I don't know what it is, but since moving back up to 50NL I'm on freaking fire. My last few months at 25NL were hell, including my first ever losing month, and winrates like 3PTBB/100. I've never seen numbers like that. Two years of playing, topping out in 100NL and I never saw anything less than 6PTBB/100. You can probably deduce I usually single-table a few hours a day at most- well I guess I finally got bored and started playing any two cards. People warned me it would happen single tabling, but I always felt there was more long-term value in really learning how to read players and hands and patterns. Well, I did learn to do that pretty well, but then I used it for Evil. My VPIP climbed, and climbed and climbed, and I bluffed like a sick degenerate. For a while it worked- 40%VPIP can be a lot of fun- but I kept going. Then for a while you feel like the Ancient Mariner...
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Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion ;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.
Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink ;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.
The very deep did rot : O Christ !
That ever this should be !
Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs
Upon the slimy sea.
</pre><hr />
And after that, let me tell you, there's a place out there with sea serpents and mermaids and sailing ships and cabbages and kings, and then you go right off the edge of the world into free-fall, and you're like, "[censored] Gallileo".
But when I finally somehow managed to hit my prearranged conservative move-up point it was suddenly blue skies, clear sailing. I'm playing a sane 33/20/3 game again, really good poker, not even getting particularly lucky. No big stackage, just one small pot after another, like a good LAG. I hope it holds, full steam ahead and damn the albatross.