While I have been getting absolutely pounding(in a not so pleasant location) lately at Doyle's Room on the 6 max ring games, I still can't believe that more bloggers don't play there.

Sure, there might not always be a low-limit PLO game running, and most of of their tournaments are horrendously structured, but I just can't stray from something that's provided with me with fairly consistent results over the past few months. I will not talk bad about my Shmoopy. The site, not Doyle. The only thing that would make me cut back on my play there is the lack of PokerTracker compatability, which I'll get into why I have such a problem with it, more than most people would.

I don't even have much money at the site. Like I said, ass pounding. In fact, on Sunday I didn't even have enough for a full buy-in for the .50/$1 NL game, not that I had much more than that in my account before I blew it all away on a super kickass wrap draw while watching the Vikings implode. Again.

But, one of the main reasons I stick around a site that's not as slick or pretty as PokerStars, or doesn't have as many players as Party Poker, is that I feel you're compensated better for your play than at those other sites. Action Points. Does anyone else hear the monster truck rally announcer?

This...SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY! At Doyle's room! ROOM! ROOM! Freeroll. FREEROLL! FREE...

Just me? Fine.

The big catch with Action Points is that you can use them for freerolls that are actually worth something. Not like at Stars, where I don't play as much, obviously, where most FPP's are used for a freeroll into a freeroll, Doyle's has freerolls with pretty decent cash prizes.

Each day there's at least a few $1000-$1500 freerolls with a "buy-in" of 4000 Action Point where the top prize is around $250. Not too shabby. When I first started playing at the site, they'd draw from 100-200 players, but I was surprised to enter a tourney last night with almost 400 people.

398 people, and another damn 2nd place MTT finish later, my bankroll is $170 heavier. And for what? A piddly 4000 Action Points? Hell, I have 60,000 of the damn things! Now to do that in the Monday, $5000 guaranteed tourney with a 25,000 action point entry fee, and win it, I'll have a real bankroll again.

There is something seriously flawed with my heads-up strategy I think. I've made numerous final tables at the site, and been down to the final two, uh, four times? And I've been whipped, scolded, and told to sit in the corner reserved for 2nd place finishers. Unfortunately, there is no "In the even that the winner can't fulfill their duties..." clause in poker.

So, there are many reasons for me to keep playing on a site that very few people like. The kickbacks are plentiful, the rings games were, at one point, very soft(might have changed recently), and the tournaments still prove to be marshmallow-esque. Come on, if I can final table in a PLO tournament, the fields aren't that tough.

But, there comes a point where I need to figure out how to get off this plateau I've been stuck on lately, and start the climb up to a higher level. And one of the major things that's holding me back, I feel, is my severe lack of bankroll management skills.

So, so bad with my bankroll. And that is why, unless I figure out how to get my shit under control, I'll never be a winning player. Ever. It's hard to keep trudging along in a money based game, when you have no idea where your money is coming from, where it's been, and definitely not where it's going.

I look back through the data I have in PokerTracker, and I can see that I'm "ahead"on Stars and Party, but I won't use the "winning player" title just yet. I can't look back through my Doyle's Room data, though. Why?

Because there isn't any. I haven't kept track. I was so caught in the fact that I was finally consistently winning without the aid of bonuses, that I didn't concern myself with the "why?", or the "how?", or even the "where is this money going?"

I figured, illogically, that it would sort itself out. Durrrrr, I'm a cretin.

I know, that's horrible. I'm poor at keeping track of things like that. Hell, I don't even keep track of my daily checking balance because I can view, and track anything I spend my money on, online. It's easy, automated, and I don't have to do much more than remember my username and password. Yes, I'm lazy. And terrible at keeping paper records.

Sure, I can look back at all my deposits and debits on Doyle's Room and guess that I'm ahead a decent amount. And I could pour through hand histories, but in the rudimentary form they're offered in on the site right now, it's tedious and time consuming; time that I always would rather be playing poker, than trying to locate and decipher key hands.

So, until I can figure out how to keep track of my ring games on Doyle's in an efficient manner(or the hand histories become compatible with PokerTracker--which is supposed to be soon), and learn better bankroll management skills, I'm going to steer clear of the site. It's only detrimental to me to keep playing there without a clue as to where I'm going astray. And going astray I have been.

If I continue down this path, I guarantee that I'll really go bust, sooner rather than later, and not just in regards to money.