Poker: you love it and hate it.

The last week of poker has been a bit of a rollercoaster where I've lost some discipline and played a bit too much; something I'm not too pleased about and will improve upon. It stems from the tournament win the other day, getting use to larger buy-in tournaments, the new found money and a bit of over confidence. Luckily I haven't damaged the bankroll but could have quite easily. I had one session where I had a $700 swing playing cash, I'm not doing that again....until I have the bankroll.

The MTT's haven't exactly been going very well. No cashes online in the last 20 tournaments. I'm not sure exactly what the standard variance is in MTT's with such large fields as I'm not a regular MTT player but losing consistently isn't much fun. What's more frustrating is that I haven't been playing well. I've had a couple of poker binges in which I just fired up as many tables as I could, out of the bankroll, and played without focus.

The one cash I did have was in the live poker tournament last week. The structure was really good, you could start with 10k if you took the add-on, blinds 25/50 and a 20 minute clock. It was a real local boys game, everyone knew each other and the type of game where if you took a few hundred quid from a mate in the cash game you could wind him up the next day on the high street. I eventually finished up 4th, trying my luck one too many times stealing the blinds but was good for a small profit. The friend I was with came 2nd which was pretty impressive especially as he was one card away from the £500 first prize.

So, this week has really taught me a lesson. No more poker binges, you may aswell play slot machines if you are going to do that because it's pretty much the same process imo. No more playing out of the bankroll, getting over-setted in $1-$2 taught me that. From now on I won't be playing anything higher than 25c/50c until I hit $4k. It's all about being a bankroll nit.

A few goals to go with the new year too:

- Finally get the life/poker balance
- Stop playing whenever it's not fun.
- Record every entry/win/loss
- Win enough money to pay for a Vegas and Brazil trip

Current bankroll situation:

$2k- Just to be used for MTT's and 25c-50c
W$450- To be used to try and Satalitte into a big live event