Back on track

After being variance's redheaded step child for a a couple of weeks, I again had a very good weekend. Trying to remain analytical about everything, here are the reasons I believe I have started winning again:

1. I dropped down to one table play. Smaller payouts, but fewer people to beat as well, and since I like the style from a book that was specifically designed for single table tournaments, it makes a frightening amount of sense that actually playing that style at a single table might show results.

2. Taking breaks. I have to force myself to do it (I can be a touch obsessive), but I think it has been helping to have cooling off and re-energizing periods. My play can get a touch sloppy when I've taken a bad beat at times, but with breaks those loses don't "accumulate" past a certain level.

Whatever the reason, I cashed in just over half of the tournaments I played this weekend (20/39), and most of those cashes were 1st and 2nd places (only two 3rds and a min-cash in my weekly donkament). I also had a couple of bubble busts that statistically "should" have gone my way (KK vs. JJ & AA vs. 33), but I think these were mediated by the standard "bad beats" I dealt out myself (sucking out against a low pair with AK, one massive triple up when I made a questionable decision to chase the NFD and got paid off by both villains on the river when I hit).

April is almost over, and my dreams of grinding up quickly have been squashed (as they should), so I thought I'd set more realistic goals for May:

1. Post a gain of $400 for the month. This may be either wildly high or low; I've made as much as $250 in a single weekend, but my results have been pretty variant lately and I'm not sure how much ROI to expect long term yet; I'll also be playing more starting the middle of May - potentially a couple of hours daily - so maybe I'll consider using May/June as baseline months to see how much I could reasonable expect to generate at my current skill level.
2. Read strategy book on head's-up play (to change some of those 2nd place finishes to 1st)
3. Incorporate a workout schedule along with a poker schedule to stick to now that internship is finishing and I'll have a ton more free time.

I was pretty encouraged by this past weekend's results, but I'm going to do my best to keep look looking at things analytically, finding the holes in my game, and steadily improving.

Best of luck to one and all, and I'll see you at the tables.
SGT RJ