Party Poker's July Reload

I noticed today that Party Poker had decided to offer their July bonus today (ironically, JUNE 30th). Unfortunately, I am traveling to Indiana tomorrow to visit the 'rents, so that meant I either needed to clear most of the bonus today or wait until I got back. Since Kelly was going out to dinner tonight, I decided to make the bonus and to try and clear 700 raked hands playing $1/$2 limit hold'em. Past experience has taught me that 2/3 of the hands (exactly!) are raked in this game, so that meant that I need to play 1050 hands total. That's only about 4 hours of 4-tabling, no problem!

I played for about an hour at my office after I finished work for the day. I won about $30 in the quick session, which brought my stack up to $633 (a recent high point). After that, I drove home, mowed the grass, and ate dinner. I started 4-tabling around 7pm, and immediately started getting killed by suck-out after suck-out. I played really really well, almost perfect in fact, but the bad beats just kept coming. I swear that all of my AA, KK, and QQ were getting beat. I'd almost always be heads up on the turn against someone with top pair but the river would give them trips or two pair. One hand, I raised from the early position with QQ and both blinds called. They checked the flop to me (all undercards, rainbow) and I bet. The big blind called. The turn was a seven. I bet; he called. The river was a four; he bet; and I called. He turned over 74o!!! WTF? I was stuck $75 for the session at one point.

Anyway, the good news about playing solid poker is that the bad beats only SEEM like they are going to continue forever. Eventually, I started winning more hands and I clawed my way back to almost even for the session. My stack is now somewhere near $615 (after cashing out my reload + bonus).

I have essentially been chasing bonuses for the last two months. I sometimes wonder if I'd earn more if I just focused on winning at poker. I haven't cashed any real earnings in a long long time.