Back to basics: Learn your starting hands

As I mentioned a few days ago, it's been a crappy month of online poker, down about $100 from my November high point. PokerTracker helped me realize that I was overplaying overcards, and I spent most of lunch Thursday re-reading Miller/Sklansky/Malmuth's "playing overcards" section in Small Stakes Hold 'Em. I also read some of my older posts, and realized that I've really loosened my starting hand requirements too much.

I used to have a cheat-sheet on my desk that I'd refer to as a reminder of what hands to call with, which to raise with, and which to re-raise with, from early, middle, late, and blind positions. I don't know what happened to it, and I'd forgotten I used to have it, until I created a new one (again, based on Small Stakes), and used it on Friday.

It felt good; I wasn't waiting on flops and crossing my fingers for a check-around any more. I ended up +$9.55, but more significantly, I played three simultaneous tables, and ended up ahead at all of them.

Has my flat/downward trend started to improve? Maybe. Time will tell.