I gave myself a raise!
November 2009 does mark the first time in over a year I’ve been grinding 2/4 and felt 100% comfortable. I am going to try to stay at 400nl as long as I feel like I’m a winner there. Right now, I feel like I did back 2 years ago when I was grinding 2/4nl on the side.
For those that don’t understand the terminology above, I am moving up stakes from a $200 buyin to a $400 buyin. This in essence means I have to win at half the rate i did before to make the same amount. I will likely make more than half my rate so therefore, I’ve given myself a raise and gotten myself positioned to be a 2/4nl reg for 2010.
I realized that I couldn’t handle playing 1/2nl for another year, or else I would go insane and I gotta get moving somehow. Making 80 to 100k a year sounds really awesome now but in 5 years if I’m still only making that, I’ll have really undershot my personal poker and life goals. That’s the reason I’ve been trying so hard to make the move up to 2/4nl recently.
The only thing that was holding me back before was some ridiculous mental block I had where I got play happy when $200 was in the middle. I managed to fix that and am playing a little tighter than I was previously. I am shooting to run a 16/12 or something in that ballpark for 400nl. This is what I think will be optimal because of the number of shortstackers as well as guys who can pick off a player running 20/15 pretty easily.
I also find myself really playing well and getting my blood pumping playing 400nl. This is something I lost play 200nl about as soon as I started playing 200nl. I was just so overrolled for it, playing a $400 pot just didn’t phase me. I find myself excited about playing at 2/4 now. I think that will probably pass with time as I get overrolled for 2/4 but that’s why there’s 3/6. That said, I’m probably a little overrolled for 2/4 but its still in the ballpark of the real number one would need to play 2/4 full time.
This blog post might be a little ahead of itself too. I have only put in 10k hands at 2/4 and have managed to keep a WR of 2ptbb (which is low but I think a decent win rate while I’m still learning the players). Hopefully, I don’t write this, then go on some crazy downswing and end up back at busto 1/2nl. It’d have to be a hell of a downswing however. I find myself in a place now where I’m not going to need to withdrawal money for at least 6 months probably closer to 1 year. I am going to take a serious run at the mid-stakes and high stakes now. I have the skills now to make it there (unlike 2 years ago when I was dr. nittinstein).
Its a pretty sweet feeling realizing you’ve done such a good job all year, you deserve a raise… and then giving it to yourself. Wish me luck!