Once Again.. Slowly Rebuilding..

I was off in my last post.. I was not down to $0.07 on Full Tilt.. that was Pokerstars, I haven’t played there in months, but I did cash out some FPP to get a beanie. At least I’ll have something to show for my time there. Ha! On Full Tilt I left myself with $1.34. The ONLY thing I could do was a $1.25 SnG. Friday night, I placed second for a $1.55 profit. Saturday, I placed first in two of the $1.25 SnG’s and Sunday capped off the weekend with another first in the $1.25 SnG level. I now have, what I would like to call, breathing room. Granted, there’s not much room there, but at least I can breathe. If my math is correct, I should have $13.94 in the account now. I went against my bankroll building rules, well not my rules, Chris Ferguson’s rules. I bought into the $0.05/$0.10 no limit tables with, at the time, over 50% of my bankroll. I wasn’t playing scared, more like overly tight and only playing the top hands. hands held up and when I was up $2 and started to slip, I made a deal with myself, I’m now free rolling in the $1 SnG that I am in.. if the freeroll status is about to be threatened, I will leave when I am UTG. 10 minutes later, I was at that danger zone and bailed. Secure in knowing that my SnG was freerolled, I completely focused on the SnG.

When we were at the bubble, I was the chip leader by 1k. In the BB I get AA and everyone folds. I show the hand, something I rarely do when everyone folds to me in the BB, or ever really, and type in ‘Bummer.’ in the chat window. Someone types in ‘Bummer?’, he then goes on to tell me, in not so many words, that I suck at poker because stats online show that I am down $700. I really can’t argue with anything that was said. Yes, I am down, but I can honestly say that about 40% of that is suckout related, directly resulting in my getting kicked out of a tourney, obviously out of the money. I’m sure I would be closer to break-even if I did not get sucked out on. I’m also not dumb enough to say that I would have cashed in said tournaments if I did not get sucked out on, but I would have have been in the running. Back to the point, he said that he likes to know how good his opponents are near the end. Normally this is quite sound advice, but I think that advice should be used at higher levels, not the lowest level you can find. I told him to PLEASE use the stats against me.

When we got to heads up, we wished each other ‘Good Luck’ and played heads up for maybe 4 minutes. Anything with paint + higher than average kicker, he pushed, or at least I have to assume, since he pushed with Q♣T♣ when I had A♥K♥, I had more chips and none of us improved. The blinds were not that big, he didn’t have to risk everything on a slightly better than average hand, but I’m glad he did.

Back to my, err Chris’s, rules for Bankroll Management, to ensure that I keep my bankroll intact, I’ve adopted some key rules:

I’ll never buy into a cash game or a Sit & Go with more than 5 percent of my total bankroll (there is an exception for the lowest limits: I’m allowed to buy into any game with a buy-in of $2.50 or less).
I won’t buy into a multi-table tournament for more than 2 percent of my total bankroll and I’m allowed to buy into any multi-table tournament that costs $1. (Like the Ferguson? heh.)
If at any time during a No-Limit or Pot-Limit cash-game session the money on the table represents more than 10 percent of my total bankroll, I must leave the game when the blinds reach me.

Like I said, I already broke one of the rules, #3, but from this point forward, any infraction of the rules, even if the result is good, I will sternly shake my finger at myself while looking into a mirror. I mean, really what can I do, besides risking too much? I’ve already felt the pain of having to start over once and I will do my best to not have to do that again.

Currently, I have enough to buy into 11 $1 SnG’s and 6 $2 SnGs and almost 7 buy-ins for the lowest limit ring games. Funny how I’m right back to where I was two months ago.