It starts at the peak: I had just turned the $200 left in my account into $5k in like 2 weeks, and I thought the $110's and $220s were like printing money.  I was datamining/game selecting my ass off, playing the worst of the worst as high as I could find them sitting.  It turns out playing $230s with 25 buyins is a pretty bad idea.  I found this guy who had a -35% ROI with a $100 avg BI, playing like 95/2/inf... merry christmas, right?  I could have sworn he was trying to lose to me, but 8 games and $2k later, it was proven that he, in fact, could not.  I should have stopped playing after 2 games... 3 games... 4... but I knew I was fine emotionally with a huge edge, so I left the door open for variance to make my life a living hell. 

With a $2k roll, I kept playing the $110's against fish, once again exposing myself to way too much risk, and once again suffering the consequences.  Throw in some FTOPS events, and I found myself with $600, my bankroll eighthed (is eighthed a word?).  I'm not going to lie, by the end of it I was tilting hard.  Every shove had to be air, every river bet a missed draw. 

So what can be learned from this magical dissappearance of $4k?  Most obv: there's nothing wrong with taking shots, but the rematch button needs to be watched.  Before taking shots above my standard limits, I'm deciding in advance how many rematches I'm risking pending a loss.  In Skilled_sox's interview, he touches on this point: the fish will always be at the low stakes, so it's best to wait and play them when you're fully rolled.  I know I have a huge edge now, but later I'll be more prepared to play them more consistently. 

I feel like I've written a novel already, so I'm going to end this.  It really helps me just to get these ideas written, so I apologize if this thread is useless to the masses.