It's MegaMaid! She's Gone From Suck To Blow!

I seem to have slipped into some alternate plane of Hell here. It's like a recurring nightmare. The one where you're wanting to run away from something, or defend yourself from something, and your appendages don't seem to want to move.

Thus has been the last few days of sit and goes on Party. I've been struggling to understand what's been going on. Clearly something has changed. Previous to this, I really felt like I was in control. When I got beat, I could go back and review it and realize, yup, I got outplayed there. Above all, though, I was in a position to win most times.

These last few days have been everything but. From the start I feel like I'm made of glass, and everyone sees right through me. Any hand I get I can't get action on, and any action I do get is in the form of an over-the-top raise for all-in. Perhaps the most frustrating of all of this though, is everyone seems to be sticking around. I kid you not, all four of these sit and goes, there were at least 7 people still around when the blinds went to 100/200. To say it was insane would be a gross understatement. HDouble made mention that it might just be that I'm playing on Monday, but things are even different from the last few Monday's I've played. 7 people remaining in the game beyond the 15/30 blinds is remarkable at this level. Surviving into 100/200 is insane. At that point, of course, it turns into whoever gets cards first.

seldom was I first.

Basically, I played 5 $10+$1 sit and goes. I finished out of the money in 4 of the 5. The only thing that kept me from completely hemorrhaging chips was the one I did place in the money was I won. Net loss for the day was a very palatable -$5. Turned a train wreck into a fender bender, but psychologically, the damage is a hell of a lot more severe.

The long and short of it is, sit and goes are now work. And what's worse, it's work that isn't paying off. I spend 40 minutes in a sit and go, make 2 wrong decisions and I'm done. Rinse, repeat. It's just not fun anymore.. And I'm not a professional poker player, so this still needs to remain fun.

Now for the good news. My bankroll is at least to a position now where I can comfortably play in the 50/1 ring games.. It's not where I want it, but it's hovering right below the $200 mark. So, I'm thinking I'm going to wade back into the ring games. I honestly think, at this point, they'll be a little better on my mind.

Some new linkage goodness for ya. Props to Mean Gene for appropriate usage of the work "yutz" in a sentence. Spells maximum permanent linkage in my book!

Can't believe I don't have McGrupp linked from here.. Situation rectified.

Not that any of these guys have linked my site. I must not be worthy.

Anyway, back to poker. I really want to go try my hand at a live game again. I really honestly think I'll have more fun there. I always do. Just trying to figure out what kind of bank I need to bring to the table to handle the variance. The $2-$4 game at Ho Chunk is chock full of completely atrocious players, so I would expect that I should be able to cut at least a small profit out of the table. I do enjoy playing online, but there's just something missing. It's not "fun". We'll see.. I think what I want to do in the long term is get two poker bankrolls going. Once I get around $400 or so in the Party account, I'll peel $200 off and use that for my "live game" bank. $200 is a little thin for a $2-$4, it being only 50BB, but let's face it, this existing bankroll started as 50BB for the .50/1 games. If I bust the live game bankroll then I'll have to re-think it. I don't know if I have the intestinal fortitude to wait until I can get the bankroll up to $800 before trying a live game again. At the rate I'm winning, it's gonna take a while. I could use some advice on what would be an appropriate bankroll to step into the $1-$2 games. I'd like to get the hell out of the .50/1 games as soon as I can.