MAY 2006 ANALYSIS

This was my best month yet this year so far as consistency goes. I only managed one tournament victory, but I was playing well from day one and giving myself a good chance of winning with plenty of cashes along the way. I really took a step forward by actually showing a profit in the cash games as well as in tournament play.

TOURNAMENTS = $1650.50

My MTT 'in the money' percentage was a solid 23%, showing a profit in 15 of 65 events. Four other times I landed on the bubble, making the top 20 percentile without actually cashing. I was knocked out in the bottom half of entrants only 29 times, a bit less than the 50% rate that I deem acceptable.

About half the times in tournaments, it begins, nothing good happens, then it ends - there's no escaping it. Of the other 50% of the time, if I can parlay my entry into a cash, then I should be profitable overall, especially if there are some final tables and an occasional victory sprinkled in.

This month went pretty much by the book - I made it deep into half a dozen events, made four final tables and managed one victory, a $3200 payout. If there is disappointment in profit it is from not making more of it despite the favorable cash rate. My major leak to work on is to force myself to change gears once the bubble bursts. I am playing too loose at that stage when other short stacks are feeling desperate. I need to make sure I have solid value when my chips go in. Too many times I initiated my own demise by trying to bully out players who were looking to gamble.

I played only four STT, cashing in only one and losing $84 overall. I played eight heads-up tourneys and won half of them, but lost money overall. You only make money heads-up if you can win more than half the time.

CASH GAMES = $2171.50

I tried to get May started with a profitable session, so I started off in a $2/4 NL cash game, but I took a hefty loss. I followed that showing up with another loss, which lead me to abandon the ring games for a couple of weeks. Then I had a huge night playing $3/5 NL at the Commerce Casino and there was no stopping me from there. I played a handful of NL sessions towards the end of the month and only got loser once. I lost some money playing limit HE, but made over $200 on bonuses for the month. I never did play any Razz, Stud or Omaha. For once I can say that all my tournament play for the month was subsidized by my cash winnings.

MAY 2006 = $4032
TOTAL 2006 = $10,958.50