Monday, September 11, 2006

Limit Challenge - back in the saddle

Okay, so I have been leaving the Limit Challenge sitting there, gathering dust. It was a shiny, new toy there for a while, but I grew bored and left it in the corner to gather dust.

Time to pick this puppy up and knock off the dust. Shine it up again. Not to mention that I am hoping that the change in the mental workout will change my luck.

So here's the results of day one, back in the Limit Challenge. For those who don't remember, or the new readers out there (yeah, right). I have taken up the challenge of turning $1.20 into $300, just playing limit poker at the varying levels. I started with 30X the big bet for the smallest game I could find on sites that I played, which was the .02/.04 game at PokerStars. When I reach 30X the big bet for the next level, I move up. So i needed to take my 1.20 to 3.00 to move from .02/.04 to .05/.10. If I lose down to 30X big bets at the previous level, I have to move back down. So if I sit with 3 at .05/.10 and lose down to 1.20, I have to drop down a level. I do sometimes take multiple sessions, but I always start a session with 30X big bets, regardless of where I am in the process at the time (for example, I play .02/.04 and end the session up $1, not enough to jump to .05/.10. So the next time I sit with 1.20 again and only need to make up the difference to get to the 3 total)

Yeah, right. Nothing is ever as simple as it seems. I have officially played 48 sessions of varying length (I know PT will tell me, but that's too much work to dig through at the moment) starting at .02/.04. I have made it as high as .50/1 twice, but have been knocked back down to .10/.20 both times, falling through the .25/.50 on the way.

So here's the current state. Went back to my tracking sheet, and noticed that I was at .10/.20 (again!) and needed about 4ish to get to .25/.50. I made that in one session and moved into the .25/.50 game. Made 1.50 more there before I quit for the day.

Right now I am in .25/.50 and need 13ish to get to .50/1 again. My goal is to get to .50/1 by the end of this week and stay there. I would like to ba playing 1/2 by Sunday. We shall see. Feel free to join in and post here in the comments with your results.

I'll cya at the tables.

Sunday, September 10, 2006

Variance and frustration

Okay, so for those of you who don't know...I've been running bad. VERY bad. -$300 this month bad. I keep trying to tell myself that it is just variance...that I want the donkeys to call my all in with Q7 (cause it is SOOOOOTED) vs my AK.

But there comes a time when doubt and frustration start to creep in. When you start to wonder "is it me? What am I doing that has made this happen?"

I am there. I had a bad month, but made it to the Bronze Freeroll on Full Tilt and got myself a free $12.50. But I would have needed first to feel good about it, and I didn't come close.

So what do you do to deal with frustration? If I have any readers left out there, post your "voodoo" here...hurry. I'm about to go with some of Sly's suggestions. And that is a true sign of desperation.