[deacsoft]

Well... there are a couple of things I'll offer up here.

1) Bad beats & Downswings
These happen to everyone, and I mean everyone. Including the best of the best players in the world. Phil Gordon points out in his book, Phil Gordon's Little Green Book, "If bad players couldn't occasionally get lucky and win, there would be no poker games worth playing." Their bad play is what makes games profitable. Some days they will get lucky more often than odds would suggest, but in the long run the better player is at a huge advantage (the size of the advantage depends on how often the poor player plays incorrectly and how often the better player takes advantage of it). You have to take the "long-view" and look at it as all being one big game. Don't be results oriented. Make sure you're playing every hand to the best of your ability and then look back to see how you can improve. Downswings happen and often their size can be limited by not making mistakes and plugging leaks in your own game. It all starts with your perspective. Think positive, look to improve your game rather then downgrade others, prepare yourself mentally for bad beats and downswings, and take the long-view.

2)Getting back into it.
$400.00 is more than enough to get you started. However, your bankroll is not enough to really jump into anything but .50/1 limit. (300 big bets is recomended at any limit you play) To play 1-2 a bankroll of $600 would be recomended. At .50/1, 4 tabling, and 3 hours a day... 200-250 is possible (depending on your skill level and that of your opponents). However, it may be too high to start off with. I'm in favor of setting goals that are obtainable with hard work but are also safe mentally if you do not reach them. I'd suggest just playing your game for a couple weeks and trying to improve. At the end of the couple weeks figure your BB/100 (big bets earned per 100 hands played). Then set a goal that will require work and improvement but not add stress. Say you are earning 1.2BB/100 the first couple weeks. Shoot for 1.7 for the next couple weeks and repeat. You'll find that continuing to improve and achieve smaller goals will allow you to move up in limits and reach your $200-250 goal easier and with less stress. Remember when moving up in limits the play changes. Your goals should then start over and begin small agian.

Hope this was of help to you.

Cheers,

deacsoft