I quit playing in October and pulled my entire bankroll due to the poker "ban". I just wanted to get the money and then I figured I would deposit again once the situation was clearer. That was close to $10,000, which is my profits for 2006...

...My goal was to reach 10k and I did it. I was at $8500 in June and switched from Bonus whoring to Rakeback. Around that time, I switched from 100NL SH, to 200NL SH. I was playing well at first but then I started to read many posts by good players on here and realized they were playing much tighter. So, I tightened up considerably. That didn't work out for me as I felt too predictable and by playing less hands, I got too aggressive when I did get a hand. I started doing poorly and dropped close to 1.5k at 200NL. I moved back down and still played tighter than I'm comfortable doing. In late August I realized I needed to get back to the way I was most comfortable playing. My best results are when I play like 28%+ of my hands and play selective aggression - but mostly aggressive. This got me more action and even my poor reads or plays were mitigated by people willing to play for stacks with their TPTK against me. Once I started playing that way, I was profitable again and September was a good month for me. Toward the end of the month, I was really back in the swing of things. I don't even think I was running good - just churning out profit. My KK running into AA percent during that time was really high and I still did well...

...The poker ban came along and I probably overreacted. At the same time I had some huge bills to pay. I took some of my poker winnings and paid those bills. The rest was put into my savings account. Since then I haven't played and over time I had to ween myself away by not really coming on here much. Every time I read stuff, I had the urge to play. Why didn't I just start playing again? Good question. I used to play from 10pm to 1am+ about 3-4 days a week. I had a full time job in NYC and lack of sleep was affecting my work and personal life. When I quit poker, I got more sleep, spent more happy time with the family and was more refreshed at work. Then I started looking for a new job and realized I might as well wait until my life is settled and the holidays are over to start playing again...

...I just started my new job on Monday. My commute went from 1.5 hours each way, to 15-20 minutes each way. I'm making more money and the growth and Bonus potential are great. I've actually been really busy since day 1...

...January is my target to start playing again. I'll have to start poking around to see the state of things as far as depositing, sites to play, rb, etc. I'll be starting with a smaller bankroll but that's OK. My reasons for not playing are kind of lame. I don't feel like going into everything right now...

If you made it this far, thanks for reading. Nothing exciting but just wanted to put down my current state. I want to document the steps I take to g
et back in and my experience doing so. Hopefully I can pick up where I left off with a short relearning curve. I feel like my mind is clear and I have thought about some things during my hiatus...

...One thing I will probably do is never lay down aces unless it's just overly blatant. Over time I felt I was being a better player by being able to lay them down. Why overthink and give my opponents too much credit. I bet 1/2 the laydowns were in err and even then I had a chance to suck out. So, why guess? I'll just pay people off and take the next two cards without any tilt - at least at the current levels.

Well, thanks again.

Later,

r8ed