Party & Bowmans

I haven't played much the last few days but decided to check some of my accounts. To my surprise I have a couple of good offers waiting for me on their sites.

Party - is a free $100 to play in their casino 25x WR...no deposit.

Bowmans - is a free $25 play and a 15% reload offer.

So, if you haven't done so, you might want to log on and check your accounts.

Happy New Year everyone!

The Downhill Spiral

has continued the last week and a half. I decided to play Interpoker NL200 for the monthly bonus instead of the casino, as I've had no luck in the casino. Well it went worse at the poker tables; down $500.

Then I decided to play a little more at Paradise NL200; down $300.

My bankroll has gotten killed the last few weeks.

I think I'll do the Party reload through PSO, hopefully I'll have better luck there. I think I'll have to drop down to NL100 for a while to hopefully build my bankroll back up.

Weekend Results

Sports picks results
Overall:
4-6
NHL:
0-1
NBA:
1-2
NFL
3-3

I didn’t pick the free bet right again this week

Poker:
I played at Paradise for a while on Saturday and decided to move up and try the NL $200 tables. I didn’t fair too well losing 2 buyins.

Now I must decide whether I should continue to play at that level or move back down. My bankroll says move back down, so that’s probably what I’ll do.

Sports Picks

Here are my sports picks for the weekend games.

NHL:
Washington (+140 moneyline) vs Anaheim

NBA:
Minnesota (pick) vs Utah
Orlando (-5) vs Detroit

NFL:
Bears (-6) vs Rams
Chargers (-7) vs Broncos
Ravens (+120 moneyline) vs Chiefs I didn't take the +3 points on this game because I think Baltimore can win the game.

My Free $10 bet is Ladainian Tomlinson to get under 2 rushing touchdowns. I didn't think he get over 2, so I chose under 2. He'll probably get 2 touchdowns and it will push on both sides.

Claim your free $10 sports bet

PartyBets is the newest member of the PartyGaming family.

To celebrate the PartyBets.com launch we’re giving you The $10 Bet You Can’t Lose. Go to PartyBets.com and place a $10 bet from your PartyAccount balance - if you lose we will refund your $10.

Playing at PartyBets.com is easy. Simply log in and use your existing PartyAccount “account name” and “password” exactly as you would on PartyPoker, PartyCasino, PartyGammon or PartyBingo.

Just visit PartyBets.com and make a wager of $10 or more on our wide range of sporting events. If your bet loses we’ll refund $10 of your stake directly to your PartyAccount.

Here’s how it works:

The offer runs from 7th December 2006 (00:00 ET), bet and the event must be completed by 31st December (23:59:59 ET). Offer becomes invalid after this date.
Your $10 can only be used to make a single bet; multi-bets are not permitted
The offer only applies to your first bet
To meet the bonus requirement your $10 refund must be wagered at odds of 1.6 (3/5) or higher
You can only use the $10 refund at PartyBets.com
Your bonus may be used on other PartyGaming products once you have wagered at least $30 on PartyBets.com
Your refund will be credited back to you within 24 hours

Affiliates

One way to grow your bankroll faster is to join poker rooms through affiliates. Generally you can gain an extra $50-$120 from the affiliate besides the normal signup offer the poker room offers. Or you can choose some great gift options, like poker chipsets, or gift certificates.

The two poker affiliates I’ve used most often are Poker Source Online and PokerSavvy. You can also check out Actyper’s casino ownagefor some great casino offers.

There is a little bit of overlap of the poker sites that each affiliate offers, but there are many poker sites distinct to each affiliate.

There are other advantages to joining these affiliates. They offer regular freerolls, $ added tournaments, poker leagues, and their forums are a great source of information.

As an added bonus, you will also be joining some great poker Communities. You will get to know other poker players by way of these forums, their blogs, or just running into them in different tournaments….which is good and bad at the same time, as some of them are really good players.

Crosscheck Poker League

In the last couple of newsletters sent out by BooyaPoker, they have talked about a poker league that is trying get started by http://crosscheckpoker.com. They need 9 players minimum per night for it to go. The first two events just fell short (8) players, so the league hasn't officially started yet.

Here are a few details:
Dates for December: Monday & Wednesday @ 10:00pm EST
Buyin: $2+$.20 (I think there are rebuys)
Prizes: normal payout plus Booya shirts & hats for winners in December (donated by BooyaPoker) & starting in January they are supposed to have Hockey Jerseys, NHL poker chipsets, and cash for league winners.

Hopefully I'll see you at the tables on Wednesday night.

Quiet week(end)

It was a quiet week(end) at the tables for me; not much time to play. I did get in my 5 table hrs on Sunday at William Hill; up $180 which also included the $50 bonus. I really enjoy playing ring games at William Hill and have been really successful playing there. If they ever gave us more table hour bonuses I would be there all the time.

I played in the Booya CPT event and that lasted all of about 10 hands for me. This week is the NHL ticket tournament, and I'm looking to do better in this one.

My College football games were a bust 0-4. And my $10 free play didn't pan out.

College Football picks

Here are my College Football picks for todays games

Hawaii vs Oregon St. over 70.5

Colorado St. -1

Army vs Navy over 49

Georga Tech -1.5

The free Linesmaker $10 bet this week is

will Jay Cutler's (Bronco's) first pass be a completion or not.

I went with the opposite of what I thought would happen and picked a completion

Family & Poker

I just want to elaborate on a post that http://ryeandpoker.blogspot.com/Riverrun had on his blog.

We’d all like to have more time to play poker, but how do we juggle family and poker.

I try to get in around 20 hrs/month of poker play. Some weeks, like this week, I won’t play at all during the week and other weeks I get a chance to play a little more. I can usually get in some playing time on weekends.

Here are a few tips on what I do…

1. My #1 tip is family comes first.
Kids or not we all probably find ourselves playing a little too much at times and this can have a strain on our family. Watch for signs and cut back when you need to. I usually wait until my boys are in bed before if start playing during the week.

2. I limit my tournament play to “really want to play” tournaments.
I use a calendar and plan around tournaments. Ie. If I’m planning on playing in a PSO freeroll or league event on a Sunday night at 7:00pm. I’ll have made supper, bathed my boys, made them popcorn and put in a good movie for them to watch before the start of the tournament.
I usually never just sit down to a regular MTT or SNG. They take too long and I can’t usually commit the hrs to play in them.

3. Give Notice
I try to give my wife some notice (couple of days) if I know I'm playing in a tournament that could last 2-3hrs on a specific day. Just like if I was planning on golfing on a Sunday, I'd tell her thursday. It's just some consideration that keeps her happy. She's probably out Shopping on Saturday...lol...but those are the tradeoffs.

3. I only chase the bonuses I know I’ll have time to clear.
I hate bonuses that have short expiry dates attached to them. I pass up a lot of them or sometimes I will only commit to a partial bonus. Ie. Instead of doing a full $100 – 10X Party bonus; I may just do $50-$60 of it, if I know I won’t have the hrs to complete it.

4. I’m an early riser; so I let my wife sleep in on the weekends.
I can usually get in an hour or two on a Sunday morning (8:00am to 10:00am). This works well when you want to play on Euro based sites like William Hill or Eurolinx, because that’s when they have lot’s of traffic anyway. She’s also happy because I let her sleep in!

5. Computer is in our living room
This is key for me. If we had our computer in a different room or downstairs this would be –EV for my poker time. When my wife is watching her TV shows or my boys are watching cartoons, I can play poker, and not feel guilty. Treehouse is a good thing; anyone with small kids knows what I’m talking about.

6. Multi task & limit Multi tabling
You have to get creative if you are in a “must play” tournament and other things are going on. I have to be able to change a diaper, get more juice, play Lego, all while playing poker too. Some guys are able to play 4 tables at a time. I usually have to limit my play to one table so I can do these other things. I only multi table when the kids are in bed and I can concentrate on just playing poker.

Kids really change the amount of time you have to play. My boys are both young, and as they get into more activities, I’m sure this will lessen my poker playing time.
But it’s all good. :)

Hopefully any readers have some tips they’d like to share.