Bonus that cost me

I had a little bit of my Ironman bonus to clear and my wife was out with her friends last night.  So even though I was tired and my sessions usually last no more than 90 minutes, I played for twice that.  I know better.  Overall, I think I played OK, but there were definitely some spots that I fell victim to poor decision making.  The worst was stacking off with TT on an A2564 board because the guy was super aggressive.  I raise preflop, he calls on the button (he's 37/25/5.4 over a large sample).  He folds to c-bets 32% and raises them 19%, so when I make a c-bet and he minraises, I of course think he's FOS.  And he might be sometimes, but if he's going to stack off on a triple barrel, there have got to be better times for me to oblige him.  Just gross.  Lost two more stacks on coolers (top two < bottom set button vs. SB, AA < top pair turned trips in a reraised blind battle).  Did a good job taking all 3 of those hands in stride and not letting them make me play any worse, and got 2 of those stacks back over the session also, so it was not a total loss.  And I finished out the bonus for a sweet $21 or so :).

Got a full day of family stuff today, so won't be playing any more hands.  January was a good month in spite of how it ended last night.  I got myself in position for another 200NL shot, and following the advice I gave Brian, I used a lesson with Jared to do my first session of this shot.  That worked out pretty well, as I made a little over 3 BI in less than an hour of playing, so a decent profit even after I paid for the lesson, which is always nice :).  I've got somewhat mixed feelings about continuing at 200NL on my own because as much as I feel my game has gotten more solid, I know I also have significant room for improvement.  But as reg-infested as the 200NL games are compared to the 100NL games, there are also a lot of poor players who make worse mistakes than I do, so I'll probably continue.

I was talking with Jared about the rate of my improvement.  While I'm definitely better now than earlier, the rate of improvement has not been so great.  As far as coaching goes, he believes it would be much more effective to have lessons twice a month than once a month (obviously more lessons > less lessons, but also he thinks I regress because I don't have enough reinforcement and he just doesn't get to see enough).  Pretty sure he's not just looking to give more lessons...he's got a wait list now, and he's also raised his rates significantly, but is letting me continue at the old rate for a little bit.  So, I had a couple lessons in January, I'll have a couple in February, and then take it from there.  At his new rate, it will be pretty hard for my roll to swallow a couple lessons a month because I just don't get in the volume of play to make up for it.

So, if I decide that I just can't afford 2 lessons a month with the volume I play, I wonder if 1 lesson a month is worth it.  Interested in your guys' thoughts on this.