In June, I started playing on Party through instant bankroll (free 75$, with 25$ bonus), I already knew Hold 'Em pretty well, had read the books, played live, bla bla bla.
I told myself at the time that if I went broke I would not deposit any of my own cash. Well with some luck I was able to build up a real roll playing NL 25 (I would buy-in for 10$), .5/1, low-buy-in SNGs and MTTs.
Over the next few months I was playing well and getting better and even got to cash out some money. Every time I would hit 1,500$ I would cash out 1,000$. I did this twice (I also won a 2,000$ jackpot, but I don't count that here as I didn't consider it part of my BR and just cashed it out right away). I was also having a ton of fun, making friends on 2+2, learning Omaha and Stud and all that good stuff.
Since the second cashout, early last month, I haven't won a damn thing. Teamed with bad luck, seriously bad bankroll managment and overall frustration, losing begot losing and now I have a single dollar in my account.
I still have a positive ROI for MTTs and SnGs and am in the black at all levels in ring games. Nevertheless, I'm not a pro, I couldn't make a living playing poker, but I do believe I'm handily better than the average low-limit online players. I also think a run of bad cards had a lot to do with my downswing. The majority of my sessions for the last month, when inputed into pokergrader,
look like this..
So now, I'm faced with a decision. Do I make my first ever online deposit? The way I see, I would only be depositing a piece of what I've won, so it does not necessarily violate the original rule I set for myself. But it still seems like a big step, part of me feels like this was the puppetmasters plan from the get go, and I don't know if this is just common place for a downswing, but my confidence is nearly shot.
By the way, in terms of the money itself, it doesn't mean an enourmous amount to me given that I have a job, though it would suck to lose it. Also, I don't think I am at any risk of going nuts and ending up engulfed in debt, I don't gamble on anything but poker and don't have an addictive type personality.
As it stands, I think I'm going to take a little break, and when I see the next party reload bonus, I'll pop in a few hundred bucks.