starting over

[uncledave]

I cashed out my 6 month roll of $1100 to pay for car insurance. Actually I kept $100 over to play games with so I'm effectively starting over on the old poker trail.

I'm obviously going to try to build it up over a period of time again but this time I'm going to do things a little bit different. I'm not going to go after bonuses and so on - I'm going to go after the easiest games and move up the limits and buy-ins. It feels like a new dawn.

I've booked myself in for a couple of lessons from the tutors and I'm going to have a go at some STT's and see how that goes. I'm going to reread my books on playing games and effectively start completely fresh... watch this space.

Cheer me on!
DS

[barrin6]

Good luck dude. I'm doing the same thing as you are.

[snickers99]

Good luck! I'm trying to take my game more seriously, but without the whole 'starting over' part. Make sure you let us know how it's going.

[iplaycards]

I did the same thing a couple months ago. I had a plan to go at the sng's. Start with $330 and play 10's untill I have 660 and so on. That lasted about 2 weeks and I wasn't up that much and then I played some mtt's and cash games and stuff and lost most of it. Then I played a mtt FR on stars that started me up and now I play mtt's and 10/20 short. Today I played a 200/15 sng because of tilt and I placed 2nd. I had 4-1 chips HU and lost 3 races and missed some draws and stuff.. I suck. Just busted out of a 100 mtt. Gl on your venture.

[uncledave]

It's just a bit fookin' demoralising to cash out all that poker money! I guess I'm glad I had it because I don't have to tap my real life money for the insurance. Living in Northern Ireland is crap! Insurance premiums are sooooo stupid!

Anyway. Thanks for the well-wishes...

DS

[tightpoker]

Good luck man, let us know how it goes

[caffiend]

There are bonuses, and then there are bonuses. While the huge ones that dwarf whatever you can reasonably win are a mixed blessing to most people, I wouldn't suggest playing with none. I've won much more on tables than I've earned from bonuses, but I still consider them very valuable for numerous reasons.

Perhaps it's stating the obvious, but winnings + rebates = profit. Maximizing your winnings at the expense of rebates is only slightly better than minimizing your winnings to chase after a bonus.

The trick is to match the bonus to the game. For example if you're playing .5/1 NL or higher on the cryptologic network and not taking advantage of the fact that William Hill pays you for the first five hours of each month you're not being smart unless you're getting more free money elsewhere.

By the way, if you didn't know, Poker Stars and Bodog are the best tournament/bonus deal because their bonuses clear at exactly the same rate as you pay tournament fees. Say you play a $10+$1, that clears $1 in your pending bonus, most sites it would clear about $0.33. In fact, with the rounding of FPPs Stars $5+$0.50s are actually attractive as they clear slightly more than the half buck. I can't really speak to the profitability of individual events, but I believe it's clear that having 100% of your rake refunded should be a significant long-term advantage.

[lsutiger]

Good luck on rebuilding - I recently took out all the money I had put in and am now playing on my profits. It makes it more interesting decreasing your bankroll that much.....

and for the record, Party gave me my money back in <24hrs to my bank account.