my 1st tilt test!

Well I had my first tilt/bankroll test last night since I re-deposited. For DON’s I used a 15-20 buy-in BR requirement to move from the $1.10 turbos to the $5.20 turbos and I am at $90 so last night I planned on playing the $5.20’s only. I know all the forums’s and books say 30-50 buy-ins for proper bankroll management but they are wrong..LOL At this level you are playing against weak opponents and there is a huge gap between the $1.10 and $5.20 if you look at 30-50 buy-ins. My theory is if you start taking shots at the $5.20 at around 15-20 buy-ins and lose it is very easy to drop back to $1.10 and still have the 30-50 buy-ins for the $1.10’s. As I move up in levels though I do plan on increasing my buy-in requirements along the established amounts. At the $10 and up the opposition will be better and the variance greater so I do plan on having at least 30 buy-ins before taking that leap. Well my previous good run in the $5.20’s ended last night. I ended up playing 5 and lost 3. I played well, but just was a tad unlucky with my timing of pushes. I went out in the 1st one in 6th.. I was getting pretty short and my A-Q all in ran into A-K.. no problem. I won my next two and thought I was back on track. Then my all-in K-K runs into A-Q when a Ace hits on the turn (preflop all-in) and I was out in 7th. In my final $5.20 I never got a hand and slowly dwindled. I made some shoves as the blinds increased and luckily picked up the blinds to stays alive. I am unsure what I did next was bad or not. 7 people are left and blinds are at 150-300 plus the ante. I am small blind and have 1000 chips and I am short stack at table. Big blind has 1,100 chips and is 2nd shortest stack. Rest of table is around 2,000 or higher. I get A-A and it’s folded around to me (crapola.no action!). I was pretty sure if I shoved or even min raised the BB was folding and I would only pick-up the blinds and antes. That would have given me a stack of 1,475 and I would have still been 2nd shortest stack by quite a bit. I thought if I slowplayed I might double up to 2175 chips so I just completed the blind hoping he would re-raise me thinking I was weak. He just checked and we get a 2-4-6 rainbow flop. I min raise 300 and he goes all-in and I insta-call. He has 5-6 for a pair and straight draw. A 6 on the river puts me out in 7th. LOL..well that’s what I get for being cute with my hand.. I need to post this on 2+2 and see if I really was an idiot or not for slow playing it in that position. Here is where I faced my test. I was pissed that I was outdrawn in both tourney losses in a row (not bad beat, but I was slightly favored in both) and was ready to GET MY MONEY BACK…LOL.. I could sign up for another $5.20 and if I won I would be back to almost even but if I lost I would be almost down to my minimum buy-in for $5.20’s. OR I could sign up for a $10.40 and if I won I would be ahead… hmm… what to do… Well I signed up for 4 $1.10’s instead! I thought this would give me a chance to chill a bit and have enough tables working to keep my mind occupied in the present and forget about the previous 2 tourneys. Well I placed in all 4 and then signed up for 4 more and placed in all of those too. I ended slightly up for the night and I was proud of myself for moving down when I was steaming a little instead of staying at the $5.20 level or worse moving up! It’s something I need to remember the next time I start to steam a little.

See ya at the tables Dave