1/8 to 1/14

This week started out a little blah. I was only very slightly ahead after playing a few MTT’s early in the week and not cashing in any. I was able to offset the buyins with a some cash game play and a nice run on Heads up SNG’s I mostly played 20's but played 2 50's and won both, 1 in 1 hand. Tuesday was my first Final Table of the week. I played one of PokerStars 180 person MTT’s and managed to build a huge chip lead with about 16 left. A very frustrating 7th place finish after a river 4 outer hit against me had me scratching my head. The Final Tables are coming regularly so I am hopeful my hot streak will continue. I’m starting to come to the conclusion that it is a little more than a hot streak and that I really have improved. Hopefully Harrington on Holdem, Volume II will really help round out my playing and help prevent me from getting a big stack late and then giving it all away and failing to finish respectably. The next couple of days have gone so wrong. Bubbling in tournaments and taking some tough beats in cash games. I definitely need to pick it up this weekend in order to keep on pace for my goal. This weekend continued the same ugly play from early this week. Nothing really to speak of happened at the tables. I had a decent shot in one of Pacific’s 10K tournaments but busted 35th out of 651 to cash for about $80 but was far from what I was after. I’m sure I had a down week for what seems like the first week in forever. Luckily these are generally few and far between. My best guess would be about -300. I have had a few larger cashouts in the last couple and this has now gotten my online bankroll down to about $800, which is a little light for what I like to keep. I did have a talk with someone who was new to poker at my daughters birthday. He asked me a question that kind of related to this. He asked me what % I kept to grow my bankroll. This got me to thinking about this. I am very content playing the levels I play at and when I have a nice win I generally cash all of it out. I keep my bankroll between $1000 and $2000 and this has been fine. I’m curious as to what others do. I may have to investigate a little more into this. Hopefully a good start to the week on Sunday is in order.