Rollercoasters

The last couple of months have been a real rollercoaster. After being
confident enough to make a withdrawal back in December, I suffered a large
reversal of fortune. My $88 was slowly whittled away over a month to as
low as $31.82. At NL2, I just couldn't win! My VPIP and PFR numbers are
decent for this level at 25/18, and I was zero'ing in on the
super-loose/super-aggro opponents (the 68/5 types and the 55/45 types),
but they would always draw out on me, or I would get it in with AQ, and
they would finally flip over KK. The one comfort is that my EV numbers
stayed even throughout this big losing streak.

What to do when you suffer a big setback? I thought it was time for a
break. So, around January, I cut back on playing quite a bit, and
refocused on other hobbies.

Luck changed during this January to February cut-back period. With much
less play, I managed to climb my way back up to $60.82! This was very
encouraging. What changed? One simple thing - moving to Full Ring from
6-max. I'm finding that while full ring plays much slower, there is
generally at least one fish on the table. Also, the number of hands my
opponents play, force me to fold much more, or evaluate the merits of
playing more speculative hands based on bet sizes.

And then just as things are going well, a few days ago they get a bit
better: Pokerstars announced a new reload bonus, with a homegames ticket
attached. I rebought for $51.35, giving me the potential to recoup a
$12.84 bonus. Why such a low rebuy? Simply because there is only 30 days
to clear the bonus, and I don't think I'll be able to get much more
playtime to allow more than that in that timeframe. I also don't want
bonuses to dictate my playing times.

With the rebuy, and my improved fortunes at NL2 Full Ring, I decided to
prematurely and cautiously move to NL5 Full Ring. So far, it has been a
wonderful success. In my first evening at NL5, I was up almost $20, and
last night I was up $7. Five and a half buy-ins over 1200 hands - that's
45 big blinds per 100 hands! It feels like this has done a lot for my
bankroll, but in reality, it has just put me back to where I was around
December when I made the $50 withdrawal. Onward and upward! I'll keep
playing NL5 Full Ring unless something goes horribly bad.

Current FT Balance : $0.23
Current PS Balance : $136.83
Current Owing: $701.35
Current Bankroll: -$564.29