So deflated, feel like cashing out BR...

[Daniel Magix]

I believe I am a TAG, or at least, that is my goal.
I have a small BR and I play primarily in .50/1 Limit games, short-handed.
My initial BR was only $200, but I built it up pretty quickly to $550 within a month and a half. I was feeling confident and proud.
Now, I also play some $5.50 (and lately $11) SNGs, usually with good success.

So for the last two night, I really feel that I have been playing fine, but I just CAN'T get anything going. I found a potentially HUGELY profitable table last night, where I saw guys raising OOP PF with K5os, and calling down to the river with bottom pairs...and winning!

A couple of guys like this, in a shorthanded Limit game, should be a dream situation, right? Make a hand, and get paid off, right?

I got absolutely nothing all night. Absolute trash, and when I did flop top two pair, runner suited cards on the turn and river would give my opponent a flush. I hold QT, flop TT8, bet into the PF raiser, and get called. a 2 hits the Turn, and we cap. A K on the river, we cap. He flips over pocket deuces. All FN night with this crap. Either the flop misses me COMPLETELY with no draw of pair, or I get second best hands.

So at this potentially profitable table, I can't make ONE hand and I am down about 70BB in a couple hours. Absolutely awful, IMO, for a normally TAG player.

Then I finish on the bubble in an $11 SNG, and lose two other $5.50 SNGs.

I know it's not the end of the world. I know my stakes are small and my BR is not destroyed. I decided to cash out $50, for no real reason othe than to not feel like I was giving all my money back.

Right now, I think I have about $420 left in my account, but part of me wants to just cash it all out, and be happy with more than doubling my deposit. It just feels awful when you feel you are patient, and don't donk off your chips with bad plays, but you still can't hit a damn hand and cash in off the loose idiots at your table.

Why do I feel so defeated and frustrated? I KNOW that bad nights will happen, and that in the long run, these jackasses pay me off, but I can't help but feeling like giving up on this game.

[idrinkcoors]

Time heals all wounds. Give it a day or hour or so, and you'll be itching to get back in. You know you're better than these guys and the long run will prove it. You just have to wait out the long run.

Or you could quit poker forever. I've done it many, many times.

[Gildwulf]

Swings are going to happen for the rest of your poker career. You either get used to them or don't and quit.

I wish I could say the swings get easier but they don't. While you get psychologically accustomed to swings the higher you go, you also lose a lot of your edge and the swings tend to be bigger and bigger -I think BK is on an 80k breakeven stretch right now. So it's basically your choice and whether you have the emotional fortitude to withstand these swings for the rest of your poker career while simultaneously playing well and not tilting. It's difficult; poker isn't easy.

[Blowup Doll]

[ QUOTE ]
Why do I feel so defeated and frustrated? I KNOW that bad nights will happen, and that in the long run, these jackasses pay me off

[/ QUOTE ]
That's the important part. Stop there.

What you're feeling is common and we've all felt it. It's really frustrating when you can't collect from the uberfish. But you have to shake it off and move on. One thing that i always do is look at my long-term winrate. You're still up $270.

Short-handed has a lot more variance than full-ring, so you better get used to the swings. 70BBs is nothing. You need to stiffen your resolve so that when the 300BBs downswings come, you can survive it emotionally.

[Daniel Magix]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Why do I feel so defeated and frustrated? I KNOW that bad nights will happen, and that in the long run, these jackasses pay me off

[/ QUOTE ]
That's the important part. Stop there.

What you're feeling is common and we've all felt it. It's really frustrating when you can't collect from the uberfish. But you have to shake it off and move on. One thing that i always do is look at my long-term winrate. You're still up $270.

Short-handed has a lot more variance than full-ring, so you better get used to the swings. 70BBs is nothing. You need to stiffen your resolve so that when the 300BBs downswings come, you can survive it emotionally.

[/ QUOTE ]

You're right, I do need to work on my ability to handle these swings. I feel that my knowledge of the game and playing ability are at a good level, but I am still new to having an actual bankroll and handling swings. I guess my emotions are going to be my toughest thing to handle. See the thing is though, I did not really tilt. I didn't stray from my normally winning style of play. With limit, micro in particular, there isn't a ton of room to get too cute and steal big pots. You basically have to make some legit hands at some point, in order to get the donks to pay you off and take in some big pots.

I'm just curious how short-handed has more variance than full-ring games? Not that I don't believe you, I just never really knew that, so I am wondering why it is.

[Gildwulf]

You see more hands to showdown and play more marginal hands, which increases your standard deviation and variance.

[ QUOTE ]
I wish I could say the swings get easier but they don't.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yea, definitely. That's part of my burnout is I'm just freaking tired of weathering the storms. I'd love to think as I get better I'd overcome my "inconsistency". The reality is poker is an inconsistent game no matter what your skill level.

Being a competitive person and a perfectionist, my success in most areas of my life are due to discipline and consistency. Poker really thwarts the need to see immediate results from disciplined effort.

[Daniel Magix]

[ QUOTE ]
Being a competitive person and a perfectionist, my success in most areas of my life are due to discipline and consistency. Poker really thwarts the need to see immediate results from disciplined effort.

[/ QUOTE ]

That sounds like me and my situation PRECISELY. Through all things in life, I have worked hard and have been rewarded. From saving for a home, to martial arts, to my career - I have always advanced and accomplished my goals, through working hard being competitive. It's taking some getting used to, to have my hard work (ie: patience, making correct plays, reading many books, thinking about the game and studying it) NOT rewarded for it. It makes you feel like an ASS for wasting hours of your life reading SSHE, when this other tool next to you has never read a poker book in his life, yet he is consistently pulling in pot after pot, with his rivered flushes and gutshots.

One comment said it all:
I call a raise with 77
Board is very non-threatening with only one over to my sevens, so I bet, and calls.
Turn is another 7 of hearts, making my set, betting is capped.
River is a a third heart, and Villian shows K6s (hearts) for the rivered flush.

So after the hand, he says:
“Fold next time, assh*le”

A few hands later, I make the ONE decent hand of the night, and he raises some of my bets and we show down and I win the hand. I say:
“Keep calling my bets next time, assh*le”

The point is, he made the big hand, then tried to tell me to fold. Why the F would you tell someone to “fold next time” when you hold a monster?? Just showed his cluelessness and made me that more frustrated in not being able to take his stack.

[swings100]

your problem is you've fallen in love with the moneymaker effect and you've yet to comprehend what a bad stretch of cards can mean. you are hooked on this 100 BB poker [censored] and whenever it goes wrong for a while you come and cry on this forum amidst the dwellers crying of how their parents hate them because they want to live a profession behind a monitor. advice? get a job if you haven't already gotten one, and get more of a bankroll to do whatever the [censored] you want. i haven't even read your runon of a post because it's all the same [censored] day after day, THIS IS WHAT WE DO, either you've got the stones to do it or you don't. end of story.

[Blowup Doll]

[ QUOTE ]
It's taking some getting used to, to have my hard work (ie: patience, making correct plays, reading many books, thinking about the game and studying it) NOT rewarded for it. It makes you feel like an ASS for wasting hours of your life reading SSHE, when this other tool next to you has never read a poker book in his life, yet he is consistently pulling in pot after pot, with his rivered flushes and gutshots.

[/ QUOTE ]
Quit thinking about the short-term. Quit thinking about how much money villain makes. All that matters is that you're making money in the long run. If you make $100k at a job, are you going to spend time worrying about Joe who is making $110k and doing less work? If so, then you're way off base on what's important. The fish will get their due in the long run. It's not our job to worry about their bankroll or luck or whatever.