Yes, I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel now. In the last 3 weeks, I'm up about $800. Been playing all live, mostly $1/$3 NL and $4/$8 limit, and the games are unbelievably soft all around. A weird trend has emerged, however, where I'm starting off a lot of sessions in the hole and then climbing out in one or two spectacular bursts of cards. I guess that's how it works sometimes, but I'd just like one day where I start out winning and it's a fairly gradual increase in cash as the day wears on. Still, no complaints, as my focus has been much better since I started working out and playing live, and my patience has really paid off at the tables.

Last night, for instance, I was stuck $150 for about 3 solid hours, winning only small pots to recoup my blinds now and then. Finally, I pick up AKs with about $97 left. I raised to $15, the BB reraised to $30, UTG overcalled, so my play is pretty obvious. I happened to be up against KK and AT, yuck. Somehow, I managed both to hit an Ace on the flop and avoid the AT's diamond draw that came on the turn. All of a sudden I'm tripled up and out of the hole. A few hands later I get all-in with KK vs. QQ in a $160 pot preflop, and the the board hits A-T-3 on the flop. A Q on the turn made me wince, but I of course hit a J on the river to scoop. I got in in with the best of it there, and although I was behind in the AK hand, my push is still pretty much the only correct play, given that I could be up against Q's and J's or T's, or a weaker Ace and some pair that isn't AA or KK.

Patience has been a big factor lately, and I think it's one of the most important qualities for a live player to have. However, when I was thinking about important skills, I began to think about what the most OVERRATED skills in Poker are. In my opinion, these are probably the top 3:

1. Learning how to play in tough games. If you're interested in making money, you shouldn't be looking for tough games. You should be looking to play in the easiest games possible where you can earn the best hourly rate. If you want to test yourself against the best, fine. But just realize that's not how you will make money. With the rake factored in, Poker is a negative sum game, and the only way to beat it is to have an edge over your opponents greater than the house rate in rake. I'm not sure a lot of the "internet kids" really understand this; Poker is not about ego or proving yourself... it's only about money, and bashing your head against the wall for 1 PTBB/100 in the $5/$10 NL game is probably not all that fun, considering that I think a rate of 8+ PTBB/100 is easily achievable in the live donkfests. However, I don't want people making the games any tougher, so forget I said anything...

2. Playing super deep-stacked. This goes hand in hand with number one I guess, because unless you play very high stakes, it's not going to be common to have a stack of much more than 200 BB, and most of the time, you're playing with effective stacks of 100 BB or less. Learning how to manipulate these relatively small stack sizes is of vastly more importance than learning how to play your big pairs or suited connectors when you and your opponent have a mountain of chips.

3. Recognizing live tells. Physical tells are vastly overrated. Betting sequences tell a much more complete story. Although you may get the occasional physical clue that someone is strong/weak, they can easily be misinterpreted, and are rarely as regular as Mike Caro and the movies suggest (for one thing, it may have been more apparent in Jacks or better Draw Poker).

Probably going to be playing quite a bit this week, and I'll see if I can get any good stories. If I can make at least $2000-$2500 a month (achievable if my calculations are right), I'll be quite comfortable and beating my old job in earning power.