Thank Goodness for Rakeback

I have mentionned before, anyone who doesn't use rakeback is just throwing money away. I read on other blogs how people make $1k or $2k on rakeback, and I am sure some make a lot more. Why would you throw that money away?

I play 38 minutes of online poker on average per day. Some days a lot more, some days none. But that is my average. I play, on average 4 tables at a time, sometimes 6, sometimes 2-3 and play a tourney table, but 4 is average. So basically, i play 38 mins X 30 days X 4 tables = 4,560 table minutes per month. I played 25c/50c. My rakeback payment I just received was $110.

Take a player playing 1/2, 4 tabling, averaging 2 hours of play per day. I am sure there are a lot of them. 4 tables X 120 minutes X 30 days = 14,400 table minutes. At stakes 4X as high, I am not saying the rake would be quadruple, let's say 3X more. That person, by my calculations, would be making about $1,400/month on rakeback. Holy shit. That's a fair amount of cash. I look forward to playing those levels. :D

As far as poker play goes, I am thankful for rakeback. :D I keep getting sucked out on. Flop a set of three's, overpair spikes a set on river. Flop a set of Kings, get it all in, someone goes runner runner straight. Raise all in with Kings twice this morning, get called by AT and A2soooooooted, both spike aces. (Thank goodness they were shorter stacks.)

I feel like, is this a broken record, I lose 1-2 huge pots at the beginning of my session which cause me to go into grind mode early on and chip back up. That begs the question, why not just start grinding early? Well, I say that I get in as a huge favorite in those all-ins and don't win. The thought of doubling up on a table early in a session is a nice proposition, but I win more money by playing small pot poker and taking hands down pre-flop or on the flop.

Did end my session this morning, after being down $55ish early on, to flop 2 sets of 2's to crack an overpair of one opponent. Then, the best one was calling a min-raise of 50c on the button with Ad5d from a raiser UTG+1 and SB and BB calling.

Flop: 6d4d3h Could I ask for a better flop? Check, check, UTG+1 bets $3 ($4 in the pot), I raise to $9, SB and BB fold, UTG+1 calls. I am sure he thinks I am on a flush draw.

Turn: 2c Boom. At this point, he checks, I bet out, he re-raises all-in (probably should have done that on the flop) of course I call and take down the pot with my straight. (River was a J I think) He proceeds to type "*&^$%*!@#&$%" on chat for several minutes and asks how I can call a raise with A5dd. Anyone have a problem with the call? I was on the button.

Anyways, that hand brought back some of my losses previously in the session, and I now sit with an online roll of $2,303. This is the first time I have been over $2,300 so I am pretty excited. I still have a ways to go to get to $3k, but I will be working on it.

Thanks for reading, and good luck at the tables.

Ryan