10nl to 400nl

I hit an enormous downswing in April.  I had my account up to 665 and was pretty excited about moving up to 50nl with in the next month or two. I was running at a very modest 5bigblinds/100hands and then it happened.  Holdem manager had me running at -9 buy-ins for my all in EV so that's not even counting the times i had to lay down two pair, sets, strights, flushes, nut flushes, yeah that's right i said nut flushes.  When the board pairs and you have the nut flush, there's only so many times you can see a boat at showdown before you start to fold when the action adds up to just that.

So after all was said and donel, i moved down from 25nl to 10nl and then to 5nl.  Right now I have my role at at 159 and am gonna wait til about 190 or so before hitting 10nl again.  I hope to be at 25nl by my wedding on July 31st.  Then I can spend the following few months to cut down my tables and increase my hours to play some solid, exploitative poker so I can move up to 50nl by November.  I'd like to have a 1500 role before moving to 50nl.  I might even wait til 2000.  The reason is because once i get to 50nl, i don't want to look back.  If i can establish a reliable winratye of 7bb/100, i would like to work part time in order to focus on poker, get coaching, and work my way up to 400nl 6max or shift to HU and retire from teaching.    

well i took a shot at 25nl the other day and i didn’t get anywhere with it. Well i guess i did get somewhere. I realized that i need a bigger role to feel comfotable there. i’ve been playing at about 28/23 with 8% 3bet over the last 30k hands and its been pretty profitable. the downside is that i experience bigger swings with it. so i feel like i should wait until i get a good 30 buyins at least before moving up a level. So thats where i am.

Well i played for a bit around 6pm and caught the down side of variance where i was getting 3bet constantly, only 24% of cbets were working, and of course running into sets. I didnt see many spew monkeys. I was a little concerned for a friday night. I only played for about an hour. Then i went on a couple hours later and guess who was there…the spew monkeys of course. They were everywhere, so i just put in my time and ended up having a decent day.

I’ve been concentrating alot on table selection these days and it really seems to be paying off. My biggest concern right now is that the table selection will get more and more difficult as i move up.

last 3 sessions:
2/12/10 500hands ran $24 below EV
2/14/10 500hands ran $24 above EV
2/15/10 1000hands ran $5 below EV

I played a home game for no money and fell in love. Read books and bought holdem game for my phone to practice. Deposited $50 on poker stars 5 months later.

MY TIMELINE
2nln full ring…2 Months
5nl 6-max…2 Months
10nl 6-max…4 Months
25nl 6-max…5 Months
10nl 6-max…2 Months
25nl 6-max…4 Months
10nl 6-max…6 Months

I’m approaching the 2-year mark with online poker. It seems whenever i learn a new concept, I take it a little too far and then tone it down to where it finally fits in my game. I have $183 in my pokerstars account from my original $50.

Today: 10nl 6-max – 1020 hands, -$48
one of my biggest daily losses. A couple flush draws and double barrels gone wrong

Tomorrow’s another day. Listen to BalugaWhale on the way to work. Come home and check a hand that i posted today. Then… grind it out.