Still moving along nicely

Bankroll: -327

Tonight was another great night. I'm trying to limit myself to 2 tables, and only a couple of hours a night. I had some wonderful hands tonight. I'll post a few of the gems here now, and I'll try to fully analyze them tomorrow to see if I played them as well as I thought.

Full Tilt Poker $0.01/$0.02 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players - View hand 829600

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter



CO: $2.09

BTN: $1.87

SB: $1.75

BB: $1.96

Hero (UTG): $2.34



Pre Flop: ($0.03) Hero is UTG with 8 8

Hero raises to $0.07, 1 fold, BTN raises to $0.14, 2 folds, Hero calls $0.07



Flop: ($0.31) J 8 8 (2 players)

Hero checks, BTN bets $0.20, Hero calls $0.20



Turn: ($0.71) 6 (2 players)

Hero checks, BTN bets $0.40, Hero calls $0.40



River: ($1.51) 3 (2 players)

Hero requests TIME, Hero bets $0.77, BTN raises to $1.13 all in, Hero calls $0.36



Final Pot: $3.77

BTN shows A J (two pair, Jacks and Eights)

Hero shows 8 8 (four of a kind, Eights)

Hero wins $3.52

(Rake: $0.25)




Here, my opponent has been playing a 20/8 game over 60 hands. When he 3-bets my UTG raise, I know he's got something decent, but he min-3-bets it. Given that he has a full stack, I'm going to call at 3:1 odds and hope to hit an 8.

When I flop TWO Eights, I can only hope he hit his hand. I'm not concerned about flush draws here, so I check and hope he leads out. He obliges and I call. Same with the turn. At the river, I'm fairly certain by the way he's betting that he has either one or two jacks in his hand, which means he's dead in the water. If he's got 2 jacks, he'll put it in. If he only has one, then I need to simply milk as much as I can, given that by now he must suspect that I have one eight in my hand (or at least a jack). I lead out with a half pot size bet hoping that he'll call. He was nice enough to push, and I scoop after he shows AJ. I'm surprised he allowed things to get this far out of hand, and I was lucky enough to flop the nuts while an opponent hit a strong (but not monster) hand.

On the next hand, I flop a monster draw and hit. With some unusual betting, I manage to eeke out almost a full stack once I hit my flush.

Full Tilt Poker $0.01/$0.02 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 829605

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter



MP: $2.03

CO: $2.05

BTN: $1.47

SB: $2.02

Hero (BB): $5.24

UTG: $2.75



Pre Flop: ($0.03) Hero is BB with 8 7

3 folds, BTN calls $0.02, 1 fold, Hero checks



Flop: ($0.05) 4 T 9 (2 players)

Hero bets $0.04, BTN calls $0.04



Turn: ($0.13) K (2 players)

Hero bets $0.02, BTN raises to $0.19, Hero calls $0.17



River: ($0.51) 9 (2 players)

Hero bets $0.04, BTN raises to $0.20, Hero raises to $1.11, BTN raises to $1.22 all in, Hero calls $0.11



Final Pot: $2.95

BTN shows K T (two pair, Kings and Tens)

Hero shows 8 7 (a flush, King high)

Hero wins $2.76

(Rake: $0.19)




Here, I don't have a lot of history on my opponent. Just 6 hands, and he's called in 4 of them... so maybe loose, but can't be sure at this stage. I flop a draw to an open ended straight and a flush (or a straight-flush). I bet out, and hope he'll call.

I hit my straight, and now the issue is how to extract as much as possible. I want to seem like I'm betting weakly, in an effort to draw him in. The danger here is that another heart could drop on the river, and then I've got some hard choices. After I lead out for 0.02, he decides I'm bluffing and bets the pot. I will either raise or call. If I raise, I think he'll see the flush and fold, so I simply call, and hope to make more money on the river.

A second nine falls, but not another flush card. I no longer hold the nuts any longer. If he's got a pair of 4's, 9's, T's, or K's, I've lost. Same with any number of better flushes. Given his betting so far, any of those hands is possible, but so are a multitude of other one-pair or two pair hand. I'm still trying to get some more money into the pot.

To be consistent with the turn, I bet 0.04. I'm afraid a larger bet may wake him up to the possibility that I actually hold the flush. Luckily, he takes the bait and reraises. His reraise is only 40% of the pot, so I don't think he's got one of the monster hands I described. I reraise nearly his whole stack, he puts in the rest, and shows me two pair, losing the hand.

My whole night has been like this and its been wondeful.

Anyways, my bankroll at Full Tilt has grown to $46. That covers the 20 Buy In's at NL2 I need, plus an extra $6. $6 is more than I need for an NL5 Buy In, so I will take a shot at NL5 next time I play. Wish me luck.

Massive 2 month Update! And its not pretty!

Bankroll: -332

Shocking. Simply shocking. There's no denying it. I have a bankroll management problem, which when combined with a little tilt, results in very bad news. I'm intent on fixing this problem once and for all and setting some limits.

Anyways, how did it get this way? Would you like to learn what NOT to do, from what I did? Its a long story. Essentially I started playing more cash games, and at levels I'm inadequately rolled for.

At pokerstars, I completed what I could of the bonus I mentioned in my last post. But afterwards, there was no other bonus to complete. I thought that during the lull, starting a bankroll on another site (full tilt) would make sense. At Full Tilt, they have a $600 first depositors bonus, plus they have rakeback, if you get approved by rakebackpros. I made my deposit and was approved for rakeback, thereby starting the next leg of this journey.

After reading a few books on cash, and 6-max games, I started playing mostly cash, and transitioned away from Sit and Go's. At Full Tilt (FTP), this started well enough, and I did okay even at the lowest buy-in for Rush Poker (NL5 - a $5 BI). Rush Poker is like regular cash games, except that once you fold out a hand, you are immediately placed in a random spot in a new table (with new players). My first impression of rush poker was that it was fairly easy compared to regular ring games. This assessment was flawed.

With a fresh $600 I had deposited at Full Tilt, and my early success at NL5 Rush, I decided to give NL25 a try (technically, I was bankrolled for it on a deposit basis, but the $600 was really just seed money, and not "made" money). Unfortunately, I suffered from a few bad swings, and lost about 5 BI's after a few hundred hands. Many were bad beats, but the last BI or two was purely steaming tilt... Well, to continue chasing the money, I made the error of moving up to try to get it back quicker. I tried NL100, lost 2 buy-ins, then moved down to NL50, and lost a few buy-ins there too. My bankroll on FTP was a complete disaster.

Time to regroup and pledge to get out of this mess.

Where we stand:

My FTP bankroll is at $32.50 (from $600). I have about $10 in rakeback that should be deposited this Friday, as well as a $20 portion of the bonus that will clear soon. Its very bad, but its recoverable.

My PS bankroll is at $235.25 (free and clear!). I have been doing well at Pokerstars.

Currently, I have bonus and rakeback at FTP, so that is where I should play, just at a proper bankroll point. I will play cash games, 6-max, and I will play standard ring games at NL2.

It might be better from a bankroll rebuilding point of view to switch back to sit and go's where I have been relatively successful in the past, but I really want to learn the cash game properly. In fact, I think that although I have lost money at higher BI levels, I have learned a lot and improved my game as a result. Last couple of nights playing at NL2 6-max have been very successful, winning multiple buy-ins, and I feel like I'm playing against people much worse than me.

I will continue to build my roll at FTP at NL2 until I achieve $100, at which point, I will move to NL5. At $200, I will graduate to NL10. At $500, I will play NL25. If I start to lose at any of these points, I will move back down, and continue playing until I have paid off the shortfall in funds. I want to get to the point at FTP where the bankroll is free and clear money, just as it is at pokerstars.

So, that is the plan. I just received a copy of Harrington's 6-max Online book. It looks like it contains a lot of valuable information - on setting up HUD's, taking notes, etc. If its good advice, this stuff will end up being very good for my game, as I rarely take notes now, and my HUD certainly isn't optimized.

Anyways, the remainder of this year's goal is to climb outta the gutter once again. I've done it before and I will do it again. And this compounds the need for me to stay within my bankroll. If I cannot stay at the limits I can win, it means that as a losing player, I will need a hobby budget, not a bankroll. Having a budget is anathema to my point of view on poker though. I feel that what I hold in my account is not really in terms of money... to me it is more in terms of "points"... and the person with the most points is the better player.

To take this point of view to an analogy, to me, reloading a poker account is kind of like playing a game of basketball with someone, finding myself down by a score of 80-50, and then offering to give my opponent $30 if he'll make the score 80-80 - and that's just not right. So to me, my bankroll is a score, and the higher my score, the better I did. You can't buy a score, and doing so makes me feel like I cheated. I don't cheat at games, because that's not what its about for me personally.

Proper bankroll management will ensure my score never reaches zero (unless I can't beat the very worst games, which I doubt). I just have to begin being very strict with implementating these rules.

Anyways, to pique anyone's appetite for what I've been going through. This was the final hand I lost before my full tilt bankroll dipped to almost nothing, and I slammed on the breaks and decided to regroup.

Full Tilt Poker: Table Afterburner (6 max) - $0.50/$1 - No Limit Hold'em -

UTG : ($126.85)
MP : ($124.80)
CO : ($70.80)
Button: Hero ($90.10)
SB : ($71.75)
BB : ($105.35)

SB posts the small blind of $0.50
BB posts the big blind of $1

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [Qs Qh]
UTG folds
MP raises to $3
CO folds
Hero raises to $10.50
SB folds
BB folds
MP calls $7.50

*** FLOP *** [Jh 9h 2c]
MP bets $20
Hero calls $20

*** TURN *** [Jh 9h 2c] [Th]
MP bets $36
Hero raises to $59.60, and is all in
MP calls $23.60
Hero shows [Qs Qh]
MP shows [Jd Js]

*** RIVER *** [Jh 9h 2c Th] [Ad]
Hero shows a pair of Queens
MP shows three of a kind, Jacks
MP wins the pot ($178.70) with three of a kind, Jacks

*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $181.70 | Rake $3
Board: [Jh 9h 2c Th Ad]


The challenge I had here on this hand is that the QQ's are well worth the reraise. Once called, the leadout by the MP (middle position) player could be anything. With an overpair to the board, I felt a call was necessary.

Once the turn hit, not only did I have an overpair, but a straight-flush draw. At this point, I had 17 cards which could improve me to best hand (any of the 9 remaining hearts for a flush, any 8 or K for a straight, and any of the 2 remaining Q's for the best 3 of a kind). Even if I discount two of these cards in case my opponent had made the nut flush or straight (with say, KQ, or Ahxh, for instance), that's still 15 cards, and about 30% chance to win the pot.

The problem is that he value bet the turn as well, and the cards could have hit any of his possible holdings as well. So, without the next card to come, I'm confident that either I'm way ahead or way behind. Given the betting and the limit, I'm probably way behind, but factor in the odds of hitting the winning hand on the river, figure a small chance that he's bluffing, and I thought I should shove. As a poker friend pointed out, this play is probably marginally positive, but that I should not have committed my stack given my current bankroll situation.

And now I have to recover $332. That's 161 Buy Ins at NL2.

Ups and Downs

I've calculated out that I need to average 5 SnG's a night at the $4.10 Knockout level to be able to attain the first increment of the bonus. I've been doing just that, and I'm on track, with 90 out of 200 point accumulated so far.

This past weekend was wonderful - in the SnG's I managed to put myself up $20, plus I did reasonably well at cash too. My bankroll advanced to $156 overall! How fast it climbs!!

Last night though, I played 6 SnG's, and only placed 3rd in one... So the bankroll has retreated to $139. How fast it falls....

I wish I could play at a higher BI to accelerate the point accumulation, but already, a bankroll of $139 makes a $4.1 Buy in quite volotile as you can see. Going to the next level at $6.75 would really make it swing out of control.

If I were to follow Phil Shaw's advise, then I would have to have 60 buy-ins. That would mean I would need $246 to be playing at the level I'm playing now. By extension, I should be playing the lower level of $1.4.

Shaw's advise seems sound, as a $20 swing at $246 wouldn't impact me at all. However, if I experience another dip of $20 from my current BR of $139 down to $119, I have to seriously consider moving down. And unfortunately, that $20 downswing is currently just 5 buy-ins away.

The reason I'm going to continue playing at this level though is related to rake percentage. The rake rate at $4.1 is 8.5%, which is far more reasonable than the $1.4 rate of 10.7%. The next level of $6.75 has a rate of 7.4%, but as discussed, the variance at $6.75 is much too high for my bankroll to handle right now. Upper levels after this remain at 7.4%, so there is nothing gained in terms of rake rate by moving up further than this.

In conclusion then, I'll be a little fast and loose with the buy-ins for bankroll requirements at these lower levels just to get my win rate up, given the lower rake percentage. however, as I approach the $6.75 level, I will tighten up those bankroll requirements, and require a 60 buy-in rate for anything above that.

I think this is a reasonable way to approach building a bankroll, as I am confident that I have a long term positive win rate that exceeds the rate percentage.

A New Bonus

I cleared the last of the bonus, and my bankroll stood slightly higher than before, at about $140.

As of a few days ago, there is a new pokerstars bonus. Its 20% of your deposit, and you get $1 cleared per 20 VPP earned. Interestingly enough, there are only 20 days to clear it. That's pretty challenging at the micros. On the other hand, it releases incrementally every $10. Incremental release is a big positive for us micros... its just too bad it won't matter with only 20 days to complete it!

As a result, I just deposited $75.00 for a total bonus of $15. After 200 VPP, the first $10 of the deposit will clear - I believe this is achievable for me in 20 days. The extra $5 is in case I go crazy and finish the first $10 early, there is something more to achieve.

I will, of course, withdraw this money at the first opportunity to keep my bankroll "untainted". :-)

Of course, I'm playing deepstacked NL5 tonight($12.50 BI) and I end up down $10 because my KK runs into AA all-in and loses. So bankroll is now down to $122

On another note, a friend suggested contributing to my poker cause. I thought about it a little bit, but I don't want the bankroll "tainted" like I said. Perhaps I would save them up and use the money for special events - like a pokerstars "$225 Sunday Millions" or something. I'm mulling the idea of donations. As I don't provide many great ideas to those who read this (is there anyone who reads this but me?), and as I don't know if I can make something great out of this, I would call it "The Pity Fund".

If you pity me, please donate to the pity fund, and I will use it to enter a large tournament. :-) I will keep all winnings (should it come to that)... but I may feel guilty at the end of it all and donate some to charity or something. This is the happy ending. More likely, the ending will be that I lose the buy-in and move on.

In other related news, I'm reading Harrington on Cash for the first time - borrowed from a friend.

Stars Bonus Shenanigans

Bankroll: $295.12 (but really, its $265.12)


This weekend, I deposited $30 for a new reload bonus at Pokerstars. Due to the strange way in which reload bonuses at Stars work, I will need to keep that money in the account for the next 2 months.

The full story is that you're allowed up to 3 separate deposits. The 2nd and 3rd need to be made within 60 days of the first. Each deposit has its own expiry to clear which is 90 days after the deposit date.

Therefore, it behoofs you to deposit a small amount first, then deposit the 2nd and 3rd deposit exactly 60 days after the first. This extends your expiry for the bulk of the bonus from what would normally be 90 days to 150 days.

Concurrent with that deposit, I decided to take a shot at the $6+0.50 turbo Sit and Gos, up from the $3+0.4 level.

I played in 6 of the $6.5's. I had a 2nd place finish, a third place finish, and 4 losses. So, for 6 SnG's, I am down by $12, or just short of two buy-ins.

My initial impression is that playing at the $6.5 level feels different. Very different. I'm sure some of it has to do with the higher buy-in level; but, I suspect the majority of the feeling has to do with the fact that these are only 9 player Sit and Go's at this level, rather than the 10 player Sit and Go's I'm used to at the lower level.

So, for now, I will move back down to $3.4's for awhile and stick with the original plan of waiting until I've got another 100 or 200 buy-ins first.

After that, I might consider playing a few dozen 9-man Sit and Go's at the ultra-low $1+0.2 level - just to get used to the differences in preparation for the move back to $6+0.5.

In other news, I cleared the 2nd portion of my earlier reload bonus - which amounted to $12.50 into my account. How I cleared the last of this bonus was utterly reckless, and I'm thankful I made it without incident. Stay tuned for that story!

Post-Holiday Play!

Tonight I decided to get back into it, after a short Holiday break.

First up was Pokerstar's Multi-table tournament promotion for getting all the questions on a quiz correct. By responding correctly, you can join the tournament with a $5 entry fee, but they add $20000 to the prize pool. I checked just before the time-slot, and it looked like just over 2000 players joined, so I hopped in, seeing as how only $10,000 of the $30,000 prize pool was covered by the players (kinda making my $5 worth $15, if you think about it!).

Unfortunately, I had to sit out of the first hour of the tournament due to nagging household chores, but after I jumped into the saddle to play, I actually placed quite well. The bubble was at 324 players, with prizes starting at $15.00. I was knocked out at roughly 425th - so just out of the bubble.

I then proceeded to play 2 separate $5.5 sit and go's! (an attempt at moving up in stakes!). Regretably, I ended up placing 5th in one and 6th in the other.

Thinking that perhaps I'd chewed off more than I could handle, I fired up 2 separate $3.4 sit and go's! (back to what I'm used to!). I lost both in 5th place again! (What's with me and 5th place?).

In the end I played 4 more. I was 2nd place in the last 3, so this made up for the other $3.4 losses at least.

At the same time, I played a little bit of NL2 cash during the low and mid blind play when my concentrated isn't needed as much, and came away with some small change. This makes my last 4 sessions positive, which almost makes up 3/4 of a buy-in. So I'm happy with my progress there.

Anyways, the bankroll is now at $221.78. Still off from the higher point of $254, but still quite respectable.

Have a happy holiday everyone.

The Meaning of Tilt

The evening before yesterday, I had a fairly even night.

On the one hand, the bad news is that I lost 2 $3.40 Sit and Go's. I finished 4th place in both - just out of the money.

On the other hand, I won $4.48 in NL2 cash play in 217 hands. The next night, I was not as fortunate.

Encouraged by my success the previous evening in cash, I decided to fire up 4 tables at NL2. Unfortunately, the cards ran really cold, and after 3 and a half hours, I was down $4, nearly a full buy-in. At this point, its 1:15 a.m. A rational person would call it quits and hope for a better day tomorrow. BUT NOT ME!!!

Instead, I'm angry that I spent so long at the tables without hitting a hand with action (the only big pair I had out of 440 hands last night was KK. Everyone folded to my pre-flop raise, netting me $0.03). So, exhausted and angry, what do I do?

Why, I buy in two levels above! NL10! And not only that, I do it on a table format I haven't been playing -> 6 max! The land of aggressive players.

Needless to say, my play from that point on was not pretty. I started up a couple of dollars with a nice hand, but within 20 minutes, I had spewed away one and a half full buy-ins.

I fully deserved what I got. A prime example of my awful play was a hand like this:

Poker Stars $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - http://www.thehandconverter.com/hands/428598
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Hero (UTG): $10.00
MP: $12.50
CO: $7.20
BTN: $10.00
SB: $6.80
BB: $7.15

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is UTG with 5d Kd
Hero raises to $0.30, 4 folds, BB calls $0.20

Flop: ($0.65) 4d 5c 3h (2 players)
BB bets $0.20, Hero raises to $0.70, BB calls $0.50

Turn: ($2.05) Ts (2 players)
BB bets $0.10, Hero raises to $0.90, BB calls $0.80

River: ($3.85) 6s (2 players)
BB bets $0.20, Hero raises to $3.60, BB raises to $5.25 all in, Hero calls $1.65

Final Pot: $14.35
Hero shows 5d Kd (a pair of Fives)
BB shows Qd 2h (a straight, Deuce to Six)
BB wins $13.65
(Rake: $0.70)

SURE, he should not have been calling my flop and turn raises with the low end of a straight draw (they were priced too high), but I certainly had no business making those raises with a pair of 5's.

So, in summary, my total loss for the night was $18.83. WAY TO GO, ME! That's a whole week's work destroyed.

I suppose the only redeeming thing is that as I while writing this, I played 19 NL2 hands, and recouped $1.53. Hit trips twice, and was dealt KK (cowboys) on the last hand. Woo-hoo! Anyways, time for this post to end. No more poker tonight.

Bankroll is now $233.71

Small Progress

The last few days, I've been chugging away at the $3.4 Sit and Gos. My bankroll is now up to $240.54. It would have been higher, but I've been dabbling in a bit of cash for 10-15 mins after each SnG session to "wind down", and I've lost a small amount there in the past few days.

Can't complain about the SnG's though. I've completed 19 out of the 20 games I need to finish an entire block to get on the leaderboard, but I'm afraid making the top 50 this week just isn't going to happen. I've only got 300 points. Out of the 19 games, the points came about from 5 first place, 1 second place and 1 third place finish.

Monetarily speaking, this isn't a bad week at all. Say I lose that 20th game for argument's sake. Total Buy-in of 20 $3.4's is $68.00. 5 first's is $75.00, 1 second is $9, and a third is $6, for a total of $90.00. So, I've netted $22.00 from these Sit and Go's this week. Not the slam dunk I had last week/weekend, but pretty darned good.

I think I'll play these awhile longer. :-) Now, off I go to play that 20th game. I'll update this with the results once I'm done.

UPDATE: Just finished the 20th game of the block. 1st place finish once again! So, 350 points for the block, which doesn't even get me in the top 100. :-) However profit wise is a different story. That makes my profit for the block $37.00. My BR has now increased to $252.14.

Incredible Weekend

Thus far, this weekend has been absolutely incredible.

My bankroll has increased from about $187 to $234.47. I believe that is a 25% increase.

Here's how it happened....

Last two weeks, I have been having incredible success playing the $3.4 10-man turbo Sit and Go's at Pokerstars.

On Friday night, I played in three of them. I received 1 first place finish ($15) and 1 second place finish ($9). After that, I noticed my Frequent Player Points balance was 20 points away from clearing the $15 reload bonus. Well! I fired up 3 double or nothing SnG's with a $1.1 buy-in. Unfortunately, I lost all 3.

So, I formulated a plan to clear the rest of the bonus by the end of the evening. I foolishly decided to play in a couple of NL25 games (that's a $25 buyin), which would normally require my bankroll to be 5 times its current size. I would play VERY tight, and choose tables with a very high average pot. The reason for the high pot is that higher pots mean more rake, and more rake translates into more Frequent Player Points (FPPs).

Needless to say, it ended up being a wild ride on NL25. I was up a full buyin, then down 2 buyins, then finally I ended the session once I cleared the points.... and miraculously, I was up $3.37. One problem is that I was only playing two tables, and just couldn't play less cards and tighten my game up.

Anyhow, before I went to bed, I noticed a menu item on the software "Sit and Go Leader Points". This got me curious because I had been running so well at the $3.4's. I saw that I had 240 points out of 7 games. The minimum block of games however, is 20. I extrapolated that if continued at that rate, my final points would be : 686. The current leader on the board was at 630. Then I see that I have until tomorrow evening to play my additional 13 required games - unfortunately, not going to happen. Too bad, because being at the top of the ladder in a given week pays $300 at this level, as well as entry into a $50,000 tournament! Wow. So I pledge to try again starting tomorrow evening, after it resets.

WELL, Saturday evening arrives. I play a few to warm up. By the end of the evening, I've played 8 of the 10-man $3.4 (buy in total of $27.20). I'm first place in 3 of them, for a total of $45 in winnings. Not only that, but I get eliminated in 4th place on the bubble in two of them, so a great night was close to being absolutely fabulous! Can't complain about that!

Anyways, checking the new leader board, I have 100 points with 4 tournaments played (the other 4 were played BEFORE the evening's point reset). So at this rate, I will have 500 points by the end of the block of 20 tournaments, which is good enough to cash in, I believe!

Anyways, so far, a great weekend. My Sit and Go / Tournament graph is at the top there. (the red line is luck adjusted winnings). $234.47 is the highest my bankroll has ever been (well, except for when I deposited for the reload bonus, but promptly withdrew that amount).

The Story So Far

This graph fairly represents the Bankroll since I started playing with a $50 deposit to Pokerstars at the end of June 2009. Its been a VERY rocky 5 month journey!

As you can see, the first month was fairly rough. I was playing $1+$0.10 Double or Nothing sit and go tournaments to build my bankroll. I was quite successful at these Double or Nothing's, but unfortunately, I was also spending time playing cash games at NL2 (blinds are $0.01 and $0.02). I was losing more at cash than I was making in the DoN's - hence the tragic plummet, which had me at a low point of $14.50 in late July. At this point, I realized that playing even the lowest stakes with real money was vastly different than playing for play money, and I pledged to improve and become a winning player.

August was a month where I ran well, and stuck to what I was good at, and essentially rebuilt the shattered bankroll. I avoided cash games altogether. The huge spike at the beginning of October was due to my $50 first deposit bonus clearing.

The massive crash in November can pretty much be accounted for by my decision to run at higher stakes. Almost as soon as that decision was made, I did poorly at the new stakes. Once I saw the freefall, I moved back down in stakes, but then I started running very poorly, and just couldn't seem to win any key showdowns.

Luckily, things seemed to stabilize at the end of November, and I've been running very well, recouping a lot of lost ground in a very short time. This has been very encouraging and has given me a lot of hope for my future with this game