For as much as I don't like InterPoker (probably a separate rant) their monthly $100 deposit bonus is good and when you can clear this in conjunction with a second bonus it's really too good to turn down.
The second promotion was a bonus payout each time you are dealt poket kings. After submitting your account number and the hand number, they promise to credit your account with $10. The only condition is that the hand must have generated some rake. In theory this is a great promo. $10 free every 220 hands on average is worth roughly 1 big bet per 100 hands at $2/$4. I played 676 hands last night (ended up clearing about half of the bonus) during the promo period and was dealt KK just once, yet I saw AA and QQ 4 times each, and JJ a whopping 9 times. A cynical player might say that all the KKs turned to JJ for the duration of this promo, and I did see others chatting about how they hadn't seen KK the whole time. But this was an InterPoker promo only, so I can't believe that even if it was possible the whole Cryptologic network would put on a crooked deal just for one skin! Of course, when they run this offer for just 5 hours at a time you're not really getting a very big sample of hands, and those that are seeing a rush of Kings aren't going to be complaining...
So, let's just see how badly I messed up the one KK hand I did see: Remembering that the hand has to be raked to get the bonus, and with everyone folding to me leaving just two players and the blinds still to act, I decide to just limp in to make sure we get the flop and the hand is raked. Just the big blind stayed in for a free play, and of course flopped 2 pair with his Q5o to relieve me of $20.
Only myself to blame, though I still think limping here is probably right. With any other player already in the pot I'm raising, and from early position you don't want to encourage limpers to play against your big pair. An open limp in middle to late position on a tight table gives up your the edge on a $2 bet preflop but locks in the extra $10 win-or-lose bonus. It's just a question of whether the bonus compensates for letting in opponents with crud hands. In my case it didn't, but I did only have one chance to find out.
