I've had a pretty juicy selection of home games lately and haven't logged a ton of hands, about 1500 per week, but I do play when I can.

Despite that, it's been a little over a month and 8,000 hands later and I feel fortunate to have built my roll from $150 @ Level 2 $5NL to $300 and I'm now ready to start my next journey @ Level 3 $10NL. I was also fortunate and a little surprised to improve upon my win rate some from 24bb/100 or 12ptBB/100 @ $2NL to 36bb/100 or 18ptBB/100 @ $5NL. I assumed it would slowly go down each level, but I guess since I wasn't able to log much more than 10k @ each level, there's going to be the potential for a lot more variation in either direction. As long as I'm winning and think I'm winning as a result of consistently outplaying my opponents, I'm not going to get too caught up in specific numbers.

It's funny, but the moments I feel I am maturing most as a player are not when I pull off what I think is a fancy play or stack off two villains at once. Instead, it's when I am in the midst of adverse situations. I remember one night in particular, I had QQ and flopped 4Q4 in a raised pot. My thought was, "how do I get all the money in by the river". I planned my bet sizes for each street. I got my flop bet called and then the turn was a King and he re-raised my turn bet all-in. It turned out he had KK and I lost my stack. I hardly reacted at all. I just thought, "that's going to happen from time to time and the fact he called my big flop bet tells me he probably would have stacked off even if he didn't get a set as long as an ace didn't spike OR he could have had aces and still stacked off". I took notes on how villain played that hand for next time and moved on like it was just another hand because to me, it was. Just a few hands later, I had 44 in another raised pot. The flop came 4A3. Again, I planned to try to get all the money in the pot feeling like villain might stack off with AK or worse. I got all the money in by the river, but villain had 52o - a made straight on the flop in a raised pre-flop pot and the board didn't pair. I could have easily tilted or gone into a "woe is me" mindset, but instead, again focused on taking player notes and choosing not to let it affect my game. I just think to myself, "this would probably affect a lot of other players, but I've worked hard on my game and played enough and seen enough and it's not going to affect me - it's going to give me an edge". That's not to say I always have the best frame of mind and couldn't improve more, but I'm encouraged by the progress and aside from simply learning how to play poker well, I think how we handle or react to adversity can be key. Catching wired Aces or Kings and taking an eager fish's stack is easy. But how do we react when the cards get cracked or you play the fool? When the chips are down, that's when we get to really test our mettle.

In Elements of Poker Tommy Angelo talks a lot about reciprocity and how to test for it. The gist of it is that you analyze how you played a hand versus how an opponent would have played the same hand in the same scenario. If you would have won more or loss less than your opponent, then you win and vice versa. I am seeing more and more plays I make now, that the older me or the other players I play with online and live would either not play correctly or not play as optimally as I think I'm playing it. Sometimes the plays are subtle relating to mindset, getting an extra value bet here, not losing extra money there. Sometimes the plays are more obvious - maximizing EV, creating optimal stack to pot ratios after the flop, or picking a timely spot for a successful bluff. And it's not that I'm playing perfect or even in a way that could be clearly quantified as good, but I think I am seeing enough evidence that I am playing a lot better by my standards and I have been fortunate lately to at least play better than my opponents for the time being. I think to survive in poker more so than other pursuits you always have to be moving forward and getting better. And, if nothing else, it's nice to know that to succeed, you never have to actually play good or even great poker - just play better poker than your villains

Typically the move between levels is to win 30 buy-ins, but to fully traverse from $10NL to $25NL, I'll need to win 45 buy-ins:

$10 times 45 buy-ins equals $450 (profit)
$450 (profit) plus $300 (my current bankroll) equals $750 (amount I need)
$25 (next level) times 30 (required buy-ins per my bankroll management rules) equals $750 (amount I need)

So, in addition to having the hurdle of moving up a level and being a winning player, there will be the additional burden of having to win an extra 50% of the buy-ins than is typical. Fortunately all that will take care of itself eventually IF I'm able to consistently win.

Here's my $5NL graph from HEM:


Here's my overall graph:


I plan to start playing and keep playing $10NL until I drop down to $200 at which point I'll drop back down to $5NL or until I rise up to $750 at which point I'll move up to $25NL.

How High Can You Get?
Level 1 ($ 2 NL) - 12/13/2008 @ $100 -> Winrate for level: 24bb/100 or 12ptBB/100 over 11k hands (As of 01/22/2009)
Level 2 ($ 5 NL) - 01/22/2009 @ $150 -> Winrate for level: 36bb/100 or 18ptBB/100 over 8k hands (As of 03/03/2009)
Level 3 ($10 NL) - 03/03/2009 @ $300
Level 4 ($25 NL) - ??? @ $750
Overall Winrate 29bb/100 or 14ptBB/100 (As of 03/03/2009)