Finally, on a roll

When I started this blog, I was in the throes of an atrocious $500 downswing playing online SNG tournaments. I was running bad, for sure, and it was infecting my play. Poker, to me, is all about confidence, and I had none of it. All the aggression had leaked out of my game.
To rebuild, I read Collin Moshman's Sit 'n Go Strategy. (To clarify, I have about 25 pages to go, but I've got the general gist at this point). The book turned out to be a manual of how I like to play when I'm playing well. Basically, the author prescribes playing tight early to limit your variance, and aggressive late to take advantage of risk-averse opponents. I've decided not to follow Moshman's blueprint to the letter - I prefer to play a little looser than he might approve in the early going, and a little tighter late.
Reading the book, at the very least, helped me to focus my mind, and with that came my long-lost confidence. After a one-week vacation, I put $200 on PokerStars, and promptly lost about $150 of it (I generally play $20 and $30 buy-in SNGs). But I felt I was playing well and making good decisions.
With my Stars mini-bankroll evaporating, I finally staged a breakthrough in a 27-player, $20 SNG. I grinded it out on a short stack to the final table, chipping up gradually to get some wiggle room.
The pivotal hand for me came on the money bubble, with six players left at 200-400 and my stack around 4600. I was in the big blind with KJo, the button limped into the pot and the small blind folded. I checked to see a flop of AJ3 rainbow, and bet 600 into a pot of 1000. The button raised to 1600, and I was poised to click "fold" when it occurred to me that if he had an ace, wouldn't he have raised preflop? So I min-reraised to 2600, and he snap-folded. I was pretty pleased with my play on that hand - it got me out of the danger zone, and I battled all the way back to win the whole thing, worth $200.
That victory got me going - I won a couple other SNGs at $20 and $30, and even took a shot at a $50. It had been a while since I played a $50 - I don't typically play at that level when I'm not playing well - but I won it. Booya!
Thus, the worst downswing of my modest career is over, and I'm $450 to the good - almost back to where I started.
Bankroll = $3,950. So I've got that going for me. Which is nice.