I'm in the Black!

I'm done w/the poker for the rest of '07. Although to be honest I kind of want to play right now...but I won't. Don't want to ruin my good day. Finished a nice session this morning for +1600. This whole month has been sooooo swingy. I'm glad it's finally over : )



My last few days of playing have been really sick.




See! I told you in my last post that I had it figured out :D I still made some mistakes though but I am feeling very confident in my game again. Just going with the flow, not fighting it anymore...at least most of the time I'm not :p

I'm pretty happy to be in the black. Ever since I made the jump to NL, things have been going pretty smoothly, aside from this month. So basically I had 2 months of happiness :P But it's been so much nicer on the heart than LHE has ever been. I'm really happy about my game and the way it's progressing.

I've come a long way as a player since I went pro in January '07. I am a much more confident player in now two forms of hold'em, limit and no limit : ) My progression as a limit player has been more interesting than my NL game. Whereas before, I would try to get as much value out of a hand while being more on the safe side, I now pride myself in being able to correctly get some thinner value bets on the turn and river. While I may not be as good as some of the top hold'em players out there, I really do feel I can hold my own in any 6max game and do a good amount of damage in heads up limit. Basically, I believe in myself much more than I did back then. There are times where I don't want to play poker because I want to just book a nice win, like today. However, poker as a whole does not feel like gambling anymore. It is a game that I love to compete in and when I am focused, the money doesn't even stand out to me. All I can think about is making the right move...his overbet, is it a real hand or is he making a weird bluff? There's no time to think about $.

It is weird. I can't explain it entirely but my mental approach to the game is pretty solid. I used to have major tilt issues, and I still do tilt, just nowhere near the extreme that the old mikey used to pull. I don't know, I don't fear going broke anymore. Well, it's more like, I don't think I'll ever go busto. I feel broke when I have like 20 buy ins left! I'm not a bankroll nit by any means (I'm perfectly fine w/50buy ins for a pro) but I'm just the type of player who feels uncomfortable if he doesn't have enough room to move around. I like to being able to afford making mistakes. Otherwise if I play, I'll be too scared to make a move or follow my gut. That and having a healthy bankroll always helps w/tilt issues/emotional control. There's just so much less stress you endure when you lose money and have a lot left.

I've also come to realize that I don't like Vegas. I think I can enjoy it for up to 3 days max and then after that I get tired of it. I like suburban areas and I like girls with natural tits. Oh, and girls who like you for who you are, not for how much you've got :P

This coming year, I want to hit 25/50NL by the end. If I don't make at least 300,000 on the year, I'm going to be pretty bummed. The only way it won't happen imo is if I'm too lazy, which is still a problem although I am working on it and am improving : ) I feel like by the end of January, my NL game will be pretty sickly solid. Let's say I'm making mistakes 10% of the time, I should be making mistakes like 1-3% of the time when I'm done w/January '08. I'm very confident in this and will be pretty pissed if my NL game doesn't improve that much.

That's all I have to say for now. Going to enjoy a night of chinese poker and movie/tv watching. Happy New Years!

-Mikey