Sometimes an e-mail goes a long way

I've never been one to complain to company's about things but e-mail sure makes it easy to send a question/comment and surprisingly it usually works.

Three recent e-mails I sent off.

1. To Ladbrokes Poker for the $25 Profile Bonus. One quick message about not receiving it and a quick update by myself and I got the $25 from them. Hopefully the recent e-mail about the RAF will work too.

2. I hadn't played at PartyPoker in a while, and when I logged on recently I noticed that all my PartyPoints were gone. Now that their store has some good stuff in it, I was a little PO. I read their T&C and realized that they expire in 30 days if there is inactivity. Totally my fault but a quick e-mail to them explaining that I didn't realize the they expired and they gave the points back to me.

3. I was drinking some Sleemans beer (which is my new favorite), I was on my second beer when my wife noticed some crud in the bottle. Normally I'd just let it go, but decided to send Sleemans a quick e-mail. To my surprise I got a nice response back from them and they gave me a free case of beer.

So it doesn't hurt to inquire.

What no poker?

I finally cleared the Ladbrokes sign up bonus for $100, but unfortunately they changed the T&C for the RAF bonus and I did not recieve it yet. I did send them an e-mail about signing up under the old T&C, so hopefully they'll come through and give it to me and Actyper. The e-mail worked for getting the $25 profile bonus. I added a little more BS content and they gave me the bonus right away.

I've been trying to think of what Site/bonus I would like to do next. I could do a PSO promotion like Pokerroom, Pokershare, or Fulltilt or another site that they don't offer. I haven't done any of the B2B sites yet. I usually sign up quickly if I know that a bonus is only available for a short time and I don't want to miss out on it. Nothing has really caught my eye to get me that excited that I want to sign up at.

Any suggestions for a new sign up are appreciated.

Another reason I have't signed up to any new sites or played any poker the last fews days is because it's been so nice here (+30C). I've spent most of my time outside enjoying the nice summer weather, with lot's of BBQing & lot's of beer. Summer's doesn't last long here, so when it's nice out, a person has to take advantage of it.

MTT World Cup tournament

I decided to play in a $10+1 MTT @ Ladsbroke this morning. I usually never play in tournaments as they usually take too long and I can't commit to 4-5 hrs of play at one time.

This was a $200 added and had 3 minute blinds, so I figured 1hr tops if I made it all the way. I played pretty well, made it to the final table and finished 3rd. A nice little $115 for third.

I'm still waiting for them to give me the $25 bonus for posting my profile. I ended up e-mailing them this morning and they said I didn't have enough content in my profile. I added more junk and resubmitted it. Hopefully I'll get the bonus and can continue playing my 500 raked hands. I was trying to finish the raked hands while rolling over the $25 4 times like their T & C state. If I don't get it this week I'll just have to finish the $500 raked hands and forget about the $25 profile bonus.

Gold Drop

Wow! did gold get hit yesterday, down around $46 USD. The TSX also had its biggest one day loss since 1995 or something like that.

I’m hoping this correction is close to being over and the gold market will start moving higher again. I’m not panicking and not selling any of my securities. I still believe that the long term will bring higher prices for both gold and oil.

Ladbrokes Poker

Starting playing at Ladrokes Poker on the weekend. They have a nice $100 sign up bonus that is 5X contributed raked hands to clear. As well they have a Refer a Friend (FAF) bonus for an extra $50 (use Gold999), which is raked at the same time as the sign up bonus. They also give you an extra $25 for filling out a profile which you can enter after you've completed 200 raked hands. The raked hands can be cleared at any level, therefore a $.01 rake counts towards your 500 raked hands.

I was playing at the $.05/.10 NL beginner tables. I am doing ok, up about $13 playing but more importantly have cleared 300 of my 500 raked hands. I'm playing a lot more pots than I normally would just to finish the 500 contributed raked hands. I figure if I can break about even or up a couple of bucks playing, I will have cleared the 500 RH's and receive the $175 bonus.

Gold & Oil

It's time to talk about something other than poker. If anyone follows the Gold market, they know that it's been getting hit hard the past few weeks. I hold several gold and silver securities and have held on to them during this latest correction. Long term, I still believe that gold & silver will go much higher than their current levels.

The other correction has been in the oil & gas market. My favorite oil play is Opti Canada, which is an oil sands play right here in Alberta. It's not really talked about, probably because it doesn't go into production until 2007. My second favorite oil play is Calvalley Petroleum, which is an oil play in Yemen. This one has a lot more risk than the Opti play in Alberta. Like gold & silver, I am a strong believer that the oil price will stay high and therefore I am a long term holder of these securities.

Perhaps a buying opportunity.

Titan Poker Promotion (PSO)

I finally decided to do the Titan Poker promotion (through PSO). They recently lowered the promotional requirements from 3000 Titan pts.to 1500 Titan pts. Along with the 9000 PSO points I received, I am also riding Mike Jackness’s (PSO owner) coattail in 2 WSOP events.

He is entered in 2 events, where he splits his earnings 50/50 between himself and those who sign up for the Titan promotion before June 30, 2006. The first one starts July 7, 2006, a $2500 NL event and the second one is July 14, 2006 a $2000 NL event. He had a similar promotion last year through The Gaming Club (which I did) it was only 1 event and he just made the money. I ended up with an additional 1367 PSO pts.

It is just very cool to follow him through the event to see his progress. I usually follow this through the PSO forum section where their staff will have a post on how he's doing. I also like to read Cardplayer.com to follow poker events.

Good Luck Mike!

PokerSourceOnline

If you haven't had the opportunity to take a look at this site yet, take a look, it will be worth your time. (click on my link to their site).

This is where I got my start playing online poker. I was fortunate enough to find Pokersourceonline (PSO) early on in my online poker playing days. I started off with the Party Poker Instant Bankroll, which gave me a free $100 to play. If you don't have a Party Poker account, this is a great place to try online poker, risk free.

After I completed the Instant Bankroll through Party Poker, I have never looked back or have had to use any of my own money to play online poker. I have completed another 6 promotions where I have received numerous gifts which include a 500 piece poker chipset, a couple of great poker books, and a ton of PSO points which I have used to increase my bankroll by getting gift certificates from Party Poker.

I used part of my online poker bankroll to help fund my recent Vegas trip. My next goal is to build my bankroll back up for other trips or purchases.

Other great benefits of joining PokerSourceOnline, are the frequent freerolls they offer their members, a poker league, and best of all a great poker community. Their Forum sections are a great place to share information about poker and other things.