The Big Tilt-Off

Well, it wasn't enough to learn the lesson once...

After losing a few buy-ins on Friday night, I tried to recoup the losses
very late at night at higher limits... extraordinarily high limits.

I essentially tilted off my entire Full Tilt roll down to $2.00 at NL100.
I was actually doing quite well until I lost a Full House to a larger Full
House (54 with a 456 flop. A 5 on the turn, and we're all in. Villain
was holding 66 to achieve a better Full House). I then went to Pokerstars
with an "F"-it attitude and proceded to tilt off the entire balance there
where two pair lost to a rivered flush.

After these events, I had essentially $2 left. And I still owe myself my
initial $600 Full Tilt deposit.

New Rules
---------
1) No play past 1 a.m. When I play "up" and "take shots", invariably its
well after 1 a.m. when my judgement begins to be impaired with fatigue.
At 1 a.m., I will immediately set to sit out at all tables after the next
big blind rolls around to me.
2) Stricter Bankroll limit enforcement. No taking shots unless adequately
bankrolled. I will continue playing at each level until I have 30 BI for
the next level. I will fall back down to the lower limit if I drop to 20
BI's at any point. These buy-in limits are site specific.
3) Cashouts. Once I hit each milestone of $50, $100, $200, $300, $400,
$500, at any given site, I will cashout half of the balance. This is
BEFORE any consideration to move up in stakes. It ensures I stay at lower
limits longer. It also ensures that it is not possible to do as much
damage if I go on a fatigue-induced bankroll tilt-off again.

Since Friday, I have played short-stacked NL2 tables at Full Tilt, where
the maximum buy-in is $0.80. I have done quite well and built that
balance from $2.00 to $6.75. I am still inadequately rolled for NL2, but
it looks like I will get there without any problems.

On Stars, I had to rebuy to be able to play at all. I rebought for the
minimum. $10.00. This will be repayed in addition to the requirements
above (perhaps wait until I hit $60 rather than $50, then cashout $35).
After playing a short time on Pokerstars, my balance there is now $11.90.
So this is encouraging too. The only problem is that there are no
short-stacked NL2 tables. Minimum buy-in at any table is $0.80 (40bb's)

I should be able to recoup these losses. At NL2, over 14,000 hands, I am
achieving a win-rate of 23bb/100 hands. I've won about $60 at this limit.
There should be no reason I cannot continue to do this and rebuild my
bankroll at this level. It will just take a lot longer to accomplish.

Current FT Balance : $6.75
Current PS Balance : $11.90
Current Owing: $610.00
Current Bankroll: -$591.35

Why Pokerstars is better for the micros despite Full Tilt Rakeback.

First off. I've gone from $2 to $139 in a month!! Wow! Move over Chris
Ferguson. I was at $36 dollars at Full Tilt last time I posted. The new
approach has worked wonders. My full tilt bankroll balance is now $139.

I'm playing a tighter, more solid range, and it is working.

My bonus at Full Tilt has now expired. I still have 27% rakeback at Full
Tilt, but from a purely effective rake point of view, its better to play
the micros at Pokerstars without rakeback until I hit NL25. This is
because Pokerstars rakes $0.01 per $0.20, as opposed to Full Tilt's $0.01
per $0.15. Because of the rakeback percentage, it would normally be close
to a wash, but the difference is made up via the respective to vip points
programs. The pokerstars points are unencumbered, whereas using the full
tilt points will incur a rakeback penalty. This means that when you
factor the bonuses, etc. for a person on the lowest end of the VIP scale,
I come out on top with pokerstars.

In addition, Pokerstars points are currently doubled for NL10 and below,
which makes it an even sweeter deal. I don't know how long this will
last, but it makes pokerstars clearly the number 1 option right now.

But I still like Full Tilt better in a few key ways. Here are the reasons:
1) Full Tilt has Rush Poker. On regular tables, you inevitably have to
wait a lot for the multi-tabling types who play too many tables, and
make every hand last > 1 minute, even when they are folding pre-flop.
Rush does away with this for 80% of the hands dealt with the quick-fold
button. My only issue with Rush Poker? It starts at NL5. I really
wish there was an NL2 Rush Poker table. Its also challenging to learn
to play your opponents properly when you're not sitting at the same
table as them over long periods of time.

2) Full Tilt has a greater range of buy-ins at the micros. This is
more a problem with Pokerstars than anything else. At Pokerstars, the
NL2 buy-in is $5, and the NL5 buy-in is $12.50. That's 250 big blinds.
Oddly enough, the standard 100 bb buy-in starts at NL10. So a
standard buy-in at NL10 is $10... which is less than a standard buy-in
at NL5 of $12.50. Something's wrong there. I wish pokerstars would be
more like Full Tilt here. Full Tilt has short-stacked, standard, and
deep-stacked buy-ins at EVERY stake level, including NL2.

So which site will I play at?

I will play at both right now, and leave it to pacing. Right now, a
standard buy-in at NL2 is a bit low. I've got enough accumulated to play
NL5. But at a standard buy-in table.

So, I will play NL2 at Pokerstars (with a $5 buy-in) when I feel like a
properly paced, slower game where I can analyse my opponents properly.

I will play RUSH NL5 at Full Tilt when I feel more focused, or have less
than 30 minutes to play.

This seems like a good compromise for now.

Anyways, total Bankroll at Stars and Full Tilt leaves me at -$328. This
puts me back to where I was at the end of July, but at least it is on an
upward trend now. My goal is to see this number at breakeven or better by
Christmas.