I have complained a few times that I could not seem to get ahead in NL ring games, even though that is the tourney format I prefer. Well I figured out the problem. Actually there were a couple, er few.

1) I was playing scared.

I started with a $50 deposit, and bonus whored at .50/1.00 until I almost went blind building my roll, and was not ready to take big hits on the drop of one card. Consequently I played microlimits, no more than $10 max. Dam, scared money at a $10 table, that is a recipe for making .50/1.00 look profitable.

2) My tourney play was apparently better than average for the levels I played on. I believe this caused me to think too much in the small ring games. The only way to outplay a table full of the clueless is to be a nutpeddler.

3) Thanks to Nortenesque, I also realized I was chasing too much. Bad habit from very loose limit games where I often got the odds, and could showdown for one bet on the river with weak holdings I picked up chasing along the way. I never got too jaded to crack up when some joker turned over King high on the river in a 20 big bet pot, with 4 to a straight or a pair on the board, and paid off my pair.

Well I finally got my roll big enough that I didn't mind dropping $25. I also developed a better immunity to short term swings from large $1/2 limit pots in which I would sometimes risk $10 or $15, with barely favorable odds. It makes putting $25 in the pot with a 2 to 1 edge seem as safe as a Certificate of Deposit.

Well next thing you know I am a 4 tabling nutpeddler on Party $25NL tables, and it is as if
I found a money machine. I will need a lot of work to move up to higher buyins, but I am right happy at the moment.

Thanks to everyone who participates at BTP. Two specific things that stand out: Nortenesque's reply to one of my posts about chasing, and making heroic calls at NL, and a post in which Iceman said he set a goal of being a big favorite 80% of the time he puts all his money in. That goal really keeps me disciplined. (I keep track with tick marks on a post it note while I play.)

To celebrate my conversion, I started a thread in the journal section, check it out if you have a moment.

Thanks for the replies guys. Don't worry, I don't even blink an eye now if I get stacked on the $25 tables, I just review the play, looking for mistakes. It was my attitude that made me unable to take a big beat. With the attitude I have now, I think I could play $25 w/ a $100 bankroll comfortably. Hopefully I'll never have to do that, but I think I could.