Bounty Tournament Win

In February I learned more about cash games than I had any month up till now.  It didn't result in a profit for this month.  At the end of February I am down 25.00 for the month on Lock.  55.00 of that was losses on cash games and most of that was mainly due to 2 bad sessions.

I did end on a high note on Carbon.  I played a 2.20 bounty tournament tonight and took 19 bounty's and got my bounty back at the end of the game when I won the tournament for 55.00.

I'm still sick.  I took some Nyquill before I played and am now very tired and drowsy.  I have a lot of work to get done tomorrow.  I hope I'm feeling better so I can get my work done on time and get home to start playing.

Horrible February

Sick, Not my card Play, Me.  I'm sick.  Yesterday I woke up with a sore throat then all day had a runny nose.  I had to catch up at work due to the snow, so I put in a long day.  When I got home, I downed some NyQuill, layed down on the couch, watched a movie then went to bed. 

No poker last night.  I doubt I play any tonight as I still feel lousy.  I'm cold and have the chills and a headache. 

In March I have only 1 goal.  Play the best at cash I have ever played up to now. 

March is a new month and I have a lot to be excited about.  The weather should be getting better, I can start running again and losing weight, and I have a new opportunity to prove that I can do well at poker.  We should be staying home a lot this month as well.  Travel is killing my pocketbook.

February has been a pretty lousy month, besides the birth of my daughter. 

Power Outage

Yesterday we woke up to snow.  It's been doing that lately.  We were in a blizzard warning and were expecting 18-22 inches of the white stuff with 40 mph winds.  I worked for half a day but the server was down that I needed to work on and the snow was getting heavy so I came home.

Not long after I was home the power went out.  We went the whole night and most of today without power.  Luckily I was prepared for a short power outage.  I have a indoor safe propane heater and a few bottles of propane to keep us warm in emergency situations.  The house maintained it's temperature and we only got down to 60 degrees in here despite the 40 mph winds.  It started warming up when the sun came out so I never had to use the heater. 

I did cook on my propane stove I have for camping.  Today was another workless day.  My wife is on maternity leave so I really need to be working. 

We didn't get the snow they were expecting.  It only ended up being 7 or 8 inches and most of that melted today. 

Once the power came back on, I took the boys to get their hair cut.  Then came home and cooked supper.  I managed to get in 830 hands tonight.  I never got anything great and got owned by pocket 2's that made a set on the flop when I held KK.  I ended up losing 1 1/2 buy ins tonight. 

I won't get to play hardly any if at all the rest of February so we can chalk it up as another losing month.  I feel good about March though.  I think I should be able to pull off a profitable month finally.

A Full Weekend of Poker

After a full weekend of poker I managed to haul in a whopping 32 cents.  Not bad, just not what I was really hoping for after hours and hours of playing.

I really didn't know where I stood until I finished playing both nights.  I played quite a few sng's and tournaments and got in around 1000 hands at cash.  I was up 5 cents last night and 27 cents tonight.

My cash play was the only thing I was consistently decent at.  I felt more comfortable at the cash tables.  I made a couple poor calls last night, that I wouldn't have hesitated to call any other time.  With the suckouts I've been taking on the river's lately these hands had me hesitate.  Yep they sucked out some more.  I did have quite a few hands where they didn't suck out this time though.  It felt good.

It did help to change my stats on pokertracker to get more usable information than what is set up initially.  Some things make a lot more sense now. 

I may not be able to play for the next couple nights.  That usually hurts my play a little.  We have basketball in town for a couple days unless we get this blizzard they are calling for tonight.  If we get what they are calling for they won't have a game tomorrow as we are looking at 18-20 inches and 40 mph winds.  I'm going off what someone else told me today. 

Family Game Nights

Wednesday and Thursday the parking lot at work was pretty empty due to the snow storm that rolled through.  On Thursday I was told I could take off a little early.  We called my wife's sister and brother in law over for a game night.  We played cards, yatzee and ordered a lot of pizza. 

I played some cards afterwards but only got in 1 tournament and a few hands of cash for a small loss.  I wasn't feeling like playing so I didn't stick around long.

Last night we played some more yatzee as the boys really like it.  Afterwards I put in another really small session of 1 tournament and a few hands of cash for a small profit.

This weekend I will get some volume in.

Running to Lose Weight

The year before last I was at the science museum in Oklahoma City.  They had some scales as you walk in, so I decided to weigh myself.  It was not at all pleasing at all to see I was over 240 pounds.  I had maintained 220 for quite a few years and knew that I had put on some pounds. 

Right after that I started running to lose weight and get in shape for a 5K here in town.  I was doing good and got to where I could run quite a distance if I paced myself.  I got down to 215 pounds.  People were mentioning how much better I looked.  Then summer ended and the days got shorter.  I was running after dark and every night I went out, a random dog would try to take a chunk out of my leg.  Well they barked at me or chased me and I would scream at them and tell them to sit while I tried to walk away. 

It was ridiculous.  Every different route I tried to take there was a loose dog.  I gave up and hadn't ran again.  The plan was to start again last spring when I could run after work.  It kept getting pushed back and before I knew it, I was having nose surgery and couldn't run until my nose healed.  That took longer than I thought.  

When our baby was born I was in quite a few pictures, and in all of them my shirt was sticking out too far in the front, and I had a 2nd chin under my chin.  Where did that come from?  Why can't I see that without the picture?  I guess I just didn't want to see it, so I didn't.

Needless to say, Monday was my first day to start running again.  I ran again Tuesday because we were expecting a huge winter storm to dump a lot of snow on Wednesday and I knew I wouldn't be running then.  It snowed quite a bit Wednesday and even more Wednesday night.  Tonight I want to run, so I may go on a snow run. 

Now that I have started again, I want to keep it up.  It only takes a little time to run a mile, and right now a mile is doing a lot for me. 

I started this adventure weighing 231 pounds.  I felt heavy, tired, and out of shape.

With just 2 days under the belt so far, I feel like I have more energy, I'm breathing better, and I feel a little more light footed.  Yesterday I was sore, the muscles didn't want to work right, and I was sore.  Did I mention I was sore, but it felt good.

I should get some instant results this first couple weeks from dropping some water weight.  Then I will plateau for a while and gradually take off a little weight at a time.  I'm already weighing 4 pounds lighter. 

If it was just to lose weight I wouldn't be able to stay with it.  I enjoy running though.  I have made it fun.  I bought an MP3 player and loaded lots of running music to help me keep my mind off the burn.  I also have a small camera so I can take pictures while I'm running out in the country. 

This year I have bought a jogging stroller to take the baby out when she is older and it gets nicer.  The boys have bikes, and my wife has an MP3 player.  It can be a whole family thing.  We also have the 5K to look forward to.  I want to be the first place stroller pusher on Labor Day and break my record from 2 years ago while pushing a stroller.

To start with I have to run on the track at the high school.  My knees cannot take the shock of 230 pounds hitting the road yet.  The padded track is a lot better on my knees until I get everything used to the motion my body hasn't seen in a year and a half.

My first goal is to drop to 220 pounds by the end of March.  That should be a pretty easy goal if I run several times a week.

I have started to try to eat a little better sized portions at home.  I don't really snack too much so that's not an issue.  I do eat huge meals though and that needs to stop.  I will try to start snacking a little more on healthy snacks so I'm not as hungry when it comes to meal time.

Slowing Down and Paying Attention

I played quite a mix of poker tonight.  I played 2 tournaments that I did not make the money, so I loaded up an 18 man sng and a single table of cash.  I finished 3rd in the sng.  I loaded up another and continued to play cash.  I finished 3rd in the other sng when my pair of Kings couldn't chase out the guy chasing the flush with a 4 6. 

I was waiting patiently for a hand in cash when the following hand came up.  P5 was a solid player.  I'm glad I hit trips on the flop or I could have lost a decent amount on this hand.

$0.04 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players

P1 (SB): $1.58
P2 (BB): $5.82
P3 (UTG): $5.81
P4 (MP): $0.94
P5 (CO): $4.90
Me (BTN): $3.69

P1 posts SB $0.02, P2 posts BB $0.04

Dealt to Me:

fold, P4 calls $0.04, P5 raises to $0.14, Me raises to $0.52, fold, fold, fold, P5 calls $0.38

Flop ($1.14, 2 players):

P5 checks, Me bets $1.14, P5 calls $1.14

Turn ($3.42, 2 players):

P5 checks, Me raises to $2.03, P5 calls $2.03

P5l shows
(Three of a Kind, Sixes)
(Pre 20%, Flop 4%, Turn 2%)

Me shows
(Three of a Kind, Kings)
(Pre 80%, Flop 96%, Turn 98%)

River ($7.48, 2 players):  
Me wins $6.99

Fudge Stix!@#$%

Day 1 of making 30 buy ins went worse than expected.  I played fairly tight (18 VPIP) over 1000 hands and got creamed every time I got it all in good.  The worst was on a table that I had gotten up to 10.00 on.  I had pocket 6's with a pot size bet in front of me.  He had a similar stack.  I called.  Flop came 6c8hQc.  He bet pot and I came over the top.  He went all in.  I had been playing with him for a while and didn't think he had anything more than top pair as I had seen him do the same thing on multiple occasions against other players and only have top pair when called.  I called.  He turned over K8c.  A club fell on the turn or the river.  I don't remember which.  My top was blowing off my head at that point and my middle finger was swiping in front of the screen. 

I knew I had him, and that's when i get my *** handed to me every time.  If I know I have someone right where I want them, I might as well kiss my stack goodbye.  It never works like I think it should.

I had a few hands get crushed with the call downs from the 4 7 off suit type hands.  I'm starting to wonder if it isn't more profitable to try to be a donk.  I had one guy go all in every time it was on my blind 4 times in a row.  On the 5th time I had A10 and called.  He had A3 and spiked his 3.  I shut down the computer and tossed it in the corner.  I was done with the sickness that was happening last night.  I waited to get the guy and Bam@!  Bye Bye stack!

My tournament didn't go much better but it was because of my own doing.  I had an 88 and 3 people were all in before me.  If I called I'd still have 19bb's left if I didn't get lucky.  With that much on the table I called to see AK, QQ, 4h7h.  QQ won.  Yep, shoulda did the right thing there and fold.  It wasn't long before the blinds were up and I still hadn't gotten a hand so I shipped what I had with 10 10.  Caller had 10 3 off suit to take my bounty when he got his straight.  It was only 7 bb why not call with 10 3 to try to collect a bounty.  I might have done the same thing in the same situation.  I wasn't too mad about that.

I now have 6 more buy ins to make in order to make a large deposit.  Time to go back to 2 tabling and tighten up even more. 

I don't know if I will play tonight.  I don't know if I can scream no 3 no 3 no 3 anymore just to see it hit on the river.

Yeah!  I'll Play. 

I am reconsidering the making 30 buy ins before I add a deposit.  It is a great idea, especially if I were only playing cash.  I still agree that I should be able to beat the game at this level before I get crazy and add more money.  I think that if I make a profit for 3 straight months, it would show that I can beat the game at this level.  What do you think Flush? 

I'm down for the month after yesterday's showing.  If I mix it up and play a few more tournaments and sng's and a little less cash, I could still possibly pull out a profit this month.  One tabling cash will be optimal for me along with a tournament or sng while I'm playin it.  That way I can really concentrate on my play.

Running

Tonight I got off work and went running.  I've been wanting to start running again for a long time.  I had a lot of excuses for not, including a nose surgery last summer, then the winter.  It  takes some effort to get my lazy out of the way.  I ran a mile and was exhausted and sore.  That's bad.   When I stopped a year and a half ago I was able to run quite a distance.

I went to get a hair cut afterwards.  I felt a lot better after I got home.  I needed to get out and get started.

After supper I started playing poker.  I started with a 2.20 bounty tournament.  I went out in the high 20's out of 84 starting.  I also played 400 hands of cash for a loss of 5.45.  I just couldn't get anything going on the 2 tables I was on.  I didn't get a pocket pair over 66 in the first 300 hands and when I finally did get a KK in the bb it folded to me.  Might have been a good thing with my track record of KK yesterday.

Deposit to Increase My Bankroll

In a previous post I had mentioned that I may add a decent amount to my bankroll if I continue to follow my bankroll guidelines I have set in place.  I am going to start saving to add on 1000.00 as soon as I have it saved.  It could take several months for me to be able to save that amount out of my personal account.  I can sell some things on ebay, and have a garage sale this spring to accelerate the process.

Until then I will continue to try building the bankroll that I currently have, so I will have a little bit of a buffer at the level that will put me up to. 

Playing .02 .04 is fun, but winning or losing 4.00 is not the biggest deal in the world to me when I'm paying so much for everything else in my life right now.  It seems that I shell out 300.00 for this 500.00 for that all the time.  Why not give myself a chance to really make some money playing poker if I have the money to do so.  With 1000.00 bankroll, I could play a lot better tournament structures than I am able to now.  It would also feel pretty monumental if I went up or down by a buy in at cash.

This weekend I tried playing a session 1 tabling 25.00 NL.  I held my own and made a few dollars.  It was not that different from playing 4.00 NL.  There was a definate LAG player at the table and everybody else went after him.  I don't think I'd want to multitable at that level right away when I get there.  I'd rather play 1 table and pay attention to everything that is going on. 

It will be a while before I get that money saved and I could always change my mind.  Until then I will keep plugging away at my current limits and try to get to 10.00 NL by the time I make that big deposit.

At that point I may start making some withdrawels off the site to reward myself if I play well.  I'm thinking 25% of my winnings at the end of each month, if 25% is over the minimum withdrawel limit.  Or I could do sort of like FlushDraww and withdraw my tournament winnings at the end of the month or a certain percentage of them.  I will have some time to think about this.  The money I withdraw could be saved for trips to Vegas, a gun, or something that will keep pushing me to do better.

Out With KK

I played the 100K tournament on lock today.  I finished 259th out of 1076 with the above hand.  I also played the 10K guaranteed on carbon and lost with KK to AQ on there early in the tournament. 

The 100K was paying 193.68 for 126th and 19368.00 for 1st. 

I have 1 more ticket for another shot at it.  Maybe I can make it to the money next time.

Better Night

Tonight was a better night than last night.  I got in 491 hands for a profit of 3.99.  I also played 2 sng's and finished 2nd in both of those for a profit of 8.80.  I played 1 tournament that I did not make the money. 

YUK!!!

Last night was horrible all the way around.  I lost 2 sng's and 10 buy ins at cash -20.50.  I thought I was playing o.k.  I was getting the money in with the best hands and they would chase and catch every time.  I was playing with a bunch of people that would not fold for anything.  I only had 3 out of 20 hands that went to showdown hold up.  It was sick.  I was ahead on the turn over 3/4 of those.

It just wasn't my night.  Once I started looking at my stats, I realized that once again I would have had a lot better night had I tightened up my starting hand range against those players.  Or, had my opponents folded on the turn, or my hands held up on the river.  It was so bad I could call out the exact river card every time, because it was the one card that would kill me.  A 5% two outer, was a guaranteed 75% against me last night.

I was waiting until I reached 80.00 to start with a 3.00 buy in, then 120.00 to start with a 4.00 buy in.  I'm going to start with the full stack from now on.  I'm also setting a 4 buy in stop loss for each night.  If I lose 4 buy ins, I am generally tilted, even if I don't think I am. 

Tonight, Mommy, the baby, and my youngest son will be out of town.  After I get done with my chores I will have a chance to play a fairly long session.  It's time to crush.

Getting Back to Normal

Today things got back to normal a little bit.  I went back to work, our parents left and I was able to play some poker.  I got in 276 hands for a profit of 21 cents. 

I started out poorly and lost a couple buy ins.  One was when I had a AK and the flop came out QKK.  He had QQ.  The other was a bad call on my part with a KQ on a Q high flop.  He had AA. 

After that I got patient and waited for my opportunities to make money.  It worked out as I came back from being 2 3/4 buy ins down by the time my session ended.

With the little girl in the house I don't think I will be getting a lot of poker playing done in the evenings.  I will play late and try to get a few hundred hands in a day for the next week and see how that goes. 

Baby Girl

Bad Cash Day

Today started out to be a rough day.  I dropped a couple buy ins right away.  It continued to be rough as I could not dig back out of the hole.  I was down 13.00 after 300 hands of sloppy poker.  I took a break and came back to it a while later, determined to play better while I was playing Lock's 100 seats to the 100K. 

The tournament started stalling and put me on tilt.  I was down 6.00 by that point in cash.  Then a player started talking crap to me at the table and sent me over the edge.  Before I knew it I was down 11.00 after 575 hands.  I realized I was tilted and quit my cash games.  I didn't play any more cash after that. 

Lock sent a message that there would be a makeup game for the 100 seats game later so I sat the computer to the side and played borderlands with my son until I saw the games getting ready to start.  They had 3 50 seat games so I registered for the 2 that were tonight.  The other is at 6:00 in the morning. 

I had also played 2 tournaments and a sng this morning for a loss of .73 in the tournaments.  I had a min cash in one.  I had a loss of 1.60 in the sng.

I would chalk the day up as being a bad day but I won tickets in both of the 50 seat tourneys.  I unregistered for the tournament tomorrow.  As much as I'd like to play it, I'd hate to have to give up in a 109.00 tournament if the baby decides to come.  I will have 2 weekends to look forward to now trying to turn those tickets into cash.

Just a Few Hands Tonight

When I got off work tonight I picked up my kids and 6 of my nieces and nephews and brought them home.  I made enchiladas and spanish rice for supper, then we played video games for a little bit.  The
video games distracted the boys for a little bit then they got out the nerf swords and all of the other weapons they have created to beat on each other.  They did that until the wife said she couldn't take it any longer.

I took them home around 9:30 and when I got back my friend from OKC wanted to play some boarderlands so we did that for a while.

At 11:30 I decided I would play until midnight to see what types of hands I could get in.  I loaded 3 tables and got in 96 hands for a loss of 1.08.  I did not have any great starting hands and lost a few small pots with mid pairs calling light bets to the river. 

This was my first losing night in a while.  I kind of suspected that could happen with such a short session.

We are still waiting on the baby.  If we don't have it by next Thursday, they are going to induce my wife. 

Come Out Baby

No baby yet so I was able to get some more hands in today. 

I made 2 big mistakes tonight.  On one I called a 3 bet with 99.  The flop came 10 3 6 rainbow.  I bet pot and was re-raised all in.  I called knowing that he probably had a higher pocket pair.  I was right. 

The second mistake was less costly.  I had 99 and called a raise in position to see a 2 10 7 rainbow flop.  He bet out a pot size bet and I called.  The turn was an Ace.  He checked so I put out a half pot size bet.  The river was a 6.  He went all in.  I folded.  In this hand I think I should have checked on the turn.  With a check by him in that situation I could have suspected a trap move.  Had I checked, he may have bet light on the river and I could have called a half pot size bet there, or folded if he bet larger.

Other than that my play looked pretty solid tonight through the 580 hands I played.  There were probably some spots where I could have made a little more money.  Right now I'm concentrating on losing less from poor play.

I had one guy call a big bet on the turn to catch his straight on the river while I held 2 pair.  I lost a couple dollars on that hand but I would have played it the same way and made money 80% of the time.  Tonight I just fell into the 20% that I lose.

I have moved back to playing 2 to 3 tables at a time.  I can concentrate better than I can with 4 tables.  I feel comfortable with 3 but when I move to 4 I seem to play without thinking.  I can play 3 and have a sng going and do fine.  I can make pretty quick decisions in the sng and concentrate mainly on my play at the cash tables.

Tonight I played 580 hands for a profit of 1.58.  I also played 1 sng for a profit of 5.15.

We had a checkup this morning for the baby.  The doctor said he thought we would be back in the next 24 hours to deliver.  So far its been 12 hours and nothing. 

The kids both seem like they are finally getting back to their healthy selves.  Finally.  That's 5 days of dealing with a sickness in the house.  My immune system sucks so if I can escape this one I'll be very thankful.

Tired of Sick Kids.

I stayed home with my older son today.  He was sick today but started to feel better this evening.  I don't think he got the same 3 day flu as my younger son.  I only played 600 hands today for a profit of 6.92.  I also played 3 sng's for a profit of 1.95 and had 1.58 in rakeback.

I seemed to play my pocket pairs well today.  I made money on all of them except for JJ and 44.  I played 2 hands poorly holding JJ and it cost me 3.56.  Really it cost me about 3.00.  I should have folded them post flop.  I was finding the fold button alright on several other hands but I played those 2 completely wrong.  AA held up all 4 times it showed up. 

I still see quite a few mistakes I am making.  If I keep working on correcting my mistakes I will keep doing better.  I feel like I am improving my game substantially right now.  Before I was playing so badly I had no idea what to correct or how to.

I don't think my VPIP is 18 to 20 yet.  I am probably closer to 22 to 24.  Maybe a little higher than that.  I have stayed on a few tables until they broke completely.  That could push it a little higher.  My AFq pre-flop and flop should be increased from last month.  Thanks FlushDraww for that tip!

We may be having our baby real soon.  My wife got home from work tonight and said she was feeling something different and that we should get our bags packed.  I think she may be having some small contractions.  Not sure yet.  Will wait until they get a little bigger or her water breaks before we make the hour drive to the hospital.

Switching from Carbon to Lock

Last night I played around 600 hands and lost around 2.75.  I was curious as to why I wasn't getting cash rebates since they had sent me one on the 1st day of the month, but none since.  I looked online to see why.  I saw that Carbon is going strictly with VIP points now and is no longer doing rebates or rakeback.

After 4 days I had gotten in 1700 hands and some sng's and tournaments I had 84 FPP's which would equate to .84 at my current level. 

I was already upset that I lost out on rakeback the last day of January and lost all of my FPP's from the last several months of playing. 

I started considering switching from Carbon after I have played there the last several years.  I had set up Lock last year and have 40.00 on there as well as rakeback.  I don't like their game selections as well as Carbon's but I am losing out on quite a bit by not getting rakeback.

I started looking at Lock closer last night and set up Poker tracker for there.  Today I played 1500 hands on Lock with a profit of .72.  I was up the whole session but lost a couple tough ones towards the end of my last session.  They were bad enough that I cussed as they caught their 5% out on the river.  I also played several sng's and a couple tournaments on there with a profit on those of 4.96.  I had 3.06 in rakeback.  Not a bad day.

I'm not going to withdraw any money from Carbon.  I like several of their tournaments and sng's and will still jump on there to play some of those, but will probably play cash on Lock for now.

My son has been sick with the flu for the last 3 days, so I stayed home with him today.  I was able to play quite a bit while he laid on the couch and watched TV.  Tonight as he was starting to feel better my older son said he was feeling ill.  As I was typing this we found out he is sick.  I hope I don't get this stuff.  I don't think I could make it through a full 3 days of vomiting.

Good Feeling

It feels good when you play patiently and finally get AA dealt to you with 2 raisers acting before you, and after you re-pop it, one person goes all in, and you hold against their AK. 

The first day of February was a continuation of January.  I couldn't keep hitting that fold button.  I thought I needed to try to forcibly bring in my chips.  It didn't work and I was stuck for the 1st day. 

Tonight I started out the same way, even though my goals said I would not.  I switched gears about halfway through my 600 hands and remained pretty even for the next couple hundred hands.  Then I got AA.  After that I had an A high flush flop and get called down, and a full house called with a lower full house.

My goal of keeping my VPIP between 18 to 20 feels like a correct move.  It keeps me from starting with hands I really shouldn't be playing.

I have played 7 sng's the last 2 days and took 1 first place in an 18 man.  I bubbled  or came close in a couple of 18 mans and 27 man.  One thing I noticed was that my VPIP for my normal play in SNG's is close to 15.  I play tight in SNG's but always thought I would need to play looser in cash.  Maybe I need to play similar in both.  I may need to loosen my range a little in sng's and tighten it up quite a bit in cash.

I played 644 hands today with a profit of 2.22.  I played 4 sng's with a profit of 2.80.

VIP Points Reset On Carbon

I logged onto Carbon Poker to check a couple things with the new VIP structure that is replacing rakeback.  I was not pleased to see that my VIP points have been reset. 

Carbon shows that I am a water tier, but I lost all of the points I had saved, without any type of compensation.  Had I known that I was losing them I would have played a big tournament last night or a bunch of sng's.

One good thing I noticed was that you can now have 1 free withdrawel a month.  I won't be using this any time soon, but it is good to see that it will not cost me 15.00 if I want to withdraw money from the site.

I got my first cash rebate for the time I played last night.  That was disappointing, as I was hoping I would get rakeback from that play.  Oh well.  At least I'm getting something. 

Now that I am getting full VIP points it should help to clear bonuses a little faster.  Even with that, I will feel the pinch of not having rakeback. 

I am excited to see if I can get close to the next VIP tier this month.  I'm not going out of my way this month to try to reach it, but if I can get over halfway there this month with my normal effort, I may put in the volume next month to reach it.

Feb Poker Goals

January was a losing month.  It was not due to bad beats, and not from playing outside my banroll.  It had a lot to do with my play.  I have been reading books and trying a lot of what they are trying to teach me.  Some things worked and some have not.  I have been playing too many hands, trying too many things.  In the end my play has become transparent and I am getting crushed.  I played mainly cash games in January with a few sng's thrown in.  I did not play any tournaments.

In February, I am going to add in some tournaments.  I am also going to attempt to play more solid every day. 

Feb Goals

Play up to 800 hands per day. 
Stop for the night after I reach 800 hands. 
Keep my VPIP around 18 to 20 throughout the month.
Get off of the table if I get frustrated with that game or the players.
Add at least 2 hand histories to the blog.
Show a profit at the end of the month.

Since Carbon Poker is getting rid of rakeback and I will be getting full points it will be interesting to see how close I come to reaching the fire VIP level this first month.