Limit poker, and progress towards platinum star

I got clearance from my wife on Friday, April 18th to play the opening event of the WSOP. I decided to use my pokerstars FPPs to buyin. The problem: I was not platinum star and needed to become it. Bigger problem: I had 40 FPPs in my account last Friday, and I needed 10,000.

Since then, I have been playing quite a bit. Probably 2-3 hours a day, ranging from 3 (when kids are around) to 10 tables. I have played some NL and SNGs, but most of the time has been at 5/10 limit. Today I have about 6,000. It will be a busy weekend.

Limit poker used to be my bread and butter game. Then, after a downswing in late 2005, I never enjoyed it again. However, I was in the mood to "gamble" more, and sat down a limit table a few weeks ago and loved it. Further, many players were making big mistakes. I probably still have quite a few leaks, but I think my game is quite a bit better than the competition. I don't know if there is any better feeling in poker than value betting a very marginal hand and getting paid off. (E.g., you raise 88, bb calls, flop is K63. He checks, you bet, he calls. Turn is a J. He checks, you bet, he calls. River is a 9 - and you fire again when he checks and get paid off by AQ or 76.)

I am going to study hands by nside (http://www.nsidestrate.com/blog/) and others at ITH. I would love to move up to 10/20 or higher in the next month or so.

Tourney news

I finally bought PokerXfactor recently, and started watching some of the videos. There is nothing super-surprising in there for me yet, but I think watching the top pros go through their thought process is still really helpful for me. I have watched one JohnnyBax tourney and some Rizen cash games and have really enjoyed watching them and I think I am benefiting by seeing how they think about hands. The price isn't cheap, but $200 for 3 months is pretty small if I can gain any extra equity in my $1500 buyin WSOP tourney this summer.