Whoa! A Donation!

Now that's something completely unexpected. I've received my first donation to the tune of $5. I suppose I had better find the time to play an MTT to spend it on. I'll play a $5.00+$0.50, and I will kick in the rake portion myself.

I will keep you posted on how it goes. No charity was specified, so I will donate 1/2 of proceeds to the Humane Society if I win.

Up from the Gutter

The fluctuations to my bankroll have been challenging.

I played Rush NL5, and lost just over 4 BI's a few weeks ago. Down to $20
left in my FTP account, I attempted to play $2.25 SnG's, where I can
usually eke out a small, but reasonable profit. With less than 10 BI's, I
was in rough shape when I failed to cash in 5 in a row. The fact that my
EV line was climbing was cold comfort.

With just over $8 left, I was forced to play NL2, and a few beats later I
was down to $2. Yes, $2.

I stopped. I read more Harrington, and I decided to tighten up -- a lot.
I was not playing LAG well - my Won $ at Showdown % was 40%, which is not
enough to win.

And then I started to play at NL2 short-stacked tables ($0.80 max buy-in).
I built the $2 up to $10. I then played NL2 for full Buy-ins, and
continued winning. The tighter play has been working.

When I hit a $20 bankroll, I had a tough decision. I had $7 of bonus left
to clear a full $20 worth, and I have a deadline of 2 weeks. I determined
that I wouldn't be able to clear the amount at NL2 in that amount of time,
so I decided to play NL5 Rush again - faster clearing rate at higher
stakes. Again, a bankroll issue, but in this case a bit of a necessity
with a $20 carrot at the end - $20 which would represents a very
significant increase in my current bankroll.

Thus far, it has been going very well with the tighter approach. I'm up
to $36, and I feel I can beat this now. I have only $4 left to clear for
the rest of the $20 bonus. After that, I will likely drop down to NL2
again until I can get to a "safe" bankroll level to play NL5 again (at
say, $100).

I am purposely trying to keep the pot smaller. I'm keeping a lot of the
reraising shenanigans I used to participate in to a minimum, especially
with unpaired high cards (like AQ), and waiting for a flop. This
weaker/less aggressive approach seems to be safer and involve a lot less
variance.

I will keep you posted on how this evolves. I never thought I could climb
from $2 to $36 in cash games though. Its amazing what a tighter approach
can do!