[ChuckDiesel]

OP,

I burned through about 3-4 $50 buy-ins over the course of a year playing MTT's and micro limit hold em (no idea what i was doing). I took about 6 months off from online poker and played only with friends in home games with maybe 2 casino trips (break-even). I repeat i had no clue what the hell i was doing.

This was way before I knew what 2+2 is or who Harrington Malmuth or Sklansky were. One of my friends was better than me by miles and he had Doyle Brunson's Super System on his bookshelf. He lent it to me. I read that. I found it way over my head, but it did turn on that little lightbulb that flashes "you suck" in neon inside your mind.

So after blowing off about another 4-5 buyins trying to play LAG like Doyle in his prime without any understanding of what the hell I was doing ( Hey agression wins, why are they still calling, you lied doyle!) I realized I needed further help.

I typed in "poker forum" in google and arrived here.

I don't post here much at all as you may see but i read tons and the first thing i noticed is everyone being pointed to the sklanksy malmuth harrington books so I went and got those.

Holy turnaround batman. Now I was winning more than I was losing (barely but it was big to me).

Over my first 1.5 years (counting online poker only) i had blown about 8-10 deposits of 50 bucks so ~$500 . Suddenly after reading 2+2 and going through the books I had my 10th $50 turn into $1200 playing only Sit n Go's and MTT's playing fairly ABC

I decided that learning more is a must not an option so I decided to take another break while I strictly learned. I cashed out my 1200 and paid off a large part of my ever growing credit card debt (music industry money and sucking at poker are a terrible combo unless you're platinum with every record).

Fast forward 2 weeks after my cashout and Visa kills my account.

I have $0 and no credit card. I thought....what a perfect time to just grind my ass off in free rolls and see what comes out. Free rolls might be absolute Donkfests but I learned how to fold more. I got up to 14 bucks playing free rolls. 20-40 cents at a time. My goal was never to go for the win 5 minutes in but to always try to cash then play a freeroll within the freeroll. My point being free roll is the ultimate microlimit yet i still learned from this experience.

2 weeks ago I decided my next conquest has to be cash games. Tourneys have higher variance and no matter how great you are you are liable to get busted by a donkey sometimes and that's just the way it is.

I cashed in for another 50 2 weeks ago and took on .02/.04 within 5 days I had doubled my money to 100 bucks. At around 110 bucks I thought i'd try NL25. That first day i was at 150 by bedtime. The next 3 days I flew back down to 44 bucks mostly playing overconfident and failing to recognize that people with 4 buyin stacks that seem to fold every hand are not to be f'd with with marginal hands.

That was around monday. I took 2 days off to go over my hand histories. I noticed one nasty leak was that I simply let emotion get me on hands like AQ that missed the flop. I also C-bet flops that were called by 3 or more people where on the flop I had to lead cuz I was oop. I didn't call enough rivers. I played fearless with AQ and scared with JJ etc...
Too much tournament mindset in a cash game was making me go busto. I also chased my losses not leaving NL25 when I went below 100.

Since wednesday I have played every day. I have not had a losing day since and I'm back to $92. These are all very small pathetic samples with very small pathetic amounts of money .However; my point being that every re-evaluation you make should either make you better or confirm that you're still playing well. If it doesn't you need to dig further and find those leaks.

I hope you don't quit playing poker. I also hope you don't think you can learn to be Auto-bot poker pro that knows what to do all the time and always wins cuz that doesn't exist.

I am a noob still, I make money but it's pathetic. In fact to confirm my noob status I paid for Poker Ace before I bought PokerTracker not knowing one needs the other. However one thing I can say for sure is every time I sat down and I asked "Why do I suck" I got better. Consequently every time I've grown a poker ego i got slammed back down to earth.

You say you experience your downswings when you begin to do well. that might be because your confidence grows beyond your means and you are ignoring that poker conscience inside you that says - don't play that hand that way-. I had this same problem.

My advice to you is the following

1. Don't give up , don't feel like you're going to get all this by next week either.

2. Don't move up in limits until you have way beyond a reasonable BR for the next limit . I'm talking 500 BB or more. I'm not moving up to NL10 until I have 350 bucks or more that's my new restriction.

3. Never let a bad beat tilt you. If you lose with AA and you were raising the [censored] out of the guy and he wins with 3-7 offsuit when he hits 2 pair on the river so be it. Next time you will have his whole entire stack. This can only make you happy when you see 7-3 shown down. You should be HAPPY to take awful beats. Taking awful beats means you were usually 1 card away from absolute perfection. Don't let missed flops that you raised c-bet and got re-raised on affect you , fold and move on. The monkeys at lower limits might make a play at you here and there but Ace high is not a winner usually.

4. don't place an emphasis on winning money from poker to have more money. Whenever i find myself in a game and thoughts of money start to creep in I feel like a bad decision is right around the corner. When you put X amount into your poker account you were essentially kissing that X amount goodbye. This does not mean go all in with 7-2 but you knew that. It just means don't concern yourself with how much you might lose, but how can you make the best read , the best bed or a good fold.

5. Understand the myriad of emotions you feel during the course of a poker game. They range from elated to depressed with everything in between including pure psychotic anger sometimes. Learn when each emotion will creep in, learn how to counter every single last one. You don't want to be angry and tilting just as much as you don't want to be Elated and so sure of yourself that you're rushing that you'd call anything. Even keel is the way to be.

6. Keep reading, keep posting, keep asking for support advice or hi-fives when you hit it big. Don't let your poker ego get bruised, don't let it come alive either.

7. If all else fails get into the lowest limit and play ABC This is by far the ugliest poker possible and doing it this way makes Donkeys sucking you out hurt even more but it IS profitable I promise you. Profits may be 8 cents an hour but they are profits none the less. You'll win 50 cents 11 times before you get stacked by a donkey for your 5 bucks and that is a 50 cent profit in the long run.

8. Don't play past your bedtime. Down 3 bucks on a 5 dollar table because some donk screwed you on the river? Starting to feel tired? Don't say i'll quit when i get back to 5.. you'll end up quitting at 1.25 at best that way. Just leave right then. Poker is about the long run not about the session.

9. Do not go into BBV and read brag posts and feel inadequate. I will bet my whole bankroll (my whopping 92 bucks that is making half this forum tremble at the thought of matching that bet) that every last winning player on 2+2 was a losing player at some point. You are going through the crappy reality of poker childhood. They say "it takes money to make money" well in poker it takes losing money to make money.

10. take it from Me. I have barely enough experience to even open my mouth about poker to anyone except my donkey friends. However I feel confident that you, like any other human, can learn this game and win money and have fun. If I think so and I'm barely profiting then why can't you? I'm not better than you in anything. We are the same.

hope this helps at least a bit. Keep your head up