Greetings and good tidings to all denizens of Flop Turn River. Long time no see. When I last checked in, we were in the midst of the unfortunate fall-out from Black Friday. At the time, I was obviously disappointed that I couldn't play at either Stars or Full Tilt and I was mostly focused on getting my money back. Seven months later, I got all my money back from Stars but unfortunately a smaller, yet not insignificant amount of money is still in limbo at Full Tilt.
I didn't rush back to playing online after Black Friday because I thought the future was extremely uncertain and all the negative events, just like UIGEA last time, didn't inspire me to play much, so another break was in order. As always seems to be the case after a layoff, though, I am now itching to play again. I read over my blog here and I was filled with reminiscent highs and lows. I was very encouraged with all the progress I made not once, not twice, but three times. Once from scratch and then again on Full Tilt after Stars implemented the bad, default 50bb max NLHE tables, and then a third time after I got burnt out and took a six month break and came back to Stars to try to claim my VPP points. By coincidence, during that third run, the 50bb tables were removed and I had just moved up from $50NL back to $100NL where I wanted to make another run at SuperNova. That's when Black Friday happened.
That was the disappointing part of the journey: every time I seemed poised to begin succeeding at a level where the money could really matter and make a difference, it seems like something outside of my control would happen to derail the train. This started way back before my first post with UIGEA, then again with Stars 50bb max tables, then again with getting burnt out, and then again with Black Friday.
Due to the current climate, I have decided to scale back my poker goals to be modest and basically start again from scratch. Because of Black Friday, I am assuming the games have gotten much tougher. Being from the US, I am limited to what sites I can play at which makes it even tougher as I have less choices and most likely will have inferior software and a diminished player pool. I also can't ignore that I've had a 7 month layoff so my poker skills need to be dusted off and stretched out. Plus, because of all the legal mess, I think it would be almost stupid for an American player to deposit large amounts of money on a poker site since it's possible the money might not make it back, so I would much prefer depositing a small amount I may not ever seen again than a larger amount.
Shortly after Black Friday, I created a rakeback account on Carbon poker. My short term goals are to deposit $100 there just like I did exactly 3 years ago from tomorrow, and start playing one cent two cent. I want to just get used to their software, get used to playing, get my HUD and layout set-up optimally and hopefully get back to having fun and winning. If all goes well and I like it and can earn 30 buy-ins, I'll move up to $5NL. But, there could be big challenges along the way before I ever get started. I don't even know for sure they offer $2NL or $5NL. I also don't know what hurdles I'll face depositing. I hope Western Union is an option.
I'm also having more live, home games and will be giving those more priority when I can since I can play for higher stakes.
My long-term hope is that I can start honing my chops again and move up the levels and at some point poker will be legalized in the US. That would be the first time my plans got derailed in a good way. Here's to hoping ...
I'll try to make some small updates along the way until I either get moving at full force again or can't get by an obstacle of some kind.
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Originally Posted by a500lbgorilla
