Chasing a Party Poker Reload Bonus

Party Poker offered an account-specific reload yesterday -- I was lucky enough to get 25% up to $100. This was was enough of an enticement to pull me away from the heads-up matches at Poker Stars (truthfully, I was getting sick of them).

My goal for this reload period (1000 raked hands) was to play well and actually win. I am one of the worst bonus whores in the history of online poker. I usually lose about as much money as the value of the reload. I focus too much on clearing the bonus rather than playing solid poker. Hence, my goal.

I played about 250 hands last night of $50 NL, winning somewhere around $65. I was working at the same time and I honestly have no recollection of any interesting hands. Tonight, I have found myself two really soft tables of $50 NL (I am playing as I write). I spent the first 125 hands folding and bluffing because I was entirely card dead. I was somewhere +/- $5 at that point. And then my "big hand" came up. I flopped top pair and a flush draw and checked because I was first to act. I pushed all-in when the button overbet the pot. I figured that I was beat when I failed to improve, but I was lucky and the donkey called my all-in with a straight draw. After that, I won a couple more good sized pots and I was on my way to another nice winning session. As of right now, I am about 50% of the way to clearing the bonus and I have met my goal so far of play solid poker while bonus chasing.

$50 NL Texas Hold'em - Friday, January 20, 21:33:31 EDT 2006
Table Table 65529 (6 max) (Real Money)
Seat 3 is the button
Total number of players : 6
Seat 1: dinn333 ( $22.20 )
Seat 4: frazwood ( $48.50 )
Seat 5: fsmkramer ( $70.25 )
Seat 6: Scorpio79 ( $18.78 )
Seat 3: survivor_7 ( $56.10 )
Seat 2: donkey ( $27.82 )
frazwood posts small blind [$0.25].
fsmkramer posts big blind [$0.50].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to frazwood [ Qs 2s ]
Scorpio79 folds.
dinn333 folds.
donkey calls [$0.50].
survivor_7 calls [$0.50].
frazwood calls [$0.25].
fsmkramer checks.
** Dealing Flop ** [ Qh, Ts, 4s ]
frazwood checks.
fsmkramer checks.
donkey bets [$5].
survivor_7 folds.
frazwood: should i gamble? votes please
gqholyboi: yes
frazwood: lets go
frazwood is all-In [$48]
survivor_7: Y
fsmkramer folds.
donkey is all-In [$22.32]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 6c ]
** Dealing River ** [ 5c ]
donkey shows [ Js, 9c ] high card queen.
frazwood shows [ Qs, 2s ] a pair of queens.