My woman is great, and the month from hell...

On a non-poker note, I've got a car (1985 Mazda RX-7) that I've had for 10 years or so and love dearly. I haven't driven it in a couple of years. My schedule just hasn't leant itself to "fun" things. As an early birthday present, my wonderful woman put tires, brakes, etc on it and even put it on the road for me. What would I do without her! I can't believe my friends knew about this and I didn't pick up on it. I must be slipping. I'll get around to posting a picture in a week or so. Once I got the two years of dust off of it she looked and sounded great. I could use a good detail job and a carb cleaning, but I'm going to enjoy her for the remaining 2 months before the weather turns. Thanks babe!!

Now on to work...

My good run continues. I played for the first time in 4 days on Sunday. I didn't have a very good day. I busted 25th in a 180 man. I'm getting better at the NL MTT game, but I'm still new at it, and my bet sizing and play in the middle and end stages still needs work. I'll get it. I'm in the black for MTT's this month. At this point I can't ask for more than that. My goal is to have this as an additional profit source by the time 2007 begins.

As far as my limit game goes, I was quite worried about the 4 days without play. I didn't want to get out of the groove I've been in. Fortunately, all went well. I played for several hours and made my goal for the day. I saw two issues with my game. First, I called too much. I was calling turn and river bets when I should have been folding. This happened at least 5 times. I figure this cost me 6 or 7 big bets. Not good. The second issue was my turn and river aggression. I checked and called too much when I felt I had the best hand. While I may not have been correct in my read 100% of the time, I try very hard to always bet/raise when I feel I have the best of it, and I'm right more than I'm wrong. I figure this cost me 8 or 9 big bets. That's about 15 big bets I left on the table. It adds up fast. It was a net +15.75bb day, which is right where I need to be for that time period, but I could have done better.

I'm now more than sufficiently bankrolled for the next level up, but with less than 10k hands at this one, I'm not going anywhere. I really don't see myself moving up for several months. I think the 300bb rule is great for the average recreational player, but there is so much more to it than that. I used a ROR calculator the other day, and given my variance, it stated I should have a 420 (somewhere around there) BB bankroll to have a 0% ROR. It was a cool program. Quite interesting. Speaking of bankroll management, I have seen several posts that address bankroll management. "I have $750, what level should I be playing?" For the beginning player, play where you are comfortable! If you are not comfortable with the betting at the level you are"bankrolled" for, move down!!! If you can reload and are comfortable with the betting at 2/4, move up! These bankroll standards you see so much are merely guidelines and should be treated as such. I regularly played with 75bb in years past and did fine. I went broke twice but I always had the ability to reload. I think for a recreational player the level you play should factor in 3 things: 1) the lowest level you can play and still be entertained, 2) the highest level you are comfortable with (bets), and 3) the size of your bankroll. If they are 3 different levels, find the middle and play there.

Damn, I should have put this at the top. There is no way anyone is going to read this far down. I've been considering putting some funds over on World Poker Exchange. Can anyone give me feedback? I've heard it's a rock garden. The rake I pay goes up every month and I think it will go up dramatically towards the end of the year. Any feedback on this or other rakeback sites is appreciated.

I'll try to post again this week, but after today, my schedule is hell for another week. Good Luck at the tables, and be responsible.