Week 4: The first full month

It has been one month to the day since I started playing online poker. I actually never thought I would ever play online again so this is all pretty surprising for me. I must say and never thought I would say this, but online is so much better then live for so many reasons:

1. The ability to see more hands.
2. Rakeback
3. Bonuses.
4. Not getting killed by rake in a casino.
5. Not having to pay for gas/travel expenses.
6. Not having to be seen around a bunch of degens.
7. Getting to play in the comfort of your own home.

I must say that I am pretty damn proud of myself right now. I have already endured so much and have handled the adversity very well. In the last month, I ended up playing a total of 51K hands and had numerous upswings, 3 break-even stretches with the last one lasting for 15K hands, and one major downswing. The downswing is what I am most proud of because I took it completely in stride. I never allowed myself to tilt and never moved up to chase losses which is a mistake that a lot of people make. My downswing overall was 12.8 buyins which was the worst I have ever faced while playing poker. On May 2, my account had fallen all the way down to $1473 and I was quite nervous. I just finished up playing a short session and only 8 short days later I am sitting on $2420.

I am also proud of the fact that I was patient enough to play happy meal stakes aka NL20 and was able to do well enough to move up to the next level of play. I am also happy to report that I have been dominating the next level up as well so things are only looking upward.

It took me quite a while but I have finally figured out how to beat 50NL. The tactics that I used to exploit the players in NL20 do not work in NL50 and it took me quite a few bad calls just to see "what he had" to realize it. The difference between NL50 and NL20 is floating and bluffing. On NL50 the bluffing and floating is like nothing I have ever seen and it is very easy to exploit. Instead of playing LAG, I have taken a more ABC approach. I wait for my made hands to come and when they do, I usually bet the flop and slow down on the turn or river whereas I use to just fire barrel after barrel at NL20. When I show weakness, I end up making bets that I would never make otherwise. I cannot tell you how many times this exact situation has happened.

I get AK and raise to $1.75. I will get called by a very aggressive player who I know is easily exploitable.

Flop.

A K 8

I'll bet $3 and they'll call.

turn 7

I'll bet $7 and they'll call.

River

Blank. I'll check and they'll go POT! for like $19.

I'll call and they'll show 2 4o.

Those $19 bets that I am making are what are allowing my account to shoot up because I shouldn't be getting paid like that but these guys are all so hell bent on trying to outplay each other.

I haven't really developed any plans for taking shots at NL100 because I really want to beat this game for a while before I decide to move up.

With my account at $2420, I will also be receiving $282 in rake-back at the end of the month which puts me at $2700 overall which gives a profit of $2400 since I started.