November 4, 2008

Time For A Change

No, keep reading I promise this entry has nothing to do with today's election. In my October update I said that I was going to move to FR NL100 and I did, for about 260 hands. Over that small sample I lost nearly $1/hand and realized, despite what I thought, I am not rolled to be comfortable playing (more specifically losing) that high. So I decided to move back down to NL50 but not FR. No not 6-max either. That's right I'm officially declaring November my Heads Up Only month.

I dabbled with HU at the end of October with very positive results, so when November started out horribly I turned back to it to try to recoup my losses. I then realized that I really liked playing HU and I think I can make a few $$ playing it (at least at the lowest limits). "What about tilt?" and "How will I handle the swings?", you say? Well actually not sure about the swings yet as I haven't had any huge losses to date but I think that HU may actually be good for my tilt. You see, if I lose a stack and start feeling the warming glow of tilt overtaking me, it just seems easier to get up from the table when playing HU and on a single table. So I'm quitting instead of sticking around to lose even more and since a dollar not lost is the same as a dollar won it should help my bottom line.

There are a couple drawbacks related to playing HU. First I'm only comfortable playing a single table at the moment so getting in a ton of hands is impossible. As a result, I won't be getting a lot of rakeback this month and I'll have to pay for Stox in December (some great HU vids there BTW). The second drawback is that Full Tilt points accrue at a snails pace playing HU (despite the fairly high rake taken) so I'm almost certain to lose my Iron Man status. I'm hoping that my increased winrate will offset both of these items and that I'll be a better player overall as a result of my month of HU play. I definitely think my hand reading abilities are already getting better and HU is nothing if not a lesson in playing position well. Both of those skills should prove very beneficial when (if?) I move back in December.

So wish me luck and maintained sanity. I'll be posting progress at least a couple times a week throughout the month.

I'd also like to thank all of you who expressed your sympathies for the loss of my friend as well as those who just congratulated me on my October (C9 wtf were you drinking?).