Clearing Poker Bonuses the Smart Way: Know Where You Stand
You should periodically check your bonus status to see where you are in the process. With most sites, this is very easy to do. There should be a menu option on the main page or even a radio button from the cashier screen allowing you to check your bonus status. This operation will tell you how much time you have to complete the bonus and how much progress you have made. This can be helpful by letting you know whether you are on a good pace to complete the bonus. Also if you check frequently you can estimate just how many bonus clearing points you are earning per hour with your particular type of play.

Clearing Poker Bonuses the Smart Way: Favoring Cash Games
You will usually earn points towards bonus clearing a lot faster playing cash games than in tournaments. If you earn ten points for every $20 + $2 tournament you play, you may earn ten points in an hour. If you earn one point for every raked hand of $3/$6 hold’em that you play, you may earn around a point every minute, or 60 points an hour. Clearly the cash game has an edge. Same as online blackjack is more of a skill game then roulette.

Clearing Poker Bonuses the Smart Way: Playing Your Game
Except for shifting the focus towards cash games if you normally split your playing time between cash and tournaments, and accelerating your play if you are close to having the bonus expire, you shouldn’t change your playing routine for the sake of the bonus. Jumping up in stakes or trying a completely new game can result in wild fluctuations to your bankroll, and you don’t want to go broke and stop earning bonus points right in the middle of your quest to clear the bonus.

In a high stakes cash game it is not out of the ordinary for me to pay a player a “referral fee” if he brings a fish to my table. Especially if that fish is well funded. I have paid fees in the thousands of dollars to get somebody with a bull’s eye on their forehead at a high stakes game. It is every players dream to land one of these guys regularly. In a cash game, this type “A” player will chase down a flush, a straight, two pairs to a full, all night long. He knows if he catches his hand he will be well compensated. Now and them he actually does. And he takes the pot down. He knows he is out classed and out matched so he has to place his destiny in the hands of fate. By the end of the night, the longer he plays, the more the odds catch up to him. Eventually he goes home busted as usual……again……and again…and again.

Now you have left the comfort of your cash game and decided to venture into foreign waters. It’s now July, and you are in Las Vegas. You have just flopped down $10G’s for a shot at the most prestigious bracelet of them all (the only bracelet in my opinion). You draw a weak table and are playing well. All of the sudden, the same guy you have been busting in cash games shows up at your table. You have enough information on this guy to fill a book. This must be your lucky day. The first time you played with this guy you paid for the privilege of having this fish at your table. And now here he is. All on his own coming to give you his chips. He begins playing tight. That last about 40 minutes until he gets outplayed for the third time he’ is in a pot. All of the sudden, it’s business as usual. He is following along paying off every raise.

A few moments later you find yourself involved in a pot in late position with pocket Aces. The flop comes and it’s 9, 10 A all hearts. You just made a set of bullets. The AK out of position bets, our friend calls, you raise. The AK folds, our buddy does what he does best……makes a bad call. The turn reveals a 4 of hearts. This is not what you wanted to see. At this point you could bet your house on the fact that he just made his flush……yes he needed a four flush on the board. On a good day, he was drawing on the straight but not today. You are now crippled with 65% of your chips in the pot and he has you covered. You make the best lay down of the tournament and he turns over the Kh, Jc off suit he was playing and shows you the nut flush.

Its now two hands later. You are on the button with pocket Kings. You make a play and guess who calls you. You got it. It’s him. He opens a Q J off suite the flop is 2, 7, J rainbow. Not what you wanted to see. The turn is a 6H. And the much anticipated river reveals the third Jack. Congratulations, you are out of the biggest tournament of the year on the bubble. Does it happen? If you need to ask then you need to start playing more tournaments.

Here is a situation that shows how the Novice Player can have a direct affect on how you play and assess a hand. You are in a major tournament, deep into day two. You are four positions out of the money, on the bubble. You have a decent chip stack but there are four larger stacks at your table including the chip leader.

You are third to act and are holding Ah, Kc. First position puts in a raise of 4X the BB. Second position folds. The action is on you. Here is where it starts to get tricky, and it will get much more difficult as this hand progresses. If you are up against a top ranked player that is making a move in the worst possible position on the bubble, then one can clearly assess that this player is holding a very strong hand.

Against a novice player, you have no idea. We now face our first decision. Do we fold, raise of call? If you have decided that you want to play this hand, your best decision would be to just…make the call. With all those players still to act after you, it is hard to tell what they will do. You make the call and another player calls on the button. The small and big blinds fold and the three of you go to the flop. The flop is Ac, 6s, 5s. You have flopped top pair with top kicker. The player at question, in first position, puts out a very large bet almost 2X the pot. What do you do? In a cash game this a no-brainer. In a tournament on the bubble, its not.

Now let’s assume once again that this is a top ranked conservative player. This bet would indicate that he is not giving pot odds for a call from one that is on a draw and he is more than happy to take it down right there and then. As such we can assume that the player did not make a set of Aces and is not on a draw himself. He is also showing little regard for the fact that there is an Ace on the board. With two players left to act it is extremely likely that one of you has paired the Ace. It is very likely that you two are playing
comparable hands.

A player of this caliber would not have raised pre-flop in this position, at this stage of the tournament pre-flop with A, 5 or A, 6 so the likelihood that he is playing two pair is very low. He could also have elected to play a mid pair (unlikely with 5’s or 6’s) so he may be on mid or bottom set. Another reason why he would want to take it down right there and then. With a player left to act behind you, you find yourself sandwiched between the two so you decide to call, as does the button. With a novice player you could never logically assess his starting hand based on the information you have compiled thus far. Your only hope would be that you got some type of read on the guy and can act upon it. The turn reveals a 2h that does not appear to have helped anyone. Whatever you assessment was before after the flop, remains the same after this turn card. The player in first position makes a pot sized bet. With a possible straight draw and flush draw you decide to move all in and take the pot down. The button folds.

Now if you are playing a top player you have made the assessment that you may win the pot or even chop the pot should he make the call. In this particular hand the player in first position was in fact a Novice Player. He called the all in and revealed an 8h, 9h. He hit a 7h on the river and won the hand with a 9 high straight. You are out of the tournament.

The above hand is a good example of how a good player can get in trouble quick against a Novice Player. There was very little you could have done in the above example that would have changed the outcome of the hand. Even a raise may have enticed a re-raise from the player in first position. Short of laying down the best hand, which would not have happened, you were doomed.

Most top ranked players would not have raised in the worst possible position pre-flop with that hand. They certainly would not have played that hand from that position at this stage of the tournament. Most importantly, they would not have put their tournament at risk on the bubble calling an all in bet with a gut shot draw. It is a tough predicament but one that we face constantly in tournaments these days.

John “The Greek” Leontakianakos is a professional poker player with 27 years of experience.

How long have you played? When was your first time playing? Who taught you?
My first time playing poker for money I was in the Army in Europe in the early 80′s. The only thing there was to do was drink and gamble.

What games do you play? Stakes? Your biggest profit in one sitting? Largest loss?
My normal game is Holdem’ only because it’s the easiest to find a game playing. I prefer razz and Omaha High, but it’s hard to find a them in the casino. I’d love to play more mixed games, but my Omaha Hi-Lo is terrible. I need to work on it a lot.

Normal stakes are anywhere from 5/10 to 20/40 NL in private games. In the casino’s here in AZ the max bet is $150 so I play a lot of 10/150 (5/10 blinds, max bet / raise is $150)

My biggest profit in one session was around $23,000 Biggest loss was around $9,000. Both were in private cash games.

John “The Greek” Leontakianakos has told me repeatedly that a cash game player is the true poker player. Do you agree with this statement? Why?
I think a true poker player is someone who can play both forms of the game well. Tourney, and Cash. (P.S. I am NOT a tourney player).

Has all the publicity of the WSOP, WPT, and online poker been good for your cash game? Have you seen an increase in your profit margin due to it?
It really helped 3-4 years ago. Now it’s leveled off, more people are becoming good players and not as easy to beat a few years ago.

What poker pros have you encountered that have been “regular” people? Have they given you tips that have helped your game?
I’ve played with a lot of pro’s over the years. My two favorites.

Daniel Negrano – Fun at the table even when he is losing. Brings a lot of action to the table and a truly nice guy.

Tom Schneider – The hardest player I’ve ever played against. He lives local to me and has taken me to school on many occasions.

Have you ever played in the WSOP or WPT events? Buy-in? What did you take away from it?
2006 WSOP main event. What a crazy place, felt more like a lottery than a poker tourney if you know what I mean. Finished 1,000 people out of the money.

I prefer to play the cash games in Vegas during the WSOP, much more money involved and much easier to make a nice profit.

If you could type yourself, what kind of poker player are you?
I’d say I am a mid level cash game player. I am usually the guy always talking and am very friendly at the table. I think that’s why I’m a big fan of Daniel Negrano and Phill Laak.

Do you feel you can read players, determine what type of hand they have? Are you trying to hone this skill?
With my Masters in Mathematics, I depend on math more than reads, but I’m always working on getting better at reading people.

Do you read any of the “must read” poker books? Any you recommend?
I do read a lot of the books, but by far the BEST book I’ve ever read on Poker (and how to be a better player) is Barry Greenstein’s Ace on the River. I’d love to have an autographed copy of it from him if you know what I mean.

Do you have a poker goal(s)? Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years?
I guess I have the same goal as just about every other poker player – make more money!

I’ve been toying around with the idea of playing full time the past year or so. Right now I play about 20 hours a week, But to do that and make decent money I’d have to leave Arizona and I’m not sure my wife would be thrilled with that idea. If that does not work out, I’d like to start up a private local poker room.