I have to say low dough, you've put more thought into it than I had. If only I'd known it was a nefarious plot between Iceman and Kenny to make me do all the hard work at the low-limits. After I've collected tons of money over hours of hard work grinding tables, and built up enough confidence, they can crush me at 200NL bringing an end to the horrible pyramid scheme.

Anyway, I'm five whole hours into my "no-mistake" streak. It may not seem like much, but when I add another two or four tomorrow and then a few more the next day its going to add up fast. My first celebration point is after ten hours. That's when I know the strategy is working. Another benefit is I don't have to type so much in my journal as I can leave out the humiliating mistakes part of the column.

I got in two sessions today, started late because I made an iffy commment on some of my girlfriends art and she got a little upset. Women will do anything to get between men and cards.

She's actually wonderful and very obliging of my annoying habit. (disclaimer here in case she does a web-search on platypus and finds this). Here's my stats for the night:

3 hours
45.35
2389.35

Well, I'm burning a hole in Theory of Poker. So far its proving to be a very interesting read. I've got a few misconceptions or misunderstandings about Sklansky's fundamental theorum, but I'm going to attempt to work them out in the forum.

As far as the poker I'm playing right now goes, everything is working out fine. A little cold decked, but I managed to make it a full four hours without screwing up in a big way. I started one hand with a very questionable hand, and called through poorly on another, but the moves were just a bit fishy, not complete travesties. I think I've more or less gotten away from my random unspeakable calls and raises that I used to make. It's a little early to be making that diagnosis, but we'll see.

4 hours
-18.37
2434.92

I suppose I'll put my mistakes up front in this post:

fired 2nd bet on drawless board after call on turn 12
2nd bet against bb on random sort of flop in unraised 10

As you can see I've been not doing so well at building a meaningful streak. These came after a few hours, but were both significant enough to mention. Both mistakes involved firing into a pot that I likely couldn't win with a bluff. I either held air or near air.

After a rather effective first session today I felt pretty good about how everything was going. I was up and riding. Then with mistakes combined with a colder run of cards I fell back down to where I was. It threw my PTBB/100 stat down to 2 or so, not close to the 5 I've been shooting for. Finally I rounded back up with a few good hands and finished up for the night, posting a nice healthy single session win.

One thing I've been getting wrapped up about this month are both my mistakes and my PTBB number. I believe its low, and I think it has to do with me needing to focus on my fundamentals in poker. However as EmmasDad pointed out on IRC today I can't focus my attention on the short term.

I think this is certianly one of the hardest parts of poker. It is difficult to measure how one is doing in the short-run. If I'm a tennis player, and I go out and play awesome tennis, I win a match more often than not, and feel good doing it. I know right about how good a player I am. With poker results take longer to materialize, and even though I feel I'm a good player, my numbers seem to point to the idea that I'm not.

Anyway, all of those notions aside, work on the fundies, focus on the long-term, drive on. Here's stats:

6 hours
112.42
2547.34

Well, Saturday wasn't much of a day to speak about. I made a pretty significant mistake starting out, realized I wasn't focused very well, and was in a bad mood and playing poker. After realizing this was a bad combination I decided that it would be best to cut my session short and take a break for the rest of the day. Best to come back on Sunday refreshed rather than down and upset. All in all bad cards and bad play.

re-raise min-raise with overpair, frustration 15

Since the mistake involved a min-raise, and I had just recently lost a stack to a min-raise, I think its a symptom I'm going to have to reinforce to myself. Unless there is an extremely copelling reason to stay in a hand against a min-raise (set, straight, flush or draw) then give it up. Especially on a drawless board. Stats:

1.5 hours
-87.70
2591.76