Net gains

A bit late for happy new years wishes, but never the less it would be rude not to, regardless of the date. I hope your personal and poker lives prosper in what is bound to be a testing twelve months.

It may seem strange but I actually forgot about my blog, everyone else’s blog and Raise the River for about a month. Christmas, New Year and, of course, work, completely blunted my desire to read about poker. That and the fact that I’ve been playing the game whenever I can as opposed to reading hand histories, tactics and other such stuff.

However when I went back to work last week all the old habits came back as I sat at my desk munching on my sandwich of a lunchtime, save for looking at blogs which I can’t do at work.
The poker world goes on. The same tricky positions with as many people saying fold as say call as say re-raise! It’s the nature of the beast of course, and none the worse for that.

Today I’m having an absolute nightmare. 600 hands in and loads of missed flops, outdraws and maniacs. It was like that for a while just after new year, but then things turned, as they always do.

2008 was a year where I changed from a micro-limit sit and go player into a micro-limit cash player. To say it was the right decision is an understatement from my perspective, although I suspect that the drudge of playing 60,000 hands of mainly NL5 would be more than many could bear. However it suited my lifestyle, and having railed a few tournaments and S&Gs of late, just to watch and learn, I realised that luck constitutes a good 50% of these games. I don’t want to be a hostage to fortune, and at my levels I can guarantee a long term profit without having to spend half of it on bandages required after banging my head following a one outer defeat on the bubble. Each to their own eh?

I started the cash trail in March, starting with games above my roll, but finally seeing the light when a couple of hands in a row rivered away a third of my bankroll when well ahead. I couldn’t stand that so NL5 it was. I ended the year $445 up.

I averaged 10 Big Bets/100 hands consistently, and just after Christmas, realising that the dollar rate was very favourable for a cash out withdrew $370, leaving $150, added my Christmas money and bought a laptop which was on offer at a very good price. Poker had actually bought me something, and something I’d coveted for a long time.

Now I’m able to play poker in the lounge, be part of the family and get more volume in. There may be a slight loss in edge as there are distractions, but overall it’s working well.
I look at that laptop with a sense of pride. It was purchased with the fruits of my grinding, a tangible symbol of what I’ve achieved. I will never be a great poker player, but I’m good enough to actually buy something meaningful now and again.

I guess that’s why this blog is so peripheral these days. I just grind away every night, taking the rough with the smooth but knowing that in the medium term the graph will point only one way. I don’t have the buzz of the tournament player’s poker life, but I generally don’t have the frustrations either. When I feel the need for a bit of STT action I play a Double or Nothing (80% hit rate so far, but as you barely play a hand to win pretty boring).

Thanks for reading. Along the way virtually all of you have contributed something to that laptop :)