over $200,000. I hadn’t played the BBJ tables in quite some time and when the jackpot is that high I always try to play. All of the fish that normally play $0.50/1 and $1/2 move up to $2/4 (lowest limit at the BBJ tables) because they think they actually have a shot at winning the jackpot. I only play these tables because they are so juicy. Winning the BBJ would be an uber bonus. The lower limit players that jump up for the jackpot don’t really know how to play. They’re simply risking their bankroll for a shot at winning a small lottery.

Late Sunday night (or early Monday morning depending on how you look at it) I deposited $500 so that I could get the full $100 Party bonus. I fired up 4 tables of $2/4 BBJ. From the start I was running into everything. Someone was on a flush draw, they’d hit. Calling with bottom pair? They’d hit trips on the river. At least I didn’t let it get me on tilt. I finally signed off around 3 in the morning at about $150 in negative.

After I woke up Monday morning the jackpot was up around $280,000 so I fired up 4 more $2/4 BBJ tables. I had to make quick $300 deposit though because I like to sit down with 30 BB at each table. I kept running into everyone catching their hands. After an hour or so I finally started to see the light. I was moving back up towards being even for the bonus period. Then soon after I moved into positive numbers. I finished up just over $90.

For the two bonuses I spent a little over 11 hours at the online tables and came out $290 ahead. Not a bad hobby to have. I hope the Bad Beat Jackpot doesn’t hit during the day today so that I can play some more tonight.