Good luck with the 500K on party. No matter what it'll be a great experience for you.

SUNDAY, MAY 7, 2006

Finished up $20.75 today. Another day on the plus side - good! More importantly than the results, no mistakes that I can recall. Double good! Most of my winnings on the day came from a flopped set and a couple of big pairs. I lost $10 on QQ that I had to abandon after the flop, but that was it for hands not holding up today.

Sorry to say the news isn't so bright on the Party Poker $500K guranteed front...I was doing GREAT until I make one mistake - misread the board and it cost me all my chips. I was second in chips at the table, and it so happened that my opponent was the chip leader - he was a HUGE chip leader after that hand.

Tomorrow night I'm going to try two tables and see how it goes - the goal is to continue to play mistake free poker and hopefully increase my hourly rate while I'm at it.

Tables played: 1 full ring
Hands played: 404
Time played: 350 minutes

Poker winnings: $15.15
Bonus cleared: $5.60
Total profit (loss) for day: $20.75

Bankroll as of 5/7/06: $688.52

Countdown to $50 NL: $311.48

WEEK ENDING MAY 7, 2006

Well this was by far the biggest week in my campaign thus far. This was the proverbial "March" of poker weeks - in like a lion, out like a lamb. The early part of the week saw me complete a $130+ downswing and thus, by the old rules I had, forced me down to $10 NL. But after receiving many posts basically all saying to get PokerTracker, I bit the bullet, withdrew the money from my bankroll, and did it. So far it's great. More information at my fingertips that I could ever hope to compile just going on mental notes alone.

See the total bankroll results below - my losing came to a stop this weekend and I've really turned things around - mistake free poker. I dropped all excess tables and have been 1-tabling all weekend. I think I am going to strike some balance and 2-table for awhile - I'd like to win a bit more than what one table can yield, however, I have no desire to stop/slow my learning at this point by firing up 4 mini-tables. I may well do this for awhile once I hit $50 or $100 and feel like realizing some profit, but not now. The goal at this point is to grow my game, the fruits of my labor can wait.

1, 3, and 4 tables
7 days play

Net finish for week: ($1.75) - Funny I was down $54.75 before getting PokerTracker

Bankroll as of 4/23/06: $688.52 (down more that $1.75 due to PokerTracker withdrawl)

Emoticon of the Week:

Me and the others who recommended you get PT are only interested in 5% of your winnings from here on out.

Seriously great comeback and keep it up! You made the adjustments you needed to make after a downswing, and that is not the easiest thing in the world to do. I'll be following your progess closely.

MONDAY, MAY 8, 2006

Finished up $5.35 today. An Ok start to the week - the "true win rates - post 'em" thread in the NL stragety section got me started and questioning my overall approach to the game. I started a low content thread about my VP$IP and winrate - and got far more responses than I thought I'd get - actually there's quite a bit of content in there now . Thanks all for sharing some tips. I did indeed open things up a bit tonight - my VP$IP was around 20 tonight, which seems more in line with the advice I'd received earlier. It would have been a little more, but a couple of maniacs at the table late turned it into a bit of a bear hunt. Sorry to say I was cold-decked during that run and only got a couple of bucks off them.

Tables played: 1 full ring
Hands played: 202
Time played: 180 minutes

Poker winnings: $2.50
Bonus cleared: $2.85
Total profit (loss) for day: $5.35

Bankroll as of 5/8/06: $693.87

Countdown to $50 NL: $306.13

Hey RR, I moved your post from the low content section to the the NL section, since there is quite a bit of usefull info in there and some good responses. I think it could benefit others to read and more people view the main NL section.

Hey thanks Rhound, I'm suprised how much info that thread actually has since it was just basically me bitching.

And your advice about the steps especially was great. It's aleady got me thinking about things differently, but trying to be careful not to overplay hands either.

TUESDAY, MAY 9, 2006

Finished up $38.57 tonight. Tonight was a breath of fresh air. My VP$IP tonight was around 22, so I'm continuing to open my game up as advised. So far it's been working out great - everyone's right, they still pay off the big hands. All is not lost!

Key hand of the night was posted in the LC/BB section - please interject if you feel my call was too brazen, but I was quite confident he was bluffing. So far, PokerTracker is working out wonderfully and after only a few days I'll say this - to any lurkers or newbies reading my journal - BUY POKERTRACKER NOW.

Though my icon right now is a bomb . Time to tone down the post-flop aggression, though I've been on a great run of cards lately and almost always have had a hand when I've bet/raised.

Tables played: 1 full ring
Hands played: 244
Time played: 167 minutes

Poker winnings: $35.25
Bonus cleared: $3.32
Total profit (loss) for day: $38.57

Bankroll as of 5/9/06: $732.44

Countdown to $50 NL: $267.56

WEDNESDAY, MAY 10, 2006

Finished up $19.25 tonight. All in all very good considering I didn't get very many opportunities at all to play big pots - was basically card dead the entire night with the exception of a few hands, which I'm happy to report was able to get paid off on reasonably well and held up. No key hands to discuss tonight, actually, I caught myself limping too much toward the end of my session out of pure bordem, but left before I lost some serious money.

Tables played: 1 full ring
Hands played: 248
Time played: 218 minutes

Poker winnings: $15.80
Bonus cleared: $3.45
Total profit (loss) for day: $19.25

Bankroll as of 5/10/06: $751.69

Countdown to $50 NL: $248.31

Not playing today because I'm taking the day off to study, datamine, etc. - I found this article really insightful - it's from 2+2 magazine (mods please delete this if promoting other forums' materials isn't allowed)

Give it a read, and post some comments if you want.