Preparing to move back to 50NL.

I am just about 3bi at 25NL shy of taking a shot at 50NL. This has been quite a long journey for me, in fact this won't be the first move to 50NL, not even the first return attempt.

In the years past I played the bonus whore to perfection, raking up lots of money and moving quickly from 25NL to 100NL. Once the UIGEA hit I was pretty much forced to move to FTP as I had most of my money at Doyle's Room. As it turns out, I wasn't very good at poker. I lost most of my 100NL BR quickly, dropping me to 50NL, 25NL, and what should have been 10NL (but I was too stubborn). I took a few months off disgusted, then starting playing again, telling myself if I wanted to move up I had to do it the old fashioned way. No more deposits, I got myself busto and I could get myself out. Things were going very well for a while, in fact I was well into the 50NL bankroll requirements. I was running extremely well and even had my sights set on moving back to 100NL. Of course you can guess what happens here, I start getting killed. I figure I'm just running bad, but upon review I noticed that nope, I still play pretty bad. Back to 25NL... nearing busto.

I had been a member of Cardrunners, but I hadn't really put in the time to study, post, watch videos, etc. I really want to be a better poker player, but I realize that just going through the motions won't get me anywhere. While I'm just starting to recently post more in the CR forums, I can say going through the SSNL series by Brystmar completely changed my game around. Add the videos by Verneer and I finally feel confident in my play. I have done a small bit of review and sweat sessions with Homerow, which I think has helped a bunch too just to throw some ideas and questions off someone.

I still have some concerns that this may just be a hot streak that I might not be playing that well, but I really feel I have turned my game around. I still have the occasional lapse of trying to force people out of pots when I know I can't, but I have been doing my best to stay out of tough situations. I haven't played any since I got back from Vegas, but I was exhausted Sunday, worked 14 hrs yesterday, and just way too tired to play today, however I have been reviewing lots of articles and studying up.

My plan (based on making 3bi in the next week) will be to play 25NL through the end of this week to get back into 2 weeks off of online poker, then take my shot again at 50NL. Will keep posted on my results!