A little background:

February of this year was the first time I have ever played No-Limit Hold'em, as a matter of fact, it was the first time I have ever played any sort of poker or even gambled. I went to a home game, got my ass kicked, but had a ton of fun. And then it caught on with me. The game is awesome, although frustrating at times. I'm down about $1,600 over my limited 5 months of playing.

So today, I truly want to get serious about becoming a winning player. I thought I was going to get serious a week ago, but after spewing, tilting, and some bad beats, my roll is down to $73.70 (started at $95.00, grinded up to $170). I want to point out some things that I know I have to work on:

1. Stop tilting. Alright, maybe not stop, but limit it, and know what causes me to go on tilt. This is my biggest money loser over the last couple months I think. Most of the time it's not even a noticeable tilt, but just some player irks the living piss out of me, and it goes to hell from there. And i won't even feel angry, which is why it's hard for me to catch sometimes.

2. Don't get married to hands. I tend to overplay way to many hands, which is the second biggest loser I think for me, maybe even contention for first. I guess I'll to post some hand histories to right this wrong ship, to make sure I really am overplaying these hands.

3. Ease up on the aggression. I know you are like WTF?, but I feel like I'm overly aggressive and some players catch on to that and c-call like it's there job, cause they know I'll throw out a big bet. I need to find out when to be aggressive, and how to be aggressive.

4. To go along with the previous point, know when and how to mix it up. I always raise 4xBB+1BB for each limper. I don't know if thats random enough preflop. Post flop I always c-bet if I am first raiser preflop. I almost always fire a second barrel if I miss. With my good hands though I always bet bet bet. Maybe sometimes I need to check, or c-raise.

5. Limit my bluffing at the uNL games. $5NL games don't allow you to bluff. There are to many players out there that call down with second pair on a 3-flush, 4-straight board.

I think if I truly work on those 5 things above, I can be a consistent winner at NL Hold 'em.

Like I said, I'm starting with $73.70, so I'm going to buy in to my 5NL games for $3, so I can have at least 20 buy-ins. I'm going to 4-table (I've been practicing this for a while, if things go sour, I will bump it down to 3, but generally I can play 4 tables without to much troubles).

Also, every 5k hands, I'm going to post my PT stats to get a little checkup from you guys, either in this blog, or one one of the other forums depending on traffic.

Wish me luck