We Used To Vacation

hi guys.  it's been a while.  i've missed you.

I got home from Europe a couple weeks ago, which was a really amazing life experience, and now I am back to playing poker.  For the first time in my life, I am going to be playing 'professionally', which to me means that i am playing as my sole source of income.  In 2009 I played a bunch of poker and was out producing my full time job, but was working full time, and in 2010 I was working on call for my old job and collecting Employment Insurance, so again, playing for the majority of my income, but not my only source. 

The last couple years I played Heads Up Limit Holdem, and that game was very profitable for me.  It is my feeling, however, that huhu is a dying game, as evidenced by the 10-40 person waiting lists, and before I left there were times that I was able to watch an entire movie without getting action.  This was good for my movie and tv watching skills, but not good for my poker skills.  Long story short, I've decided that the overall profitability of huhu is declining, and that a game that will be able to be more profitable for a longer timeframe is going to be huplo.  I've put in about 18k hands in the last 3 weeks, and i have been mildly successful at the plo50 game.  I'm under the impression that the rake is very high, and that is obviously hurting my WR. I would like to move up to the 100 game (where the rake will be .5bb max rather than 1bb max), but am going to wait until I am more confident in my skills.  I thought 20k hands might be enough, but i think that 30k is probably going to be a better marker to gauge my performance. 

There are a ton of differences in the plo game vs the lhe game, and it is taking time to get used to the changes.  I'm still learning what 'good' players are doing, and once i start to figure that out, I can make some better quits against people who aren't going to be profitable for me.  Some of the basic markers for me are folding a bunch of their big blinds, check raising, 3betting 10-20% range, making reasonable check backs, etc etc.  I'm not good at quitting people yet though, so hopefully that changes.

With an almost 5bb/100 WR, it's hard to call my run so far bad, but I feel so unsure and inconsistent with my play, which is probably because of the swingyness of the game - i've had 2 +16BI days and many -6 to -10 days as well.  I'm a few hundred below ev, which i'm unconcerned with, but i am concerned with the number of BI i feel like i've jammed away in what are probably hopeless spots.  If I can avoid making bad calls against weak villain's check raises, i think i could be more successful.  I'm less worried about getting a bunch of money against an aggro bad player that I feel is stacking off light.

Anyway, hopefully things keep going well and I'll try to check in in a few days.

LQ