December, ho-hum...

Due to the being afraid that IUGEA would go into effect, I cashed out most of my Full Tilt account. As a result, I dropped down in stakes to play in the $25NL games. Despite playing underolled (since I cashed out), I was able to maintain a positive win rate of 2.52BB/100. Every time I'd get enough of a roll to take a shot at $50NL, I'd get clobbered, sending me back down to $25NL. I really crushed $25NL though, so I felt good about that - it soothed my confidence. Additionally, I really worked on my attempt to steal percentage; my ATS for the month is 65%!!! SIXTY FIVE PERCENT!!! That's freakishly big. I have become quite a kleptomaniac. I steal everything that isn't nailed down. And when I am met with resistance, I am cbetting & usually taking it down right then & there. Most players at 25 & 50NL don't pay much attention to steal percentages, but a person could make a living just stealing the blinds. Anyway, here's the rest of the story:



I made Gold status in the Iron Man challenge / bonus. Unlike last month:

1. I am eligible for $75 in the mid year bonus. Last month added $100 to my mid year bonus.
2. I can convert medals to dollars.
3. All of the poker played allowed me to qualify for free CardRunners training through totallyfreepokertraining.com and stoxpoker.com.

Full Tilt poker profits: $147.82
Poker Stars poker profits: $-10.35
Live poker profits: $0.00
Rakeback bonus profits: $161.95
Full Tilt bonus profits: $0.00
Total: $299.42

A quick rundown of my stats: 5.5K hands played on stars in 21 hours + 25.5K hands played on Tilt in 72 hours. My hold'em All In Luck calculator says that since the beginning of the month, I've run $-52, which says that I've overcome my negative expected value in all in situations.

Looking forward to January, I have $400 in year end bonuses accumulated through the Iron Man challenge. I have my work cut out for me and 45 days to make good on it. It will wind up being about 8000 points to get the full bonus. Therefore, I am moving up to $50NL to make a more efficient time of converting the bonus. At the time of this writing, I have achieved 1035 points, 1/8th of the way there. At this rate, I will qualify for iron status in the Iron Man during January as well. Additionally, I am going to attempt to convert Iron Man bonus medals (using $75 tokens) into $69 in cash with omgitsjoshua. I will put a post up shortly explaining it, if we are successful. Therefore, I stand to take about $469 in bonuses through Full Tilt during the month of January.

P.S. If anyone has converted medals to cash, let me know. I've read a few posts on the various sites saying it's easy, but have yet to do it myself.