Ups, Downs, Grinds, and no I'm not dancing.

So, if I can remember all that has happened, I will recount an update of how my bankroll is faring at the moment, from that initial deposit of $40.

The sharper ones among you may have noticed that the sum of $40 corresponds to 4 tables of $10NL. Well thats what I started on, a grind - yes - but necessary for various reasons: money, control, rules.

This level isnt very difficult, as long as you dont play every hand and act like you're some sort of pro. You could probably do that but most people will just not have the control that is required to fold and raise at the minute pinpoint and precise times you need to, were you to play like you owned $10NL. I certainly cannot do that.

I feel a brief run down of the way I play may interest some people. My tactics are quite simple preflop. Basically if I want to play a hand, whether it is 45 or AA, I raise it to 3xbb preflop. Thats it. I play slightly differently in the blinds but theres no point in getting into the nitty gritty.
I dont know why, I'm not a poker god, but it seems to work.

Bearing in mind I can't actually remember because it was almost 3 weeks ago, I would say I managed to lift my balance up to $100 pretty easily. This was one of my checkpoints. If you've read the rules in the first post you'll see that once I have 4 buy-ins for the next level I play 2 tables of that plus 2 of the current. So, at $100 I opened up 2 $10NL and 2 $25NL and went to work. This means I'm playing with $70/$100 at the one time, though its split up.
What a disaster! I must've been secretly angry or something, because within a couple of hours I had lost half my money! This was not how I'd pictured it.
But then I think I had a break for a day or two, cooled off, moved back to $10NL and tried again with great success. I was again at $100. From here I got to 200, changing at 150 to playing 4 25s. I changed again, using the same rules, 10c/25c and 25c/50c, and again suffered a loss, though this wasnt as terrible.
Same thing again, move down, build up and again was moving up that little balance in the corner.

Then comes January the 2nd or 3rd, which is pay day! Well, it is if you've got rakeback from Pokerheaven. I had raked about 70 odd euros, which is just over 100 dollars. This gave me a cushion to start playing 25/50 and 50/1. Same thing again, struggle a little, then move down, then up and up.

This struggling thing I'm putting down to a period of adjustment at playing higher levels, playing for more virtual cash that I could be using right now.

From around $500 I get owned, but a little perseverance and a lot of people thinking I was bluffing meant I started to own them, and somehow I got up to $860.

But then! Major disaster! Major Tilt Express! I got owned attempting 2 tables of 1$/2$ and this spurred a massive decrease in my balance. I was down to about $185 before I played today, which seems like a massive loss. But perhaps it is not, due to the nature of my bankrolling strategy. Today, i started all the way down at 10c/25c, but now im back, baby, and the balance is at $600. So im ready to make 50c/$1 my bitch until I can move up again.

Crazy swings these past few days have been, and thats the kind of thing I'm trying to prevent, with little success it seems. The only thing I can take from the last three weeks is that I seem to be beating most of the lower levels up to 50c/$1.
My next goal will be to adjust to the 1/2 tables and beat these guys too, who are just as aggressive as the others, but probably a fair bit smarter. Hmmmmm...

Favourite hand to date was a call for quite a lot of money with 54 or 53, on a 5Q26J (or similar) board. The pair of 5's won by the way. I'm sure there were others, but I forget.

One thing that is really bugging me is the hand history function on Pokerheaven. It's really useless unless you know the hand number if I remember correctly. I also think its not set up with my computer right, so the hands are unable to be searched or something.

My next post will probably be another update, with maybe some more focus on the hands, for funsies.

So we'll see how it goes, until next time!