Last week, I started tracking my games’ wins and losses. I felt it was necessary, as I found that I was spending more money than I wanted to playing online poker. I wanted a way to be constantly aware of my bankroll. Then the craziest thing happened: I won a major bad-beat jackpot. I don’t usually play cash games because I don’t think my skill level is high enough to play at the .25/.50 level, and all the lower games seem to be a real clusterf#ck of players.
I initially bought into a nickel-dime game for $8.08. I wanted to check the water and see if my skills have improved at all. I felt I was playing well despite busting out in just under an hour so I took my entire bankroll and bought into a .25/.50 game.
I don’t think I played more than a dozen hands when I played A10 only to get happily beat by AQ. It stunned me at first, and then I got giddy and had to leave the game to process. I started poking at bigger games over the next couple of days and won another sixty dollars or so but realized that I need to be careful so I locked my account for a 72hr cooling off period.
I know it’s only a coincidence, but I like to think that by being more serious in managing my bankroll, I was rewarded with this winfall. It’s a good way to look at it for me because now I have been rewarded for my discipline, and it should help me to stay that way.