Dream Poker Promotion
At the end of August, I got a little bit frustrated with my poker playing... in part because I was probably playing at stakes above my mental comfort level (but easily within my bankroll). I started out playing higher stakes well, and I won a lot of money. But then, the quality of my play started to decline, and I started to lose. Losing at these higher stakes got me frustrated and tense about poker, so I decided to drop down in stakes until I calmed down and I was mentally ready to try again. This was particularly smart because I quit before I lost all of my initial profit from the higher stakes games.
When I dropped back in stakes, I started two new PSO promotions: one at Golden Palace Poker and one at Dream Poker. I rather quickly cleared the Golden Palace promotion (see previous blogs). Dream Poker, however, was cleared much more slowly. In fact, I did not finish this promotion until yesterday.
Of all of the PSO promotions that one can attempt, the Dream Poker promotion is EASILY the most difficult one to clear. You must play 600 contributed raked hands at stakes of $1/$2 or higher. According the www.bonuswhores.com, this definition of a raked hand applies to both no limit and to limit games, so if you aren't a limit player... then you must clear this bonus at blinds of $1/$2 (i.e., $200 NL). It'd be ideal to clear this bonus while playing 7-card stud (i.e., an ante game, so every hand is a contributed hand), but I could never find a 7-stud game going. I did manage to play a little 5-card stud, resulting in a net loss of about $30.
I spent virtually the entire promotion playing 6-handed, $1/$2 limit hold'em. I initially started with a decent sized loss, primarily because my game was in poor shape (remember, I started the promotion weary with poker and a bad mental state). Eventually, however, I played better and I grinded very very well for a long long time. Towards the end of the promotion, I was feeling very confident in my game; and even though my bankroll was short (~$300), I even took a brief shot at the $2/$4 short-handed game. I am confident that I could have beaten that game also, but I was focused on clearing the promotion, which cleared just as fast at $1/$2.
I believe that I played 625 contributed raked hands (more explanation below), which was a total of 1135 raked hands. According to PokerTracker, I played more than 1900 hands of $1/$2 6-max limit hold'em (see below for the screen capture). I am revealing these stats simply to demonstrate how much work is required to clear this promotion. I must also brag a little bit: my win rate of slightly more than 4 big bets per 100 hands is excellent; I am full of confidence with respect to my short-handed limit game right now.
In the end, I won about $165 playing poker (note: the 5-stud stats are not included in my Poker Tracker stats, so I won less than the photo shows). I also cleared a $60 bonus from Dream Poker and I'll received 6000 PSO points, which is essentially $60 of value (I'll probably buy a Party Poker gift certificate). So, this promotion netted me a profit of almost $300. That's only a little more than my standard buy-in at $5/$10, but I'm very pleased with my effort.
My final assessment of Dream Poker? I really don't like this site very much. I already didn't like the software of the Prima network very much, but Dream Poker makes it even worse. By requiring contributed raked hands rather than merely raked hands (which sucks anyway), it is difficult to track your progress towards a bonus. The only way to find the number of contributed raked hands is to e-mail support, which was less than stellar.
Support quality? Poor. About 25% of my e-mails to support were ignored. About another 25% of my e-mails resulted in a form-letter response indicating that support was having technical difficultes, suggesting that I send another e-mail in a few hours. This is ridiculous, of course, considering that they still had my original e-mail and they could respond to my original e-mail in a few hours after their technical difficulties had been resolved (note to Dream Poker support: this is a key difference between e-mail and phone calls). Of the remaining 50% of the e-mail responses that I received, several of them were erroneous (e.g., one claimed that I had originally deposited $50 when I had deposited $200 originally), giving me little confidence in the accuracy.
In conclusion, after clearing the initial bonus and the PSO promotion, I was all too happy to get my money out of Dream Poker and pursue my poker riches elsewhere. Even if you like the Prima network, I recommend one of the other skins... pass on this one.
When I dropped back in stakes, I started two new PSO promotions: one at Golden Palace Poker and one at Dream Poker. I rather quickly cleared the Golden Palace promotion (see previous blogs). Dream Poker, however, was cleared much more slowly. In fact, I did not finish this promotion until yesterday.
Of all of the PSO promotions that one can attempt, the Dream Poker promotion is EASILY the most difficult one to clear. You must play 600 contributed raked hands at stakes of $1/$2 or higher. According the www.bonuswhores.com, this definition of a raked hand applies to both no limit and to limit games, so if you aren't a limit player... then you must clear this bonus at blinds of $1/$2 (i.e., $200 NL). It'd be ideal to clear this bonus while playing 7-card stud (i.e., an ante game, so every hand is a contributed hand), but I could never find a 7-stud game going. I did manage to play a little 5-card stud, resulting in a net loss of about $30.
I spent virtually the entire promotion playing 6-handed, $1/$2 limit hold'em. I initially started with a decent sized loss, primarily because my game was in poor shape (remember, I started the promotion weary with poker and a bad mental state). Eventually, however, I played better and I grinded very very well for a long long time. Towards the end of the promotion, I was feeling very confident in my game; and even though my bankroll was short (~$300), I even took a brief shot at the $2/$4 short-handed game. I am confident that I could have beaten that game also, but I was focused on clearing the promotion, which cleared just as fast at $1/$2.
I believe that I played 625 contributed raked hands (more explanation below), which was a total of 1135 raked hands. According to PokerTracker, I played more than 1900 hands of $1/$2 6-max limit hold'em (see below for the screen capture). I am revealing these stats simply to demonstrate how much work is required to clear this promotion. I must also brag a little bit: my win rate of slightly more than 4 big bets per 100 hands is excellent; I am full of confidence with respect to my short-handed limit game right now.
In the end, I won about $165 playing poker (note: the 5-stud stats are not included in my Poker Tracker stats, so I won less than the photo shows). I also cleared a $60 bonus from Dream Poker and I'll received 6000 PSO points, which is essentially $60 of value (I'll probably buy a Party Poker gift certificate). So, this promotion netted me a profit of almost $300. That's only a little more than my standard buy-in at $5/$10, but I'm very pleased with my effort.
My final assessment of Dream Poker? I really don't like this site very much. I already didn't like the software of the Prima network very much, but Dream Poker makes it even worse. By requiring contributed raked hands rather than merely raked hands (which sucks anyway), it is difficult to track your progress towards a bonus. The only way to find the number of contributed raked hands is to e-mail support, which was less than stellar.
Support quality? Poor. About 25% of my e-mails to support were ignored. About another 25% of my e-mails resulted in a form-letter response indicating that support was having technical difficultes, suggesting that I send another e-mail in a few hours. This is ridiculous, of course, considering that they still had my original e-mail and they could respond to my original e-mail in a few hours after their technical difficulties had been resolved (note to Dream Poker support: this is a key difference between e-mail and phone calls). Of the remaining 50% of the e-mail responses that I received, several of them were erroneous (e.g., one claimed that I had originally deposited $50 when I had deposited $200 originally), giving me little confidence in the accuracy.
In conclusion, after clearing the initial bonus and the PSO promotion, I was all too happy to get my money out of Dream Poker and pursue my poker riches elsewhere. Even if you like the Prima network, I recommend one of the other skins... pass on this one.
posted by frazwood at 9:47 AM
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