Stagnation in my game

[GoCubsGo]

I've been playing poker for a little over a year now. I started out completely broke playing home games for $10. One of the first nights I left with $100, which is a lot of money when: a) you're broke and b) everyone starts with $10. That night gave me confidence that would kept me thinking that I was the s*it for the next 7 months, despite playing break even poker. I was definitely one of the better players among my friends, but they are all terrible.

During this time I played on PokerStars, but only for play money. I won about 8 million play chips and sold some on Ebay, but kept the money. Later I sold some more play chips, got $15, and lost it in a couple days. For some reason I feared that real money players online must be really good, even though I was playing at the penny tables. This may have caused me to play scared and question my moves, feeling that I was the worst player at the table.

I again sold some chips in June or July, and got $15 on PokerStars. I worked it up to $60, moved up to NL$25, and got hammered. It got to a point where I had $2 and my entire bankroll was all-in. I think I got lucky on that hand, and thank god, because I haven't looked back since.

I found 2+2 in July. I read hand histories voraciously. Some of the plays bewildered me. My philosophy on poker was terrible and it took a little while to accept that my ideas were wrong. I knew what pot odds and such were, but I didn't know how to apply them. I suspect that the only reason I had been able to break even until this point was that I played tight and had more patience than my opponents.

Now it was summer and I had lots of time and little to do, so I played about 2 hours a day for the last half of July and all of August. I was learning a lot from 2+2 and it showed in my game. I had won consistently at NL5, 10, and then 25. In about mid-August I moved up to NL50 massively underrolled. I had about $500 and I was prepared to move back down if I lost even half a buy-in. By a stroke of luck, I happened to hit a big upswing right as I switched levels.

I finally got my [censored] together by the end of August. I decided that I was a winning player and I could start taking online poker more seriously. I set up a checking account, a Neteller account, and got PT. I started some light bonus whoring, but nothing ambitious.

Sometime in September I hit a bad downswing and lost a third of my bankroll, going from $1500 to $1000. I seriously questioned my poker ability and decided I would quit online poker and cash out forver if I reached $700. I turned it around and since then everything has been gravy. I moved up to NL100 after I had 20 buyins, and that opened up a lot of bonus whoring opportunities.

For about the last three weeks, my attitude has changed a little bit. I no longer worry about not being good enough or going bust. I know that I am a solid player. As a result of this, I don't think I'm improving my game as much as I was previously. I really cut down on my browsing of the SSNL forum. The posts just weren't interesting anymore. The answers to each hand were either way too easy for me or way too difficult.

To combat my loss of interest in SSNL, I started reading ToP about 3 weeks ago, but haven't touched it in over a week. The concepts made sense to me, but I didn't feel like it was introducing anything new. For example, the chapter on semi-bluffing: I felt that I already knew 90% of that information and maybe learned 10% of it. I haven't been motivated to go back and finish it (I'm about halfway through) because I haven't seen any scenarios where I've consciously incorporated it into my game. Is it possible that ToP is helping me, but I just don't realize that I'm utilizing its ideas?

I think I am overly content with my game. I've played about 13,000 hands at NL100 and my BB/100 is half of what it was at NL50. This hasn't really bothered me because the money has been about the same, only with increased variance. Are my results typical? Does the play get that much better at NL100? Of course, it could also be variance. I'm at a little under 4 PTBB/100.

I think what I need is some motivation. I already make a lot more money than all of my friends, and if I never got any better at poker, I know I could make about $2000 a month with poker + bonuses. The problem is, using this logic I will never become a great player like El Diablo. I now have the bankroll to play NL200 but I don't know if I'm ready. I am excited about moving up, and would like to use this as motivation to get better. I'm thinking I could set a goal that I need to reach before I can move up. What could it be?

So, is maturation process typical of a poker player? It's possible that the better you get, there is just less that you can work on. I've tried to read some MHNL posts, but the play is much different there and I sometimes give up if the situation in the posted hand is too difficult. Whereas before I was consciously introducing new plays every few days, the only thing I've improved lately has been my emotions. I have learned to handle the beats and downswings a little better, but I think I make the exact same plays that I made a month ago. How can I keep improving my play? Should I start reading ToP again?

[xxx]

Read Steve Z's chapter in SS2. Try to be a fox.