Recently I decided to start playing poker again. Problem was, I cashed out my roll over a year ago and hadn't played since early 2014.
I always felt that if I was still good enough to beat the cash games, then I was good enough to start from zero. So I did.
I played 65 freeroll tournaments, most of them weekly round 1's and 2's on pokerstars and won $4.54 cents. Not exactly a proper bankroll for fixed limit micros. Reassured that I could supplement with freerolls, I began to prepare for the cash games.
First, I recreated all of my hand ranges from scratch. Given some assumptions, I was able to calculate optimal preflop hand ranges for many positions and scenarios, always accounting for expected pot sizes, position, blind structure, and rake among other things. This is not a task I take lightly.
Next I spent several hours in play money games so as to remember that (due to the higher rake) some hands will not be worth playing.
In late November 2015, I returned to the cash games. After 12,000 hands I now have a 500BB bankroll for .02/.04. We have lift off.