Take it to the limit

Tonight I sat down to play a little poker on-line. I didn't want to, I had to. I had been talking with Kip about how I need to start trying limit, since my ups and downs with no-limit can be pretty severe. It would be nice to have a solid game to fall back on to keep the bankroll going and not have to worry about putting more money into it.

Given my current bankroll, he recommended that I start at .25/.50. I'm not going to explain the details, I can't claim to fully understand them myself. I know, weak. Anyway, the idea is this - if you're a good player you might be able to pull in about $2.50 an hour. He warned me, don't be disappointed if you don't see the money flying in. It doesn't.

So I decided to sit down and play for an hour. I went to the .25/.50 tables, but they were all full. Patience isn't my virtue, but I'm occasionally inflicted with a case of over confidence, so I decided to try out the .50/1 tables instead. Within 5 minutes I was down $5 of my $20 buy-in. I suck. As I was thinking about how I could stop now and noone would have to know, I decided to give it 5 or 10 more minutes. I remembered Kips advice. If the table's loose, play tight. 10 minutes later I was up to $25 and thinking that I should quit while I was ahead. Given the above calculations, that's near what I should be expecting for an hours of play. But I decided to continue on and try to do my hour.

A short while later, I found myself dwindling back down near $20. I was a little sad, but the swings are part of the game. If you can't handle the swing, you don't belong in the playground. I used to love the swings. Though I was the stupid one that always tried to jump off after getting it as high as it would go, while being afraid of heights. I'm a living oxymoron. Or just plain moron, if you prefer.

So now the real question, how does this story end? After the hour I was at $50, up $30 for the session. Incredible. Of course, I had a lot of great hands and started hitting my cards. So, essentially, I was lucky. I'll take it.

Ed.