Finished PokerStars

I signed up for PokerStars through Internet Texas Hold'em, and selected "Harrington On Hold'em Volume 3", "No-Limit Hold'em: Theory and Practice", and the DB Dealer Button/Timer as my gifts. I've already got HoH volumes 1 and 2, which are great, so I was eager to get volume 3. The Sklansky no-limit book was kind of a toss-up, though. The reviews I've read have been mixed, and his books tend to be rather dry reading, but since there wasn't any other book I wanted, I figured this would be a decent reference text. The dealer button is kind of a cool gadget that I've been eyeing. Usually, I just use my cell phone alarm as a timer for my home games, which is kind of lame, so I'm sure I'll be able to put this gadget to good use.

The play at PokerStars was a bit tougher than I'm used to, after having encountered a lot of soft play at Mansion and Superior Poker. I started off with NL$100, but since the pot needed to be at least $20 to get any FPP, the points were accumulating too slowly, so I moved up to NL$200. Then came the roller coaster ride. I started out on the positive side, up about $100, then made a couple questionable calls where I didn't give my opponent credit for having a hand. With AJo I flopped top-pair-third-kicker, but lost to AKs 'cause I didn't believe my opponent had a better kicker, and with KK I held an overpair to the board with a gutshot straight draw, but lost to a guy who flopped a set, smooth-called my flop bet, and re-raised me all-in on the turn. This took me down to a loss of over $300. I then decided to tighten up my play, and focussed on playing just one table at a time, as opposed to two. I managed to get back above even, and finished the promo with a whopping $4 in profit at the tables. Since PokerStars didn't give me any kind of bonus money to clear, I'm gonna settle for that tiny profit, and just move on to another site and promo.

So I ended up with a profit of $4 at the tables, and cleared the promo for about $60 in books and poker accessories, for a net profit of $64.

Earnings-to-date: $8545