It did not go well!
Very quickly I was down the best part of four buy-ins and decided to tuck my tail between my legs and move back down. The loss however is not important, I think it is critical to look at what I did that made the loss happen. It would be easy for me to write things off as a few bad beats and a horrid run of cards, but the more I think about it, the less this seems to be the case.
At first I thought I might have been playing scared, and I was. But that is not to be mistaken for playing weak. It turns out it is the weakness that I am afraid of, my masculinity would not allow me to be run all over, for some strange reason I didn’t want to lose face in front of these complete strangers. This led me to make far too many calls that I know I would have folded at a lower level.
It was an expensive lesson, but as long as I take the time to absorb this knowledge it will be worth every penny when I next move up. It’s going to take me few weeks to get my bankroll back in shape, but the one thing I did learn is that it is not a different world when you move up a level. It’s the same game and it is peopled by the same regs, fish and donks that you see at your current tables. I’m confident my fundamentals are sound and as long as I can stick to my own game I know there is nothing to fear.