Short Stack Star

My new philosophy has started fantastically well as in 128 hands of 10-20 pot limit holdem I have won $3000, not bad really. This has been done by buying in for the minimum and playing a check raise all in strategy as I try to get all my money in either before or on the flop where I'm relatively certain I have the best hand. So far I've run extremely positively doing this but am very well aware that only a few beats will have my profits way down. Twice yesterday I got it all in on the flop with top set against 1 out - literally 1 out which is virtually impossible to have and it failed to hold up on one of these.

The aim is simple and it has numerous advantages as although 3 people may come with you on the flop it is likely that two of them will get bet out on later streets often by someone with a strong draw which can lead to me winning a large pot which I wouldn't otherwise have done as they fail to connect. This protection makes the value of playing like this really worthwhile and it'll be interesting to see how I run over the next month.

In statue watch I have now got $1600 which has been withdrawn to purchase various artwork - I could withdraw another $1300 but have decided to leave that in my account and not go too mad with buying stuff. this has worked out quite well and since last monday when I went to playing omaha I've made $5200 - very nice this is too!

I'm thinking that I may teach myself 7 card stud and become a winning player at that too just so I have more options in game selection and can broaden my skills and give me alternative games for when I run bad and lose confidence in one form of poker. Realistically I know that my best game is going to be holdem and I just need to get my confidence back and accept the bad runs which I'm prone to having and minimise my tilt as this can cost me huge amounts.

Next week I turn pro and with my new versatility across holdem and omaha I should probably think about splitting my time across them to increase my interest and ensure that I don't become predictable and stale at either game.

I really hope I can turn October into a big month as this would do wonders for my confidence in the decisions I've taken and would leave me feeling good about life. I don't really have an amount I'm aiming for although when I play full time I would hope to make $500 a day on average which would equate to $10k-15k a month depending on the amount of time I spend playing. I think this should be a realistic goal and one which I would hope to surpass but until I'm playing when not tired and without comitments I guess I won't really know what to expect. My previously best month was +$17k in June and I really feel that I should be improving on that but I guess it's a case of watch this space to see how it goes.

Steve