WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!!!!

Well, took my shot and lost my 10 buy-ins.  Don't really know if it was run bad or play bad.  Doesn't help on hands like KK<KJo when villain open jams a T95r board after calling a 3bet OOP and spiking a queen or the JJ<AA on the AAJ board.  Definitely didn't play great, but also was coolered like nobody's business.  Oh well, not going to tilt off that roll and will just drop back to $25NL for the time being.  Hopefully I'll be able to grind back that $500 and be able to take another shot sometime soon.

TILT.

Simply put, tilt.  I remember starting off playing online poker tilting like it was nobody's business.  I'd load a few bucks and grind the SNG's and MTT's.  Sometimes I would hit a big score (for me) and would then transition over to the cash tables or maybe even play bigger SNG's only to lose my whole roll.  Then, it was just rinse and repeat.  It was a vicious cycle, but I still had those dreams of making it big and ballin at life.  Then something happened, I discovered DC/DTB/2+2.

From there on, I constantly worked on controlling my tilt issues.  I studied the game more as I felt one of the best ways in controlling tilt was getting a better understanding of how the game worked.  It definitely helps knowing that a hand was just a cooler/standard and moving on instead of going crazy and blowing up in the chat box.  From there, things slowly started to progress.  I went 3+ years without having to reload once and cashed out thousands.  Maybe small change for some, but I felt that I had finally started making progress.  Then of course everything shuts down and I was left with a decision.

For me, I decided to take a while off and just focus on other things.  My career, my relationships, etc.  When I did come back to poker, it seemed that I had taken a giant leap backwards.  I have made quite a few deposits, nothing huge, grinded up to a few hundred bucks and then boom, gone.  I did this time and time again.  Finally, I told myself "this is your last deposit, make it count."  Now, I'm just a couple buy-ins from moving up to $50NL.  Do I still tilt?  A little.  I have my moments.  However, it's the way that I'm trying to handle those moments to prevent me from losing what I have worked so hard for.

So there it is.  There's my opinion on the toughest villain at the table.

Hey DC!

Just got back from a week long vacay with the fam.  Definitely needed and well deserved as things have been pretty crazy around the office for the last couple of months.  Vacation was nothing too exciting, a lake house and about 30 aunts, uncles, cousins and siblings all in one place.  Also, just to give you an idea, we went through about $3K worth of alcohol and beer over the week and I think I gained about 10lbs....it was a blast!  We do this every year, so it's something that I always look forward to.  The gf also met everyone officially for the first time...eek.

Anyway, while there I went with my brother in-law, little bro, sister in-law and cousins to see the midnight premier of Dark Knight Rises.  Overall, I thought the movie kinda kicked ass, even if I did fall asleep momentarily at the beginning (late night hangovers from day drinking are never fun).  The only complaint I had was that sometimes I couldn't make out what Bain was saying, but Hathaway made up for it as she just looked incredible. 

I was also able to put in some volume last week during the mornings when all of us adults would "work" on our laptops around the breakfast table.  Finished up a bit and am now properly rolled for $25NL...had taken a 12 buy-in shot earlier this month.  I know I had said that I would take aggro shots all the way until $100NL, and based on that, I should be taking my shot at $50NL now, but I think I'm going to hold off and just wait until I have 25-30 buy ins before I move up.  I am beating $25NL for about 3-4bb/100 currently, but that's only after like 15K hands.  Just figure I will be able to take a legit shot soon enough and will get a better feel for the game.

Don't know how I did it, but I took my aggro shot at $25NL last night.  Started off rough, losing a couple buy-ins, but was able to climb back to 3.5 BI's up.   Hopefully I'm able to hold and continue climbing! 

Pretty much says it all....it's been an EXPLOSION!!!!! :) 

Here's to looking like I'm down 22 buy-ins at $10NL per PTR, but having a bankroll that keeps going up! :)  The whole hand history issue on Merge 6.0 is definitely helping me get some action!

It's been great watching this again!

That is all. :)

So many bad endings over the last few days.  First, my $10NL shot did not go as planned.  Down about a total of 4 buy-ins or so, but when you run middle set into top set in a limp/ISO raise pot twice 125bb deep, what can you really do?  Also when I have 43s on a board of 2569Jr and run into 87, well, there ya go. :)  Overall, haven't been playing poorly, just have been on the wrong side of some coolers.

Also, has anyone else been dealing with this cluster f*** that is also known as Merge 6.0?  It's been up now (and I'm being nice here) for the last two days.  I play on a Mac and still can't get simple hand histories to load.  To be honest, it has been kind of nice playing without a HUD over the last few days, but still...get with the program.  Combine that with other little bugs and major lag issues, and this software release has been a horrendous experience.  Oh well, hopefully all things get back to normal and I can start grinding upwards again.

After 7500 hands of $4NL, I have made 20+ buy-ins and am now going to take a small shot at $10NL!!  With only 12 or so buy-in's for $10NL, I will be dropping back down if I fall under $100, but I can't imagine it will be any different from what I've been playing.  Here's to hoping that I STAY THERE!!!! 

Had my first losing session last night after making the decision to come back.  For the most part, I think it was more bad beats than bad play.  Did I have some loose calls that cost me some extra $$$?  Sure.  However, I didn't tilt at all which makes this a successful session overall.  I never really had issues with tilt before BF, but I really was wondering how I would handle things after taking over a year off from online poker.

On another note, I just saw on 2+2 that Merge is going to allow rakeback!  When I signed up, they only offered the VIP program and even though I was able to make it to the bronze tier and have been receiving a whomping 6% RB since, it will be nice to start receiving a standard 35%.  It will take away from my VIP points earning rate (drops to 65% I think?), however I think the value is definitely a lot more until I reach higher limits.  June 1st can't get here soon enough. :)