Looking Back, Looking Forward

I've been playing online poker for 3+ years. I think it's a good idea to reflect on my advancements and my future goals.

I started out playing NLHE tourneys (with their alluring quick paydays). I was way underfunded and didn't have any bankroll management technique. I did go busto on a $50 deposit, but quickly learned to take advantage of bonuses.

Clearing bonuses drew me to cash ring games and from there I discovered rakeback and affiliate income. Although still not a good player, I realized bankroll building involved more than just playing a given number of hands.

One of my regrets early on was having money spread out over many sites. I should've just concentrated on one site and pooled my funds to play bigger stakes.

The biggest discovery for me as a player were the non-hold 'em games. There are just some games that come easy and seem almost intuitive. Split pot poker is my epiphany and I begin winning almost immediately. The result was two fold: I finally developed real confidence at the tables, and learning these new games made me a better hold 'em player (eventually making me a winner at HE).

While I enjoyed this smorgasbord of poker, I didn't focus on one discipline and played whatever I fancied at the moment. Again, this didn't allow me to advance in stakes. (I will say however at this point in my poker journey, mixed games weren't available online.)

As I slowly develop poker income, I learned better bankroll management. I read (and reread) various books on poker. Like a lab to a college textbook, I played various games to try out the new concepts I learned. I often jumped around between tourneys and cash games. Again, while this is improving my skill it is keeping me from moving up the ladder.

In the past year or so I have improved my tournament play tremendously. However, I still have trouble dealing with the variance. It can be soul crushing to play excellent poker for 5 hours and lose on a bad beat with nothing to show for it.

So here I am in the present, finally learning to grind. Playing split pot poker ring games, maximizing my time and effort with rakeback and bonus programs, playing within my bankroll (as always) but learning to take shots upward at the right time.

There is no fame and glory in grinding cash games, especially at my level. I'm absolutely OK with that. I'd like to also play tourneys once in a blue moon - but only as a fun diversion. I take some pride in the fact that I'm a winning tourney player, even though it hasn't been fun all the time.

I'd like to move up in stakes to at least mid-level. I've never really played above $3/6 limit or $.50/1 NL/PL, and I want to see just how tough the competition is up there.

I'm trying to average 3 hours of multi-table play each day, and it's been easy to reach for the past few months. I still have passion for poker and I don't think I would be this far along without it. I hear so many players say how the hate the grind, so they must do it for some other reason. I'll always be happy being the anonymous player making his daily bread.