I never thought about making it to 100 blog entries until recently. I think it is probably not such a big deal, but I wanted it to be something worthwhile. Thanks to everyone who has taken time to read and comment on my blog. The support and freely-given, well-intentioned advice (and criticism) is something that makes leggo a special place, imo.

I was hoping to have some good news as far as my foray into 100nl is concerned. But the experience has been decidedly mixed. First of all, on a hopeful note, 100nl seems like a game I can definitely beat when I am playing my best. In my first few sessions I played focused and intense. People were seemingly donking their stacks to me and it was ultimately a heady experience. I couldn't believe it, quite simply. I was very tenatively rolled for it, and it was a big confidence boost to play so well. Slowly, though, my game devolved, and I found myself adding more tables and grinding instead of playing focused, well thought out poker. Last Thursday I dropped like 3 BI during the day and vowed to move back to 50nl for the remainder of the month to protect my bank roll. Thursday night there just wasn't as much action at 50nl as 100nl, and I found myself at 4 very soft tables. Two of them had utter maniacs, and I was up over 2 BI in about 20 minutes. I thought about just calling it a night, but decided to keep playing because how could I really claim to be serious about poker if I gave up my seat at such incredibly profitable tables? I ended up down 5 BI or so on the day. I think I probably couldn't have avoided 3 BI of losses, but everything else was easily avoidable with some folds in marginal spots.

I still felt ok about everything. The next day I went to Probability's house for a live sweat at 100nl since with my previous 100nl winnings, I was still in shot-taking distance. He commented that I seemed to be playing without much thought post-flop, and echoed his concerns about me moving up to 100nl as a way of "printing money". I felt really bad about how it all had went. I went to work that night, slept on it, and woke up feeling pretty clear in the head and confident in my assessment that I had really blown it. Just considering the following facts really leaves no doubts:

Posts of 100nl hands in Small Stakes Forum: 0
Blog posts of hands played: 1
Review of Sessions: Inconsistent at best
Coffee consumed: Lots
Sweets consumed: Lots
Weekly Exercise routine: Seemingly abandoned.
Daily Meditation: Bi-weekly.

Matt said it is just an example of how powerful out and out greed is. Not a direct quote, but I think he would stand by it. The last four facts really don't have a lot to do with poker directly, but I keep tabs on these habits because they generally indicate where my head is at and how diligent I am being about what I am trying to accomplish with my life.

It is very tempting to make this blog post a big declaration about what I am going to do to change. It always makes me feel better, but to be honest it doesn't do much in terms of spurring me on to work harder. So, I will just leave it at that. I will be playing 50nl for the rest of the month, and while I can easily imagine me being at 100nl by the end of the month, I think it is best for me to focus on becoming a better player, particularly post-flop. If I can't manage to do this work for September and then play consistent in October (for whatever reasons, be they family or work obligations) then I think it would be wise just to give up on poker and find a different way to make some money. I can't go on this way, wasting my time messing about when I know what kind of work needs to be done. I guess that is somewhat of a declaration, even if it is in a more negative sense. I will leave it in all the same.

Play well. Do good work. Keep in touch.

PFj