Back in the Game

In January I deposited $100.00. Went through it in 4 days. 1/2 of it went down to a bad beat when I jumped into a $1/$2 NL game with $50. Bad bankroll management? Not really, since it wasn't a bankroll, just a deposit. And one of the things I wanted to do with the deposit was either play in a $50 SnG or a bigger stakes cash game. I chose the higher stakes and had my AA cracked by AT. Shortly there after, the rest was gone.

In February I decided to do a test deposit, wasn't sure if it was even going to work. It did, so I put in another $50. This time, I focused on .05/.10 NL and nothing higher than a $5.00 SnG. I quickly lost about $30 of that. Most of it was becasue of stupid play. I was definitely playing below my ability.

One day I jumped into the usual .05/.10 6-handed NL game as well as a $5.00 SnG. Between the two I was hit with the deck... hell I was hit with like 20 decks and pretty much able to pick any cards I wanted. In the course of an hour I had AA/KK/QQ about 5 times, plus a bunch of AK/AQs. In the SnG I was chip leader and at the cash game, I turned $5.00 into $35. I busted out of the SnG just out of the money, then I got into a big hand and lost about $20 on a questionable call. I stilled ended with $15 from a $5 buy-in.

But it got me thinking. I was lucky enough to get most of the money I recently lost and blew a big portion on what might have been a questionable call. (I had J6 in the BB- there are a couple of limpers, I just check. Flop comes J-J-x. I bet, get 2 callers, Turn is a blank (no draws), I bet and get one caller (he has the 2nd biggest stack). River is another Blank. I believe I checked, in case he had another Jack. He pushes all-in. I call and he has QJ). Hard to get away from that. I should have bet the river, and if he came over the top I might have been able to throw it away. My check showed weakness and his push-in could easily have screamed of desperation.

Basically, the situation (not the hand) caused me to pay more attention to my play and even at these micro-limits there is definitely room for thinking. I don't plan on making this my living, but I'd like to build up a bankroll where I can play higher limits like 1/2 or 2/4 and not blow my wad. Maybe withdraw some cash (once the whole UIGEA is figured out) to buy some luxury items.

So I made a conscious effort to turn my play around. I've even made some rudimentary attempts at game selection. I'm looking for active games. Higher percentages of people seeing flops, higher average pots. This will allow me to play a bit tighter and wait for big hands. I've stuck to the micro limits - .05/.10 and .10/.25- no limit, mostly short handed. I've played a few SnGs (short handed, full or heads up- $5.00 buy-in). But not performed particularly well in those.

The cash games have been a lot better. After losing the initial $30 from the most recent deposit(combo of cash games and SNG), I've had one losing session and that was only because I cut it short. Twice I lost my initial $10 buy-in, but rebought for another 10 and both times won back my lost buy-in plus some more.

So here I am, one week since my $50 deposit. 1 week from losing a total of $130 for the year. When I closed out a cash game last night... I am a PROFITABLE player for 2007. I've turned that last $50 deposit it to $152. Sure it's only a $2 for the year so far, but it's nice to know that I was able to dig myself out of the hole I put myself in.

I understand that it can get unlucky and bad beats happen, that's part of the game. But I'm going to stick with the micro games until I get my bankroll up. I actually want to turn this INTO a bankroll.