Two Plus Two Older Archives - operation reach bellagio 4000-8000: Update

I don't know if anyone remembers me, I made a post a couple of months ago to try and forge links with online pros (I was just about to begin playing full-time). Some of you asked to be kept informed of my progress.

Well, up to about a week and a half ago there wasn't any progress. After a month and a half of play I had actually lost money. I had started with $200 and I had exactly that in my account at that point, which constituted a deficit when you take into account some very profitable bonus whoring that I had done.

I had started on the .5-1 limit tables on party. Got up to $600 in no time, and moved up to 1-2. I won steadily, but progress was a lot slower than it been at .5-1. I was making some mistakes which I've since cut out of my game, but generally the cards just weren't co-operating.

I had clawed my way up to a grand, and was feeling pretty confident about my poker prospects, when I decided that my 500BB bankroll was big enough to take to the 1-2 6-handed tables. Was I to regret that decision...

I watched 750 of my hard-earned dollars flow down the drain over the next week. It really was like chinese torture. Horrible stuff. I won't bore you with the details, but basically my high pocket pairs were my only hands making a profit.

So I halted the slide when I was down to my last $400 by dropping back down to .5-1. In a blink of an eye I was back up to $600. Sweet! -200BB and I'm at $200. Not so sweet.

And this is where my story reaches it's lowpoint. I really was so frustrated. I remember thinking that if I had tried to do this in a cardroom or casino, taking into account online is 3 times faster and the fact that I'm 4-tabling, it would have taken me a year to get to this point. That's why we play online, I suppose.

Anyway, this was about a week ago. Then I had a big rush to take me back up to $600. Feeling confident about my limit game I did something I should have done ages ago-I started playing no-limit.

How would feeling confident about my limit game encourage me to move to no-limit? Surely it would encourage me to stick with limit? Well, the thing is I've always known that no-limit is more profitable than limit at the small stakes, but I was determined to overcome limit, and I wasn't able to let go of that challenge-until now.

So the last week or so I've been playing 25 and now 50nl on party and winning at a good rate(I won't sustain it, but god knows I'll enjoy it while it lasts). My bankroll's healthy, and with more conservative bankroll requirements I don't expect to run into big trouble again too soon.

Whenever someone posts about their first month playing pro, it always goes something like this:

Week 1- won $675

Week 2- won $524

Week 3- lost $264 (oh woe is me. what a catastrophe! I was driven insane by the bad beats!)

Week 4- won $2007

When I was down to my last $200 posts like above that I'd read kept going around and around in my head. Is it that straightforward for everyone else? Am I a losing player? If there is a god, does he hate me?

I'd imagine that it's a lot less than straightforward for most people, but only those that make a flying start to their poker careers post their results on an internet forum. I'd hope that other people who know that they're beating their games, but aren't getting the results, would take encouragement from this post.

Colm