Motion Sickness

If poker were an amusement park I would currently be getting off the main attraction ready to throw up my overly expensive lunch. Since the beginning of last week I’ve had a series of highs and lows that might make anyone with a weak stomach sick.

I made about $2k last week, which was a very good start to $100NL. I was very excited about starting off the new week and playing a ton of poker, but things didn’t start off how I would have liked.

On Tuesday I had one of the worst days I have had in a long time. Over the course of 3893 hands I lost $934. After a loss like this you really need to examine your game to make sure there are no major leaks in it. While sessions like this will happen from time to time they are usually caused by bad luck colliding with a leak in your game. I spent a good deal of time going over the session after it was over. I definitely played some medium sized pots poorly, but overall I wasn’t too disappointed in my play. As a precaution I will continue to study each session to make sure I am making all the correct adjustments for playing low stakes NL.

Even after that session I am still beating $100NL at a respectable rate (it’s still a very small sample size), but that isn’t good enough for me. I want to be playing 5/10NL by the end of the year, so I need to be improving my game every step of the way. If you are making a lot of money from bonus/rakeback it is pretty easy to be satisfied with a moderate win rate. You can make a respectable living winning 3-4 PTBB/100 at $100NL, but why would you want to settle for that? You need to be constantly improving as a player and doing everything in your power to improve your profitability. If you become complacent you will soon find everyone else leaving you in their dust.

I considered taking Wednesday off after such a bad day, but I really wanted to get back to the tables. I know myself well enough to know Tuesday’s loss wouldn’t affect Wednesday’s play. Everything that went wrong on Tuesday went right the first session of Wednesday. I played really well and was able to make $727. It’s pretty amazing how poker can take you down one day and bring you straight back up the next. It really is like riding a roller coaster.
The next session was one of those “eh what ya gonna do” type of sessions. I lost exactly 4 big pots, and they were KK vs. AA twice, AK TPTK vs. a maniac with a set, and KK vs. 99 in a reraised pot on 955 board. It would be incorrect to fold any of these hands at $100NL, but that’s just how poker works sometimes. I lost about $354 in that session, so the day didn’t end quite as good as it started, but it still was a solid day. Total I played 3385 hands Wednesday, clearing $106 in bonus money between the two days

Bankroll: $4561
Hands played this week: 8193
Bonus cleared this week: $122
Hands played this month: 50,798
Bonus/rakeback this month $1179