Valuable reminder/Waste of time
 

It’s a good point about the cost chasing free money.

So this weekend I took advantage of the Party reload I’d been waiting for. The terms were that I had to clear nearly 200 hands before next week, and I’ll be out of town for the holiday. So I multitabled at 50/1, just to see as many hands as I could. Well, you can guess what happened. Sometimes I played too loose, and when I didn’t I got sucked out on. I came very close to losing more than my bonus was worth before I jumped back up to 2/4 and won some hands to get back to even. After finally clearing it, my take for the night was up $8, including bonus. Had I stuck to solid play at 2/4, I would have hopefully done much better.

This is not to say I’ll give up bonus whoring or chasing free money, both of which I love. But I do need to be aware of the opportunity cost as well.

I agree... I sometimes play for hours on end trying to clear a bonus. To clear the max $100 bonus on pacific last week I deposited Saturday and played pretty much non stop till Tuesday at 3/6 O8 to clear the bonus. I won like $400 but it was still a drain to play that much just to clear the bonus.

The Party reload was good to me. I had to clear over 250 hands, and it only took me a few hours as I was 3-tabling. Not only did I win while trying to clear the bonus, but after the bonus was released, I won a $10+1 SnG.

I got what cash I had out of Ulitmate Beat and put it in Party and cleared the bonus in 1 day, I just wish they counted SNG's toward raked hand play.

Given Up
 

When my Bankroll was smaller I played for Bonus money but now it does not seem worth the bother for $50. I have given up my whoring ways!

I play 3-6 as my usual limit and I have to say I find clearing bonuses very much worth my time. Basically, to me it is somewhat of an insurance against a bad session...the bonus will cover it. And if I dont have a bad session, its 100$ sweeter.
Over the last 4 weeks I cleared UB, Pacific and Absolute bonuses. That added up to 410$ in bonus money on top of winnings...so you see, it adds up.

Defendant

I disagree... I play for higher stakes as well, but free money is free money, so why not take it? That's how I look at it. Sure a $100 bonus may only be 5 or 10 BBs, but that's still 5 or 10 BBs I don't need to win the hard way!

I got to clear about 200 more ish hand for my $40 reload bonus. So far, down $5 from starting. Suckout with AA :(

I think the lesson here ...
 

... and what many of us are saying is that bonuses are great, and should be taken full advantage of whenever possible. The key though is not to radically adjust your play, extend your session, or otherwise do anything else that would negatively impact your bread-and-butter game.

I agree. Sometimes, you just cant break a cold streak, or you keep going back and forth... often, clearing a bonus will put me back to even or at least up something.

Unlocking Party Bonuses
 

For those of you who play Party and take advantage of these bonuses, how many hands do you have to play for every $1 of bonus? And what limits do you have to play to qualify (or what is the minimum rake for the hand to count)?

You have to play 7 times the bonus amount. So, if you deposit $500, take advantage of a full, $100 bonus, you have to play 700 required hands to clear your free money.

Any hand w/ a rake counts.