What a difference a few days make. After a weekend away and a few days of not playing any poker I was ready for another 'kick at the can'.

I only managed about 40 mins on Monday but did pick-up $7 ... a small victory but nothing to write home about. Then, the big day, Tuesday I managed to play for a few hours and well let's just say ... wow. As with any good day, my good hands held up and I managed to hit a few draws and was up $57.

Now, to put this in perspective, I was down approx 180 BB (or $90) during my downswing and in the last few days have managed an upswing of 128 BB (or $64). Not all the way back just yet but I certainly feel as though I may have turned the corner.

As for what is next, well I have 601 of my required 695 raked hands for my bonus at Poker Rewards and I think it may take about 3 more hours of play to get there. However, as mentioned in my previous post, Party is currently offering a reload bonus of 15% up to $75 which is pretty attractive as it will be an easy bonus to clear.

So, I think the plan is to withdraw as much as I can tonight from PR and move it to Party tomorrow and take advantage of the bonus there. The Party bonus is a progressive bonus and I think I may be able to get through the first two stages of the bonus and make about $50 in bonus money. After the weekend it will be out of Party and back to PR to finish up that bonus.

I know, I know, sounds like bonus whoring ... but as I said, I may do a bit of this in the short term to build up the BR.

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Speaking of BR, it now stands at $189. This puts me back on the positive side of the house (thanks to the last couple of days!!!). Once I'm through this weekend and hopefully cashed in both the Party and PR bonus I'll provide a more details BR update.

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And again on the topic of BR, now that I've turned the corner and am back on track (I hope!!), it is worth noting and re-enforcing one of my earlier posts about BR. The slide that I just went on only confirms the need to ensure a proper BR when playing poker. Even with on a 300 BB BR I still managed to go on a slide that took more than half of my BR. If I only had a BR of 200 BB I would have been left with only $10 ... hardly enough money to play at any level - even the smallest games (0.05 /0.10). If I wasn't convinced before I sure am now, before I move to the next level of play (and for me that would be 0.50/1.00) I will need to have at least $300.

If you are interested in more detailed and geeky discussions about BR and the swings including some funky talk about standard deviation - you need to visit the geek’s blog. Here is the link – thepokergeek.blogspot.com

Till next time, AA up