Reupping

When I first set myself the goal of earning a million play dollars playing Texas Hold'Em, I decided to be very conservative about certain things. I decided to build up a set of rules and stick by them. The very first rule I made was to quit playing for the night if I ever hit the felt. This rule served me well, but eventually I grew dissatisfied with it.

After experiencing some huge swings at the $100/$200 tables, another rule I made was to stick to the $5/$10 tables, and build up my stack slowly but surely. At one point I calculated how long it would take me to reach my million by playing safely in this fashion; I think it came out to about 5 years!

I ended up breaking both of these rules on the same night. Why did I do this? For one thing, I was chafing under the restrictions; I felt stifled and wasn't having a lot of fun playing. It felt too much like work! For another, I was starting to hit a dry spell; I was coming across some really good poker players at the low stakes tables, and realized that at my current rate, I'd still be shy of my goal in 5 years. That was unacceptable to me.

As soon as I went back to the $100/$200 tables, my luck changed and my balance took off. I really believe the quality of play was better at the lower stakes tables, so I was doubly better off at the higher stakes tables - not only did I have a better chance to win, but when I did win I'd be winning 20 times more chips.

For the longest time, I avoided no limit. I admit that the thought of it terrified me. I got very good at pot limit, and thought that was all I needed to play. I don't remember my reason for deciding to try no limit, but when I did, my balance again took off like a rocket. These days, I'd never dream of playing at a low stakes table, and I don't see myself switching back to pot limit in the near future (if ever).

I realize I've rambled on a bit. What does the title of the post signify? The decision to keep playing after hitting the felt. This decision shouldn't be made lightly. Here are my rules for reupping:

1. never reup when you're on tilt (this one is very hard to obey, since being on tilt makes you disobey rules :-)

2. never reup if you're playing badly

3. definitely reup if you're playing well

Last night, I hit the felt on hand 41, but was playing well. I'd had some bad beats, but wasn't on tilt. I reupped for the max, won some big pots, and came out with a nice profit on the night.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 62 hands and saw flop:
- 9 out of 11 times while in big blind (81%)
- 8 out of 10 times while in small blind (80%)
- 18 out of 41 times in other positions (43%)
- a total of 35 out of 62 (56%)
Pots won at showdown - 7 of 12 (58%)
Pots won without showdown - 3

delta: $17,800
balance: $2,861,937