Hey all,

So it's been a while since I've updated. I figured I should provide some sort of recap for the month of May. Poker, as usual, has been an up and down battle. Somedays I play great and my results are great. Otherdays I play great and my results are poor. Still other days I play like crap and, guess what, the results are crap as well. :-)

Starting in May, I've taken two new steps to help me get as good at this game as I possibly can (which of course, is my ultimate goal). First, I signed up at CardRunners.com, a site created by a guy named Taylor Caby (Green Plastic on UB), where by he and his buddies create videos of their play at various stakes and sites. I've watched all of GP's videos, and I've started in on some of the other contributor's vids. So far I liked GP's videos, although they are sort of short. The primary benefit is just hearing him verbalize his thoughts at the table. The things he's considering, etc. He specializes in short handed play with a loose aggressive style, which is good for me to listen to as it will help me find some extra spots to open up my tight aggressive game. I haven't been too impressed with the videos of the other "pros" there, but to be fair I've only watched a couple. If you decide to sign up, please use my link above so I'll get credit for the referral.

The second step I took was hiring jkrantz from the 2+2 forums to be my NL Coach. So far it's going well and I would highly recommend him to anyone that needs to learn anything from the basics to advanced concepts - or if you simply need a knowledgeable resource to affirm what you're doing is correct. Given the nature of short handed NL, it's often easy to fall in love with your play because of great results or get real down on yourself because of poor results. In both instances, it helps to have an unbiased 3rd party be able to review your play and make sound judgments. Jay has been great for all of these things, and I look forward to each Monday and Tuesday night for more of his insights. He has also emailed me some interesting hands to get me thinking about how I can improve my hand reading. In short, I think he's helping to accelerate my poker growth at a much higher rate than I could be doing on my own.

One more thing that I'll add that I think will help with my poker growth is that I've actually gained some internet friends to chat with who play the same mid-stakes NL games that I do. If you recall back to one of my earlier blog entries (if you actually do recall, then that's scary :-), I stated that I really wanted to gain some friends who knew as much or more about poker. I've certainly done that. With the addition of a new AIM screen name (WiltOnTilt) I've added 2+2's jsnipes, triumph, and jalexand42 to my buddylist and I've been in contact with them while playing. It's been great to share stories and run hands by them at a whim.

Ok on to some results. May was a bittersweet month. On one hand, in terms of money made, it was my best month ever with a profit of: $7,125.05 and another $700 or so in various bonuses. On the other hand, I had some nights where I really played poorly and my results reflected that. My goal was to clear $10,000 in profit, which as you can see from the graph below, I did eclipse that mark at one point, however another bad run and combined with more undesirable play resulted in a downswing that I just couldn't recover from.

I had a few sizable downswings...For the most part I kept my spirits up mentally, but I'll have to admit the downswing towards the end of the month really got to me. I wanted badly to post a great brag blog about earning 5 figures this month in my hobby...Instead it just turned out to be a month with ~33k hands played and a crappy 2.59 ptbb/100 winrate resulting in my $7k and change. I feel like I'm doing all the right things to become the best player I can be, it's just a matter of taking what I learn and using the hard work I put in to execute in the heat of battle. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't. Hopefully surrounding myself with these knowledgeable players (who, btw, are murdering these games for 5 figures/month on a regular basis) will help me to achieve these goals.

I'm going to try to update my blog more regularly in June. One final note is that I've closed my Party account, so you won't be seeing WiltOnTilt there anymore :-) Kind of a shame because I am fond of that screen name...but you have to make certain sacrifices in the name of positive EV... ;-)

Take care,

Aaron