Otherwise known as Operation - Get Your Head Outta Your Ass.

I've been playing online poker since mid-November. I had been playing a live game at least once a week since September, but these players didn't make me any better because of their loose, friendly type of playing (playing another player's best hand against them, playing any hand because they can, etc...).

Well, I decided to try online poker after getting sick of their play. I deposited $20 onto Titanpoker because it was the cheapest minimum buyin I could find, and I figured I could test the water at $30 cheaper than any other site.

I got up to around $40 pretty quickly, but I was playing out of my bankroll (I don't remember what stakes), and ended up losing it all due to tilting. I let it go for a couple days, and then deposited $20 more. Again, that was gone real quickly, but this time due to bad beats and suckouts, I could feel my game getting better.

Time passed, I kept loading money onto Titan, and kept breaking even, then losing it all in one session of bad beats. Then, I found these Jackpot SNGs. It was a $20+3 (Killer rake, but oh well) 6 max, and top THREE got paid. I figured this was a no-lose situation. And boy was I right. Within three days, I was up to $550, and feeling on top of the world.

I talked about it on FTR (I was introduced to the site a couple days before I started the SNGs), and they said it'd be gone within a couple days. You were all right. I only placed in around 8 of 24 SNGs one day and was down to around $300. The same thing happened the next day, and I left my $100 on there, while putting $100 into PokerStars.

I started playing ring on Stars, and within 10 minutes I was up to $150. By the end of the night, I was back to $100, but still okay. Then I tried the $10+1 SNGs, and that didn't work at all. I placed in around 33%, but was not making any money. Decided to go back to ring, ended up having horrible beats (QQ with a flopped set losing to AA happened around 5 times) and within a few days, that was gone too.

So I did the refer a friend + 1st deposit bonus at PartyPoker. I put $100 in, and now I'm at around $145. I've been playing 'gambling poker' for this last month, but now I'm ready to start playing working poker. I really hate manual labor, and want to make enough to support myself on just my bankroll (or maybe with a crappy part-time job to keep a steady income coming.

I'm playing the NL10 game while it still lets me, and I'm not doing too bad. I'm playing 4 tables, and can keep up pretty well, so I think I'm going to stay there. I treat myself to a couple of MTTs just to mix it up, but always seem to get sucked-out on (AQ to A4 tonight). I did make some money in a Shootout, so I think I'm gonna try those out and see how that goes too.

My Goals for early 2006:
Current BR: $140
- Play solid poker, trying to fix leaks.
- Improve my 6-max play.
- Try to keep myself from tilting.
- Double my bankroll.

I know I can play solid poker, I know I can. I just end up getting impatient and playing hands that I shouldn't because the cards aren't coming. I would play 5-6 tables to keep me from growing impatient, but then when I hit hands on 3 or more tables, I won't be able to keep up and I'll make mistakes.

Keeping myself from tilting will, without a doubt, be my biggest problem to overcome. I always say I won't tilt, but then I do, and it seems like I do it subconsciously. I think if I solve that, I'll be a better player, and won't lose my stacks to shitty play.

I'm not setting an exact goal on when I want to double my bankroll and hit my other goals, because then I'll be too results-oriented and will only look at my bankroll at the end of the night, not how I played each hand.

If anyone has any suggestions, ANYTHING AT ALL, I'd be willing to listen. I really want to start seeing a profit and getting regular checks in the mail, and I'm willing to work as hard as I can to achieve this, so any help would be great...

Here's hoping 2006 will be better than 2005!