May Summary

Back in black. BACK IN BLACK.

Yes, I'm officially unstuck for the year, which means the online bankroll is now at a record high.

Given that I had hoped to win $6000 this year, that probably shouldn't be cause for great celebration, as I'm effectively almost back where I started with 5/12 of the year already gone, but it does feel good.

May saw me make a small but significant step forwards, as I finally faced up to the evidence of my bankroll, and recognised that I really should be playing $3/6 Limit Hold Em.

In fact, I'm actually bankrolled for $5/10 at a push, and I could certainly justify $4/8 - if there were more games available.

Yet for months, I've been stalling on making the move.

Two things gave me the spur I needed.

Firstly, my results started to turn around and my confidence returned. I found myself making more positional moves against the *right* opponents, and making good folds on the flop/turn based on my feel for the game.

Secondly, Iggy posted a link to a great article on the cost of the rake.

This made me realise the longer I scratched around at $2/4 and $1/2, the more I was punishing myself whilst lining the pockets of mysterious billionaires.

So from now on $3/6 is my preferred game. If I can't find a good game at that level, I'll still make use of the $2/4 tables as a fallback, but only when necessary.

So far I haven't seen any real difference in the standard of play. There's a warm fuzzy feeling - familiar only to poker players - which comes from sitting at a nine handed table and seeing five fish icons spread around the virtual felt.

The bets do feel more meaningful, but the beats haven't felt any worse.

Conversely the wins DO feel better. I was beginning to get quite blase about raking in pots at $1/2 and $2/4. They just didn't feel significant in the grand scheme of things.

I've pulled in a couple of $3/6 pots that have felt VERY nice indeed.

Moving up limits was one of my goals for 2006. Another of my goals was to meet more bloggers, which I'll be doing this weekend. Not only is Joe Speaker coming to town, but I think Matt Milne might be around too.

Those faithful few readers who follow me will know that another goal this year was to play more poker variants, which I've done by focusing on one variant on a month-by-month basis.

I'm taking a break from that in June, which I'm officially designating as 'poker is fun' month.

This month I'm going to play whatever the hell I feel like. Whether it be a NLH cash, PLO8 SNG, Stud MTT, whatever.

I might even take a few shots at satelliting into bigger events, where time constraints allow.

I'm back, and it feels good!