[ashmc2]

I haven't read anyone else's responses yet so i don't know if someone has already given you this same advice. Quit poker and save up for the crack. Just joking. But in all honesty, if you don't get it all under wraps buddy, you could lose your job, possessions, or even your family just like if were crack. Gambling can become an addiction. I know, I have a two family members that let slot machines run up all their credit cards, spend the retirement, refinance a home that they had paid on for almost 30 years, plus made them go bankrupt.

First of all, I'd like to say that i started out much the same way as you, although on a much smaller scale, bankroll wise.

This was part of my first post.

I started playing about 2 1/2 years ago. I started in free $ at True poker for 6 months or so. And like most starting out, I played everything down to Jx suited and every 3 spaced suited connecter. Then, my first poker epiphany; there was something called strategy. lol. I read Hellmuth’s book and found Ultimate Bet and get this, a tighter No limit game. I started on UB in free $ and stayed there until I got sick of listening to the little run-mouths that get on at 3:30pm. You know to whom I refer to. The 13 year olds that just got home from school and are getting a good jumpstart at a chair at gambler’s anonymous. I talked the ol’ lady into $25 bucks. I made it about 4 months on the .01/.02 tables. I bought back on for another $25. I made it only a month. I took 6 months off. I dropped a fifty into my depleted account. Slowly I dwindled this bankroll down to $9 and decided I needed a new angle. I started a poker journal and started tracking what I lost on and what I won with. I made it back up to $30. I started reading everything I could get my greedy little hands on. ...

I'm not trying to say that i'm a winning poker player now, I still think it's too early to see this trend yet. But i think there are a few key things you could take from my first post.
1 - I took 6 months off (that's how much time I personally needed to prove to myself that I wasn't addicted and that I could stop if I so chose to do so,) to get my bearings. You probably should take a little off to prove to yourself as well as to your family, that this is just a pastime.
2 - I always stayed well within my bankroll and allowed experience to carry me up in stakes. I now have a $800 bankroll and i am still playing $25 NL to allow for poker's natural swings. Sorry, but your reasoning for playing $1/2 is addled. (Players playing all kinds of junk and staying with shit no matter the raise.) This is just your current excuse to play above your bankroll and skill level. The next reason will be to recoup your losses. "This way lies the darkside." Your not past the cut off for these sort of moronic players at $1/2.
3 - Read, Read, Read. Ask questions. Helluth's book only has one chapter about NL, and even that chapter is partily about pot limit. This forum is an excellent place to read and learn. You are growing anytime you can interact with your learn material and get other perspectives. I'm not trying to kiss these guys asses around here, but they are a well of info. They Bobby Fisher the hand histories, delving deep into not only the results of the hands but the concepts of how and why the hand played out the way they did.

These key points should be priority one. Learning the game through knowledge and experience. Don't think your a good player, let your game prove to you that you are, through a slow and steady progression up through the ranks.

PS. Don't chase when your down. It's never the right decision.