739 hands, +$56.60

I was just about to close down one of my tables today when none other than ToddAnderson, AKA kmind, sat down. Naturally, I decided to stick around and take all the fish's money. I keed, I keed. Anyway, he asked me about a particular player, and I told him that I didn't know as I hadn't been playing the Stars 25NL 6-max for very long. He then offered to give me some notes on the regs there (lol, micro regs), which I enthusiastically accepted. What a terrific fellow.

As I approach the "hump" of a 4-digit bankroll, I can't shake the feeling that I'm being a big pussy about it. I've logged over 30,000 hands in the last 50 days and I've been a consistent winner. As far as I know, 50NL is pretty much the same as 25NL, and I'll be rolled for it, so what am I afraid of? Do I really want to keep playing 25NL with 40-60 buy ins?

No. This "hump" is imaginary, a ghost in my dreams that doesn't really exist. If I allow myself to be intimidated by an arbitrary milestone and the numerical value of bets I'm placing, then I will never make progress. I can't hit the brakes at the first sign post, my journey is just beginning. It's time to grow a pair and start taking shots at 50NL.

So here's the plan: When I get to $1,000 I'll set aside $150 for 50NL. That's 3 buy-ins. If I lose it all, then I'll work my way back up to $1k at 25NL and try again. Once I get to $1500 and complete Phase II, I'll play 50NL exclusively unless I drop down to $1,000. This might be a conservative approach, but it allows me to move up a limit without playing scared.

I've only played about 1,100 hands at Stars since I moved back there, and most of them have been pretty standard. I'll probably post some hands later in the week.

Bankroll: $895.04