[Harv72b]

Hey, sorry I'm late here. I hope that you're still checking in and reading the responses in your thread. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

I skimmed through the earlier responses and you got a lot of great advice, as well as the chance to see that your story is hardly a unique one. Rather than go over the same things again, I wanted to bring up a few new points.

First of all, according the best estimates of pretty much everyone in the (online) poker world, and backed up at least partially by some information from poker sites, at least 90% of online players are overall losers. Now that includes everyone from the guy who lost $5 once & never came back to the problem gamblers who go through tens or even hundreds of thousands per year, but it's a very telling statistic that I think a lot of people don't realize when they come to 2+2. These forums are populated in very large part by the tiny minority of the online poker world--the consistent winning players. The regular posters are even more overwhelmingly members of that 10%, and this can make it seem to a new member like everyone else is winning at the game. That's simply not true. Don't get discouraged if you aren't living up to what seems to be the norm around here, and keep in mind that even if you are truly a marginal loser, that's still better than the majority of overall poker players. Especially among ones who have 15k hands under their belts.

Another thing I wanted to bring up is that you should get actively involved in the forums. Not just by posting the odd thread asking a question, or by posting this one, and certainly not just by reading other threads. Get involved in the discussions. I've read dozens of poker books, watched countless poker strategy programs on tv, and played somewhere around 500k online hands in the past 3 years, but by far I have learned more about poker by being wrong on here than I have from any other source, experience at the tables included. If you ask honest questions and listen with an open mind when others try to answer them, nobody is ever going to flame or laugh at you for asking them (okay, maybe that's not entirely true, but they shouldn't be & you'll quickly see veteran posters trying to be more helpful). Explore around the site & take a look at all the forums, and especially the ones pertaining to the games you play.

I saw one other poster recommend focusing entirely on one discipline of poker. I understand why he says that, and it's not bad advice, but I also don't necessarily think it's the best advice. Yes, you will probably work yourself up to being a consistent winner more quickly in that game by sticking to one game (assuming that you have a winning strategy to being with, but the advice you've gotten so far in this thread should help you in that regard), but in the long term I think that approach will stunt your growth as a poker player. I'm not saying to play a different game every single night, but don't be afraid to experiment here and there. Not only will the variety keep your interest going, but each game that you play will help to develop different skill sets, all of which will eventually become important if your goal is one day to be a good poker player. I know that when I first started out, I chose limit hold'em as my focus but also played no limit SnGs and MTTs from time to time, and I have no doubt whatsoever that this helped me to become a fairly successful online player since. It also definitely stoked my passion for the game, and still does.

Honestly, in reading your initial post in this thread, I have absolutely no doubt that you will succeed in becoming a solid, winning player. You have the right goals for the right reasons, and you seem to be extremely open-minded about improving. Most of all, you are being very honest in critiquing yourself, and not hiding behind things like bad luck or other player's ineptitude in explaining your losses. You absolutely have the right attitude to succeed, and you've definitely come to the right place for help.

Good luck at the tables. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]