My past month has been a bit weird. A little over a month ago I started playing online poker again.
I get obsessed about things quick and have a good worth ethic. I enjoyed playing it and started playing 8+ hours and later even 12+ hours a day a couple of days straight. I was in this mindset for about two weeks.
I was doing pretty well too. I turned about $20 into (currently) about $750. I enjoyed seeing the progression in my play, moving up the stakes and finding new challenges.
As I had to work all day yesterday, I planned on playing 8k hands today. I would 9 table (I normally 6 table) 25NL for the whole day like I did the days before. I found myself not having the motivation in the morning like I used to have. I forced myself to startup PS and join 9 tables.
I didn't reach my goal. After almost 9 hours I "only" played 5k hands. The worst part is is that I didn't feel the motivation, the excitement, the desire to play better and win more. I sat there and played because I made myself to.
This might partially because of 9 tabling. I was nitting it up (11/8, I normally play 17/12) and it was simply less fun.
Later in the evening I started 6 tabling again, trying it with less tables. Again, I didn't give a flying fuck the whole hour.
Anyway, maybe I've been pushing myself too much the last couple of weeks. My progression (both bankroll aswel as skill) has stagnated a bit. This might also has contributed to this.
My goal was to be rolled for (25BI) 50NL before college starts again in september. It still should be a realistic goal, but we'll see.
...just had to get that off my chest. I'm taking a break tomorrow. I haven't worked out in a month since poker, so that'll probably be a good idea too.
Since moving up to 25NL I haven't experienced the same success as I had at the limits before. I don't feel it's harder, but I've just played worse and ran bad.
Started yesterday in my first 500 hands losing 3 buy-ins, spending all day trying to grind it back. I did, went over it and then lost my winnings again. Ending up with a 0.09 BB/100 session after 15 hours of play.
This morning, same thing happened, but even worse. Lost AA vs KK, AA vs AQ, small pots and an awful tilt bluff. Back down to -4 buy ins.
I know, I shouldn't whine too much, in the little over a month I have been playing again I haven't experienced any real downswings yet, but progression stagnating is a bit demoting.
To introduce myself, some videos of things I like:
Hokay, now poker.
I first played about 6 or 7 years ago, when everyone was playing. I was in highschool and decent-ish. I ran $10 freeroll money to $200, then tilted and lost it all. As I couldn't buy chips (not having a CC), I just quit online poker. When the hype started to fade away, our home games did too and I pretty much just quit playing.
Fast forward to this summer. I used to be a big starcraft (BW and WoL), but had to quit last year due to a wrist injury. I do still follow the scene. I was figuring out what to this summer as I couldn't play games anymore. When the Team Liquid documentary came out, I saw some guy named Liquid`RaSZi donating a bunch of money. I looked up his name, started looking into poker again... and got itchy.
So, I downloaded the PokerStars client and PokerTracker, bought some chips ($20) and started playing again. At 2NL, I thought I still was the shit. I immediately played on 4 tables and started to gangsta bluff the shit out of everyone. I lost a couple of buy-ins and started to reevaluate my game. I also went back to just 2 tables.
I finally started to win a bit. After a small downswing I slightly tilted and went up, 5NL. This actually worked out. I think it's mainly because I took it a bit more serious and started improving my game. I also started playing on 3 and later 4 tables comfortably.
I (again) started playing bigger stakes under rolled. I was quite confident that I could beat it, and I was right. I also was winning there. I'm currently comfortably playing 10NL, 4-6 tabling.
There was a huge leak I had. I would (donk) call rivers I knew I was beat. I'm decent-ish (for this level) at reading hands. I'd doubt my own readings and still call (big) hands I shouldn't. Also, after I did that I'd tilt the fuck out and play worse. When I learned to stop doing that in the last 10kish hands my profits have been improved.
For now, I'm staying at 10NL until I have 20BI for 25NL. I'm close-ish to it (should make it this week), but I'm not rushing it. I'm just doing this for fun and to challenge myself.
