I'm still losing but I'm optimistic

I have cut way back on the amount of poker that I am playing. This has allowed me to gain some perspective about how I am playing various hands and how small of an edge I have over the games. Winning 3 big bets per 100 hands (a very good win rate) is very small, so I need to stay patient when I have a small win and things like that.

My no limit games is somewhere between horrible and big fat whale. I lost $50 in 29 hands today. I lost all of it on two hands where I went all-in with JJ and 99 vs AA (both times). Stupid stupid stupid.

My plan is to stick to limit. I really want to see if I can beat the $1/$2 limit game at Party Poker and build my bankroll up to $1200 before I move up to $2/$4 again. I previously have aspired to a 200 big bets rule, but I am going to bump that up to 300 big bets. Most people recommend the latter, but I think 200 BB is fine for me because: (1) I am not trying to make my living playing poker, and (2) I have the discipline to drop down in stakes when I get on a bad run. Regardless, I want to use the 300 BB rule simply because I want to play poker relaxed and focused on making good decisions regardless of the outcome.

Tonight, I played just a little (6 tables) after birthing class. I lost a little at Party and FTP, but I had a nice win at UltimateBet. I deposited $800 a couple of days ago into UltimateBet to take advantage of the 25% reload bonus. I've already cleared my free $25 bonus, but I'm going to wait until I clear another $25 of bonus before cashing anything out (again, my policy is to not use bonuses for bankroll... all bonus earnings go straight to the wife!).

So, despite losing today... I feel really good. That's strange but hopefully it is a good sign of things to come.