Phase III didn't go as smoothly as Phase I and II. I travelled over to Pacific Poker where I was under the impression that play was at it's worst. It is generally understood that the worst players on the internet play at Pacific Poker. After a week playing there this is certainly true. That doesn't mean, however, that it is easy to win there. In fact, by playing against the worst of the players I actually had a harder time winning. This is because people play poker over there like it's craps.
Poker isn't actually a skill game to people at the site, because they play every single hand, no matter if you raise the pot or not. It is very common to have 6 people or even all 10 seeing the flop at one time. Therefore, if you have pocket aces, there is a great likelyhood that you're gonna get them cracked and not win the hand. I couldn't figure out a way to beat this. I tried playing loose, and that cost me a ton of money. I tried playing really tight, and played JJ, QQ, KK, and AA, and still got beat by people who would call my raise preflop with K2, 9T, J8, etc. I could not figure out a way to get past this ridiculous way of playing poker. The thing is, these people are gonna lose money in the long run if they continue to play like this, because playing too many hands is rule #1 on how not to play poker.
Pacific had a 25% deposit up to $100. I deposited $400 and was immediately given the $100 bonus. To clear this, you must bet 5 times the deposit (or $2000 in my case). I ended up doing this, but got frustrated about the play on the site, and it seemed clear that I could not win there. I ended up cashing out at around $265 after starting with $500. If anyone reading this is interested in bonus whoring, I would recommend not playing at Pacific, unless you want to get frustrated time and again at how you pocket rockets are constantly getting beat by 78o.
While I'm here, I just want to post the other things I've done with the bonus whoring money, probably not smart, but what I've done nonetheless. First, I bet $100 on various parts of the Superbowl. I ended up losing about $25 of that hundred. I then put the rest of the money on a New Jersey Nets game that I felt pretty confident about, and won, putting me up to $147.19 on the site.

Deposited: $100

Cashed Out: $147.19

Profit: $47.19

Next, I put $100 onto PartyPoker for some reason and played the 1/2 games there. I made $45, but then cashed out only the $45 and played with the rest, losing it.

Deposited: $100

Cashed Out: $45

Profit: -$55


Finally, I put $100 onto PokerStars and played there for a while, eventually winning $13.

Deposited: $100

Cashed Out: $113

Profit: $13


Add all that up, and not including Pacific Poker, I'm at a profit of $5.19. Now let's add in the Pacific Poker losses.

Starting Balance: $644.12 + $5.19 = $649.31

Deposited: $400 into Pacific Poker

Cashed Out: $265

Profit: -$135

New Balance: $514.31


Whew, that was a wild ride. I'm gonna stick to whoring the sites on my list and try not to get sucked into Party anymore ( I usually end up losing there), and won't play PokerStars till I'm done with the bonus whoring. Next up is Paradise Poker where the bonus is 25% up to $50. I'll update when I'm done with that.