It's the question that men have been asking almost as long as they've been asking whether there is a God (ironically, the two questions may be related). But seriously, I am very curious if I could work up the focus to win online. Hypothetical formula: I deposit $250 on Stars and play only two things--25NL full-ring, and the $3 rebuy. I will never play more than two tables at a time.

Here's where it gets interesting: I am considering cross-booking my action with one or more people to help motivate myself. That means, if you take my action, if I go broke, I will pay you some % of my losses. But if I win a certain amount, you have to pay me some % of my winnings. And as a caveat, here is some side action: if you catch me playing anything other than the stipulated games on Stars, I pay you a penalty. I am not 100% certain if I am going to do this, but I am curious if anyone is interested.

I will probably try and develop some kind of regimen if I go through with this, with or without outside incentive. I am a naturally competitive person, but very prone to emotional swings, as anyone who reads my blog knows. I do not want to admit that there is something I can't be successful at with hard work, and I'm really determined that I might be able to pull something like this off without the use of performance-enhancing software.

Anyway, I also played some $1/$3 live NL last night and won a small amount in a couple hours. Small impact financially, but very good psychologically. Couple fun hands:

1. I get dealt in 3rd position. UTG limps, I raise to $13, one caller in the CO, and UTG calls. Flop comes . UTG checks, I bet $27. The CO calls, and UTG folds. Slightly disconcerting flop, but I do have top set and I won't be overly worried unless a 4th diamond comes. Turn is the . Yuck. I check. The CO pauses, and bets $30. His bet and his demeanor didn't seem very strong to me, but even the beats me. Still, there is a lot of money in there, and I have decent odds to draw to 10 outs for the boat, plus really good implied odds if he does have a decent flush and is trying to set me up. River is the , no help to me. I check, probably intending to check fold, as a block bet won't work here. My opponent thinks for a few moments, then chickens out and checks behind. I say, "no diamond," and he says "me neither." My set holds up. My suspicion is he read me for something like the and didn't think I would fold, so he couldn't fire the second bullet. His turn bet was probably just a poorly orchestrated bluff that didn't take pot size into consideration (although it might have worked if I instead had AK with no diamond).

2. I have UTG and decide to limp. Now, I hate playing hands OOP and have cut almost all hands out of my EP repertoire except for hands that rarely make draws (AK and pairs, mostly, as I really hate AQ, AJ, and KQ). Still, the table was pretty passive, and there are pretty good implied odds if I hit something with this hand, as it can make some pretty strong pair/draw combos. Two more limpers to the button, who makes it $16 total. The SB calls, and BB folds. It's back on me. There is $41 in the pot, and $13 for me to call. I don't like my hand much, but that's over 2.5-to-1, plus I might induce action behind me with little chance of a reraise, and my stack is decent enough to get some fold equity if I flop a big draw (pretty much I just don't want to flop one pair on a bad board). I decide to call, but the limpers behind me fold. However, the flop is decent for me, . OK, fine, it's a little more than decent. The SB now bets out $15, and has about $50 more behind. This wasn't really what I expected, but I have the nuts, and the button has me covered, so I just call, hoping that the button flopped something huge and might raise me here (and might throw in an extra $15 if I just call, even if he doesn't have much). Instead, the button just calls, and we go to the turn, the . The SB bets $15 again, not really what I wanted. If I just call here, I won't have much of a chance at getting my whole stack in against the button. However, if he has something, he might decide to start building the pot here, and I want to charge him to draw to a tie if he does have AK/AQ/KK/QQ, or a set obviously. I raise it to $40, thinking this might tempt the button. It does not, and he folds, but the SB nicely shoves his chips in, and I still win a decent pot with the nut straight (river was meaningless .

I may head out to the casino tonight for a late night run. Friday nights are notoriously good, especially with some people busting out of bigger games, people in smaller games chasing losses, and random street traffic with a few drinks under their belts.