Week One results

Week one has been a a pretty solid success. The initial balance of $10 is now up around $70, including a further $10 in bonus dollars earned through play.

The first couple of days were spent treading water, and smarting from some nasty bad beats. It's never fun when your flopped trips are beaten by a runner-runner straight despite betting all the way. You just have to suck it up, and congratulate your opponent, while hanging a sign that says "FISH" around his neck.

When there was a shortage of limit tables, I played a few no-limit tables with small buyins. This was a mistake, not because of my play, but because the swings were too large for my miniscule bankroll. I switched back to 0.10/0.20, and had several solid wins on day four.

With my bankroll improved to around $30, I switched to playing 0.25/0.5 for the first time and had a monster session - turning $7 into $20 in about an half an hour. This was the result of a combination of some good fortune, and a table full of chasers who just couldn't let go
of strong preflop hands that missed, or flopped middle or bottom pair. Example: I raise with QQ on the button, SB calls with 89s; flop comes down K96 and SB check-calls all the way to showdown.

Since then, I have stayed at 0.25/0.50 and had a mix of modest to substantial wins and a couple of modest losses. I plan to move up to 0.5/1 when my bankroll reaches $100.

A note on bonuses: from what I can gather, VCpoker bonuses cash out faster than most others around the place (and certainly much faster than many other iPoker sites). Everyone at the table earns roughly 1 "action point" per 0.20 in rake, and the bonuses cash out at 60 points per dollar in bonus. At the 0.25/0.50 tables, this works out at roughly one big bet per hour which seems like a pretty decent rate.