Remember, it's always a good time to re-evaluate

I'm faced with the possibility that my first foray into the 10s began with a huge heater, and that I won't be beating them for as much as I hoped (or even at all). Shortly after I cashed out a chunk of money a few days ago I hit the biggest downswing I've had since I started taking poker semi-seriously; over my last 160 games at 10s I've dropped > $150, which is about 15 BIs. I know, it's not exactly a mega sample, nor my biggest swing in terms of BIs (I had a -19BI swing at 5s, and an amazing -37BI at 1s when I was 32 tabling them) but it is easily the biggest swing in $$$, and right on the back of a cashout it has left my bankroll in a precarious state. Having cashed out down to 60 BIs, I'm now down around 45 BIs for the 10s.

Rather irrationally, I decided that the solution lay in a pointless moan in the skype chat, but fortunately for me, Alex (redwiredaces) was about in there too. He very quickly, and very sensibly, gave me a metaphorical slap round the face with a wet fish and told me to drop some tables, back as far as 14. I discussed the idea of this with him a few days ago after he did a DoN video screen share with me a few days back, but I think I'd got so blinkered by accumulating VPPs and hitting Platinum this month that I was playing too many tables and consequently I was probably making too many bad decisions, causing me to end up losing money at the game at a rate which was orders of magnitude faster than could possibly be offset by any FPP advantage.

Even though it just felt like I was playing good and running bad, and that I was just getting sucked out on, and even if that was true, it still dents confidence to be losing money. So, on the back of his excellent advice, I've done the sensible thing and cut back tables. This means I have to give up on reaching Platinum this month, as it will now be impossible to reach while playing fewer tables. I've also taken the decision to drop back down to the 5s for a few days, for two reasons – 1) to get a bit of confidence back, and 2) to rebuild the roll back up to a safe level for the 10s, which should allow me to continue to play with confidence. I'm currently >100 BIs deep for the 5s, but instead of moving back up to 10s when I hit ~$620, I think I might grind up past $700 at the 5s for the added security when I move back up. A drop down to a game I can beat easier for a while is probably a good thing too.

I'm now 16 tabling the 5s (not 14, guess I'm still a little stubborn) and making money again, and hopefully I can be back grinding where I want to be in a few days. I still want Platinum next month though. My remaining target for May is to grind out enough VPP to clear the SCOOP reload bonus while only 16-tabling, and to not lose money doing so. That needs to be done by close of business on May 30, and I only need another 1151 VPP to do that, which is easily doable in ten days, and I should be able to kill the fish who donk around the 5s over this weekend.

So, thanks must go to Alex. That five minutes may not have been significant to you, but it could be crucial to me, and I wish him all the best in his attempt at the 52s.