Are we having FUN yet?
Well, kinda. I played about 500 hands of $25 NL circus last night, just grinding out the Party bonus. Given Party's software, I can 6-table without any problems. That auto-resizing feature is pretty darn cool. I hope more sites start having that feature. I can now understand why the 4-color deck is so popular. I started using that, too. I don't like it, but I mislike misreading the board even more. Those tables get pretty small when you have 6 of them tiled on your screen.
I had remarkably few hands to play last night, even for circus-style. I decided to allow a few modifications to the "true" circus. I limped with pocket pairs or AQ, AJ in LP. Or play them for one more bet from BB. Two such hands cost me some money yesterday. AQo from EP, I flop QQ7, and lose to KQ0 who truned a boat. AJs from the BB lost to AKS, even thought I flopped top two, I pushed and he runner-runnered his flush. I caught AA vs QQ right at the end of the session to double one of my stacks, so I only finished down about $12 after my lost blinds were all added in. (I sit at the tables with $8)
I made that back this morning in one orbit at a $50 NL table when I flopped top 2 holding KQo. I was only playing one table, and was trying to play 'real poker' for a change. I only made one orbit because my internet connection started misbehaving, so I called it quits.
Even though I was losing a small amount of cash last night I was having fun. It amuses me to clear Party bonus, to be 6-tabling, and to see some of the ridiculous banter that goes on at the Party NL $25 tables. Two nights ago I was circusing, and I pushed pre-flop with AKo. I got called by J7s, and a 7 flopped. However, the 4th of my suit fell on the river and I won with a flush. My opponent just started going crazy in chat. "What a JOKE! Your play is a fking JOKE! That's total horsesht!" On and on he went. After calling an all-in with a J7s, he was totally irritated that flopping a 7 didn't entitle him to the pot. I didn't want to leave that table, but I had to rat hole the money, so off I went.
I have about 1150 more hands to play at Party and I suspect most of them will be done circusing. If I get far enough ahead (in terms of accumulated raked hands compared to time left for the bonus is concerned) I may switch over to a focused NL $50 game. I am still interested in playing for real at NL, and the notorious Party fish should be a good place to cut my teeth while there's still some bonus left to clear (padding my play).
Three-Bet Donkey (a.k.a. "Ramble") has posted some good observations on why he switched to NL from limit recently. Check it out here.