I play poker for a little over a year now. You know, friend comes over, tells something about ‘texas holdem’ or whatever, teaches about hand strength and betting rounds and a new addict is born. Play money games became boring very soon, won a freeroll for $10 and started the grind at $0.01/$.02 limit holdem. Made my way up to 10nl very soon and enjoyed it very much. The plan was to make a ‘grand’ (piano that is) and have fun doing it. Well, after x 100k hands I’m now able to buy an upright piano as a step up the ladder towards the ‘grand’. BUT (here it comes, the confession)… I’m still playing 15nl as my regular game…

So I’m basically a tad over rolled for these stakes, even after I cash out to buy the piano (750+ BI’s now vs. about 60 BI’s after cashing out). Now, I don’t mind being overrolled for certain stakes, but I realize I’m quite an extreme case to say the least… What’s more is that I start getting bored punching a 17,5 ptBB win rate out of the 15nL tables for over more than 25k hands now and realize that I could be making way more when I move up in stakes.

So, what’s the problem then? Well, I made some attempts at 25nl in the past year, but I never seemed to be able getting used to losing 4-5 BI’s in a day, or more than say $100. So far I haven’t been able to just sit down and squeeze a nice win rate out of it, like at 15nl. So, I always ‘ended up moving down again’ and grind away at a level where a losing day wouldn’t bother me that much, where I feel comfortable and where I’m sure I can win. I don’t know whether I was just running bad when I played 25nl, or I was playing less because of my ‘state of mind’.

Now I‘ve won enough for an upright piano and start getting bored grinding, I decided to permanently play 25nl and up from now on no matter what and see what happens only to move down when, god forbid, my bankroll dictates it. I foresee some trouble with regard to getting used to the bigger pot sizes when losing. I foresee some tilt issues that I might need to overcome. I foresee some trouble to move up further when I should be ready for it, but feel safer at the current level. And therefore I decided to start this blog/operation thingy so I can vent a little now and then, hope to get some help from others when in need, and maybe help others experiencing similar problems.

That’s about it for the first post of more to come. Probably too long of a post to be read completely by most of the public, but that’s ok. Maybe I should ad some goals to it as a reference for my progress in the future:

- Don’t look back at stakes below 25nl, unless strictly necessary
- Start to look at the dollars simply as ‘tools of the trade’ and don’t be afraid to lose some every now and then.
- Move up when 'ready'
- Report here how things are going every now and then.


GG, bye.