888 Bankroll recovery

Originally posted by LahtiPelican
Thanky, I found it! According to the mail I have the exact same conditions as you, the only difference is the date (May 7, 2020).

Glad to hear it — this is one of the best promotions out there.

I did make the HotD again today, and I did it playing PLO8, since trying to make 98 work in hold'em is fraught with danger

I did something unusual for me — I bought in for the absolute minimum, since part of my strategy for winning post-flop is bluffing, and this way, I could avoid losing too much. This worked in two out of the 3 hands I won with 98 in the hole. The third (and 4th) I won at showdown.

That was the joy — this is the pain:
I had build up a 109 BB stack then flopped a boat
Opponent is aggro, and can bluff with ease.
I raised the turn to get value from nut flushes and low draws.

Nope

Pacific Poker - $0.05 PL Hi/Lo - Omaha Hi/Lo - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

UTG: $4.02
CO: $2.52
BTN: $5.56
SB: $5.97
Hero (BB): $5.15

SB posts SB $0.02, Hero posts BB $0.05, UTG posts penalty blind $0.02

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.09) Hero has J♦:5♣:2♦:9♦:

UTG calls $0.05, CO calls $0.05, BTN calls $0.05, SB calls $0.03, Hero checks

Flop: ($0.27, 5 players) 9♥:9♣:2♥:
SB checks, Hero bets $0.05, fold, CO calls $0.05, BTN calls $0.05, fold

Turn: ($0.42, 3 players) 6♥:
Hero bets $0.10, CO raises to $0.30, BTN raises to $1.42, Hero raises to $4.98, fold, BTN raises to $5.46 and is all-in, Hero calls $0.07 and is all-in

River: ($10.82, 2 players) K♣:

BTN shows 9♠:A♣:2♣:6♠: (Full House, Nines full of Sixes)
(Pre 62%, Flop 57%, Turn 93%)
Hero shows J♦:5♣:2♦:9♦: (Full House, Nines full of Twos)
(Pre 38%, Flop 43%, Turn 8%)
BTN wins $10.19
Rake paid $0.63

I now have 8 consecutive HotD awards
And today brought a small profit as well.
I played again with a 20BB starting stack, only this time I just let it happen, rather than trying to force the issue with aggression.
AK is not a strong holding in PLO8 unless a) you flop well, or b) you have a decent low hand.

With help from this hand, I finished in profit.
Add in the 50¢ reward, I finished in decent shape, with the day's lineup of freerolls yet to come.

Pacific Poker - $0.05 PL Hi/Lo - Omaha Hi/Lo - 4 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: $6.28
SB: $5.63
BB: $3.93
Hero (CO): $1.10

SB posts SB $0.02, BB posts BB $0.05

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.07) Hero has 4♥:9♥:A♣:K♦:

Hero calls $0.05, BTN raises to $0.22, fold, BB calls $0.17, Hero calls $0.17

Flop: ($0.68, 3 players) 2♦:K♠:J♥:
BB checks, Hero checks, BTN bets $0.22, fold, Hero calls $0.22

Turn: ($1.12, 2 players) 4♠:
Hero bets $0.66 and is all-in, BTN calls $0.66

River: ($2.44, 2 players) 2♣:

BTN shows 3♦:6♥:A♥:Q♦: (One Pair, Twos)
(Pre 54%, Flop 38%, Turn 40%)
Hero shows 4♥:9♥:A♣:K♦: (Two Pair, Kings and Fours)
(Pre 46%, Flop 63%, Turn 60%)
Hero wins $2.30
Rake paid $0.14

I won today with AT 3 times
but no payoff yet — usually it shows up within a minute or so of closing the last table.

I really don't want to go through the hassle of dealing with 888 support yet again.

Besides, I lost a bunch in the process.

Here's the week's results:
  Start  Last Wk  This Wk    +/-      Goal  To Date     To Go 
 675.88   850.11    848.4  -1.72  3,500.00   172.51  3,327.49 

And the breakdown:
 Category     Won 
      F/R    1.14 
     NLHE  -24.91 
     PLO8   16.21 
      TRN    0.84 
     Misc    5.00 
    Total   -1.72 

The "Misc" items were all hand-of-the-day promo payouts.
The "TRN" represents a PLO8 double-or-nothing I played when I noticed it had nearly filled up.

Normally, when you qualify for the HotD reward, you get a popup when you close your last table. There is also an email.

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
I won today with AT 3 times
but no payoff yet — usually it shows up within a minute or so of closing the last table.

I really don't want to go through the hassle of dealing with 888 support yet again.

I did not get the popup, but today, when I checked my email, there was one from yesterday. It is necessary to claim the prize — either using the button in the popup, or the button in the email. The prize must be claimed within 72 hours.

So the streak continues. Today's target hand is 87, so I'll hunt for it playing PLO8

went a lot better...
I totally nitted up, and probably lost a few pots to river bluffs, but I was folding many of my half-hands (where I have the low only with no hope of the high)
On the other hand, I was blasting away with the nuts, rather than trying to induce calls.
If they're going to call, they might as well call with a stack as well as half the pot.
And from time to time, I would call down hoping my Hand-of-the-Day candidate could get half the pot cheap.

Once again, I played with only 20BB opening stack.
Here is an example of why:
The hand has some high potential, but very weak lo potential, so with a favourable flop, I may get half the pot — which counts for the HotD promo.

BB plays 42/6/2 over 1100 hands

Pacific Poker - $0.05 PL Hi/Lo - Omaha Hi/Lo - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BB: $7.41
Hero (UTG): $1.00
MP: $3.59
CO: $5.53
BTN: $2.90
SB: $9.43

SB posts SB $0.02, BB posts BB $0.05

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.07) Hero has 6♥:7♦:8♣:4♣:

Hero calls $0.05, MP calls $0.05, CO calls $0.05, BTN calls $0.05, SB calls $0.03, BB raises to $0.35, Hero calls $0.30, MP calls $0.30, CO calls $0.30, BTN calls $0.30, fold <<< family pots are common on 888, but here I now have 30% of my stack in the pot

Flop: ($1.80, 5 players) 9♣:3♥:Q♣:
BB checks, Hero checks, MP checks, CO checks, BTN checks <<< very happy to see the checks

Turn: ($1.80, 5 players) K♦:
BB checks, Hero bets $0.29, fold, fold, fold, BB calls $0.29 <<< no low is possible, so the bet is to get all the low-only hands to fold, representing a high-only hand and perhaps a flush draw. It would have been nice if all had folded — and there goes half my remaining stack.

River: ($2.38, 2 players) 3♣:
BB bets $2.38, Hero calls $0.36 and is all-in <<< the rest of the stack goes in — but I don't care — had I been playing full stacked, I would have folded this.

BB shows A♥:6♦:J♥:A♠: (Two Pair, Aces and Threes)
(Pre 61%, Flop 55%, Turn 78%)
Hero shows 6♥:7♦:8♣:4♣: (Flush, Queen High) <<< and I think opponent knows I would have. I fold to river bets 40% of the time.
(Pre 39%, Flop 45%, Turn 23%)
Hero wins $2.92
Rake paid $0.18

For a while I thought I would not complete the HotD challenge, but then another table of PLO8 opened up, so I played a second session, and managed it.
Only 50¢ today, but every little bit helps, and a decent profit as well.

Won $5 on the hotd yesterday which was nice - first one Only just started playing 5NL, so hopefully I will get a few more.

I read somewhere that all the cash game rake goes up at the end of the month. Did you hear anything about this, the rake now is pretty high on 888 compared to a lot of the other sites.

Originally posted by padman400
Won $5 on the hotd yesterday which was nice - first one Only just started playing 5NL, so hopefully I will get a few more.

I read somewhere that all the cash game rake goes up at the end of the month. Did you hear anything about this, the rake now is pretty high on 888 compared to a lot of the other sites.

Although people say that rake is high (and it is even higher on PLO and PLO8 apparently) and 888's official rakeback is horrifically low, they return huge amounts in promo — freerolls, HotD and so on.

In the 3 years since I've been playing there on this challenge, I have collected over 800 dollars playing freerolls, and over 150 dollars in miscellaneous rewards.
The rake is worth it IMHO

Unless a PLO8 table opens up soon, I may skip today's HotD shot.
I don't want to play hold'em hoping to win post-flop w/ 98.
98 is not even a really good couple of cards to hold in a PLO8 hand.
In fact, they're putrid

Interesting thanks for your thoughts- well done with the extras

Do you play just PLO or is it 8 only. I only really play snap and have done well being a nit haha

Originally posted by padman400
Interesting thanks for your thoughts- well done with the extras

Do you play just PLO or is it 8 only. I only really play snap and have done well being a nit haha

I currently play PLO8 cash and occasionally Double-or-Nothing SnGs.
I also play NL 5 Snap — but I suck at hold'em.

nit is correct for snap, I think
It seems that some can make LAG work, but I'm not one of 'em

but dropped a couple of bucks in the process
The HotD was only 50¢, and at this point I'm down a̶ ̶b̶u̶c̶k̶ 30 ¢. I'm still playing, so things may change...

When the dust settled, and I had corrected the PT4 import error (888 sometimes writes incorrect data to the hand history file for split-pot hands ) I was down 14 cents.

I also collected a 4th tier payout in the daily nooner freeroll for 30¢ so not bad

The bubble has just broken, and I have less than 1 BB in early position

Nice time for A♠:A♥:

Pacific Poker - 2500/5000 Ante 500 NL - Holdem - 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BB: 4,454
UTG: 2,427
UTG+1: 1,203
MP: 9,090
MP+1: 11,663
Hero (MP+2): 4,500
CO: 19,234
BTN: 8,227
SB: 5,824

9 players post ante of 500, SB posts SB 2,500, BB posts BB 3,954

Pre Flop: (pot: 10,954) Hero has A♠:A♥:

fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero calls 4,000 and is all-in, CO raises to 10,000, fold, SB calls 2,824 and is all-in

Flop: (23,102, 4 players) 8♦:7♠:4♣:

Turn: (23,102, 4 players) 3♣:

River: (23,102, 4 players) K♦:

BB shows 4♠:J♦: (One Pair, Fours)

Main Pot [20,316]: (Pre 11%, Flop 19%, Turn 13%)

Hero shows A♠:A♥: (One Pair, Aces)

Main Pot [20,316]: (Pre 63%, Flop 59%, Turn 78%)
Side Pot#1 [138]: (Pre 73%, Flop 77%, Turn 90%)

CO shows T♠:T♣: (One Pair, Tens)

Main Pot [20,316]: (Pre 21%, Flop 12%, Turn 5%)
Side Pot#1 [138]: (Pre 22%, Flop 13%, Turn 5%)
Side Pot#2 [2,648]: (Pre 84%, Flop 85%, Turn 93%)

SB shows A♦:7♥: (One Pair, Sevens)

Main Pot [20,316]: (Pre 6%, Flop 9%, Turn 5%)
Side Pot#1 [138]: (Pre 6%, Flop 10%, Turn 5%)
Side Pot#2 [2,648]: (Pre 16%, Flop 15%, Turn 8%)

Hero wins 20,316
Hero wins 138
CO wins 2,648

I couple of more "desperation equity" pots, and suddenly I'm cashing 4 tiers up

I succeeded 15 times this month, for a total of $20.00. I expect that I will get another $10 at some point — perhaps at Month's end

On the other hand...
I've mentioned before that 888 writes incorrect data to hand histories.
I thought that it was only for PLO8 hands, but today I played some fast-fold NLHE to try to get the HotD with AK.
At the end of it all, PT4 says I lost 2.03, but my 888 balance shows I lost 2.10.

I wrote a script to catch the errors, but it ain't catchin' any.

I'll try to load the NLHE hands into Hand2Note to see what it has to say...

The $10 looks just fine in my bankroll, which means I have set a new record

Old Record: 872.10
New Record: 873.81

and a new record means it is time for another giraffe

Well done, great giraffe and a new BR high,. Lovely hotd bonus

I did not get chance to play yesterday, but for sure I will start to give this hand thingy a go.

Originally posted by padman400
I did not get chance to play yesterday, but for sure I will start to give this hand thingy a go.

Be careful.
Remember that the goal is to win overall — it is often necessary to fold the HotD to avoid losing a bunch.

Having patience is critical — and sufficient patience is one of my biggest problems in poker

But over all quite a good week...

The Challenge So Far:
  Start  Last Wk  This Wk    +/-      Goal  To Date     To Go 
 675.88   848.39   872.54  24.15  3,500.00   196.66  3,303.34 

This weeks results:
 Category    Won 
      F/R   2.07 
     NLHE  -2.03 
     PLO8  -0.39 
     Misc  24.50 
    Total  24.15 

It was horrible
I played some more NL 5 — and I played as tight as I dared.
Even so, I lost a full buy-in.

I really don't want to turn this into a whine-fest, so I'll post a couple of highlights.
Highlight #1:
The one-and-only time I flop a set out of 27 opportunities...

Highlight #2:
This is in the 888PokerTV Special Freeroll

Hands from one of today's freerolls

Nice Flop #1:
Pacific Poker - 150/300 Ante 30 NL - Holdem - 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

UTG+1: 2,940
MP: 6,863
MP+1: 5,964
MP+2: 2,717
CO: 6,507
Hero (BTN): 2,599
SB: 2,022
BB: 8,984
UTG: 2,940

9 players post ante of 30, SB posts SB 150, BB posts BB 300

Pre Flop: (pot: 720) Hero has A♦:A♥:

UTG calls 300, fold, fold, fold, fold, CO calls 300, Hero raises to 2,569 and is all-in, SB calls 1,842 and is all-in, fold, UTG calls 2,269, fold

Flop: (8,000, 3 players) A♣:9♦:9♥:

Turn: (8,000, 3 players) 2♠:

River: (8,000, 3 players) 7♦:

Hero shows A♦:A♥: (Full House, Aces full of Nines)

Main Pot [6,846]: (Pre 73%, Flop 99.9%, Turn 100%)
Side Pot#1 [1,154]: (Pre 93%, Flop 99.9%, Turn 100%)

SB shows 8♠:5♠: (One Pair, Nines)

Main Pot [6,846]: (Pre 21%, Flop 0.0%, Turn 0%)

UTG shows Q♦:A♠: (Two Pair, Aces and Nines)

Main Pot [6,846]: (Pre 6%, Flop 0.0%, Turn 0%)
Side Pot#1 [1,154]: (Pre 7%, Flop 0.1%, Turn 0%)

Hero wins 6,846
Hero wins 1,154

Nice flop #2
Pacific Poker - 600/1200 Ante 120 NL - Holdem - 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 1,490
SB: 12,746
BB: 5,714
UTG: 2,467
UTG+1: 5,957
Hero (MP): 19,751
MP+1: 1,332
MP+2: 2,015
CO: 8,144

9 players post ante of 120, SB posts SB 600, BB posts BB 1,200

Pre Flop: (pot: 2,880) Hero has A♠:J♠:

fold, fold, Hero raises to 2,400, fold, MP+2 calls 1,895 and is all-in, CO raises to 8,024 and is all-in, BTN calls 1,370 and is all-in, fold, fold, Hero calls 5,624

Flop: (22,193, 4 players) K♦:T♠:Q♦:

Turn: (22,193, 4 players) K♥:

River: (22,193, 4 players) 4♠:

BTN shows K♣:A♣: (Three of a Kind, Kings)

Main Pot [8,360]: (Pre 36%, Flop 7%, Turn 20%)

Hero shows A♠:J♠: (Straight, Ace High)

Main Pot [8,360]: (Pre 24%, Flop 87%, Turn 78%)
Side Pot#1 [1,575]: (Pre 46%, Flop 90%, Turn 89%)
Side Pot#2 [12,258]: (Pre 70%, Flop 93%, Turn 96%)

MP+2 shows 7♣:Q♥: (Two Pair, Kings and Queens)

Main Pot [8,360]: (Pre 24%, Flop 2%, Turn 0%)
Side Pot#1 [1,575]: (Pre 34%, Flop 3%, Turn 8%)

CO shows 6♥:A♥: (One Pair, Kings)

Main Pot [8,360]: (Pre 16%, Flop 5%, Turn 3%)
Side Pot#1 [1,575]: (Pre 20%, Flop 7%, Turn 4%)
Side Pot#2 [12,258]: (Pre 30%, Flop 7%, Turn 4%)

Hero wins 8,360
Hero wins 1,575
Hero wins 12,258

I haven't done that in a while
I kept losing and losing.
When I went upstairs to tell Mrs Vorpal I realized I'm wearing my "On Tilt" T-Shirt.
She suggested I don't wear that one while playing

Here's a hand I won that I called only because I was in full-on "ah f*ck it" mode
Pacific Poker - $0.05 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: $5.00
SB: $5.99
BB: $1.22
UTG: $4.06
Hero (MP): $6.14
CO: $5.51

SB posts SB $0.02, BB posts BB $0.05

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.07) Hero has J♥:K♣:

UTG raises to $0.10, Hero calls $0.10, fold, BTN raises to $0.40, fold, fold, UTG calls $0.30, Hero calls $0.30

Flop: ($1.27, 3 players) 5♦:K♥:2♣:
UTG checks, Hero checks, BTN checks

Turn: ($1.27, 3 players) Q♣:
UTG bets $0.05, Hero raises to $0.15, BTN calls $0.15, UTG calls $0.10

River: ($1.72, 3 players) 5♠:
UTG bets $3.51 and is all-in, Hero raises to $5.59 and is all-in, fold

UTG shows 7♦:7♥: (Two Pair, Sevens and Fives)
(Pre 54%, Flop 9%, Turn 5%)
Hero shows J♥:K♣: (Two Pair, Kings and Fives)
(Pre 46%, Flop 91%, Turn 95%)
Hero wins $8.23
Rake paid $0.51