My journey for 110k hands of losing poker...Thoughts? (LONG)

[DrSues02]

This is not a success story that you read so often on these boards.

It is rather one of frustration at hours upon hours of hard work and dedication that have not paid off.

Background

I’m 21 years old and am very smart. I’ve gotten straight A’s for my entire life. I got a full academic scholarship to college. I spend less time doing schoolwork than any college student I know. I was a two sport athlete in high school. Basically, everything has come pretty naturally to me.

Except for poker.

I started playing poker two years ago on Pokerroom. I deposited $200, played a few thousands hands of 2/4 (yea, nice bankroll), and managed to break even for months until I finally lost it. I then forgot about playing poker online for awhile. However, my dad has always been big into gambling so I read. And read. And read. I still have the collection of poker books, some 15 or 20, that I read during this time.

Last May, I heard about casino whoring and decided to give that a try. I had the discipline, willpower, and most importantly, the time, to work a $100 deposit up to five figures. It was easy money, and I loved it.

So I decided to give poker a try.

Poker:

I started off at .50/1 in June. Won at a decent clip and moved up to 1/2. 30k hands of full ring later, I was a small winner and feeling pretty good about my game. I already had a roll from casinos to be playing 5/10 but I wanted to take it slow and bonuses were making poker seem very attractive. However, as my winrate slowly decreased and the bad beats piled up, I posted my stats on 2+2. Everyone agreed that outside of a few problem areas (such as fold % at the river), I had stats that were within the normal range of people winning 1-2BB/100. This gave me encouragement and I clawed a bit out of the hole. I then decided to give 2/4 a try.

2/4 started out very rough. I was not used to playing for that amount of money and slid off the bat. However, after posting my stats once again, I got the feedback, improved a few parts of my game, and I slowly started climbing back to even. I then dropped 200bb in 2000 hands and decided I was growing very tired of limit poker after 56k hands. Here is the graph.





On to NL. Due to the very generous bonuses on the B2B network, I decided to give 6-max NL a try and I loved it. I had never played NL before so it took me 10k hands or so to get used to this totally different style. I then began a nice and slow upswing where I ran at almost 7ptbb/100 for almost 11k hands 4 tabling the 100NL and 200NL on the B2B network. I finally thought I had found a game I could beat, and there were numerous and very juicy bonuses on the B2B network. Here is the NL graph:



Then I began to lose. I finally broke after experiencing a monumental downswing in the last two days. I won’t bore you with bad beat stories, but here is the result:



Sickening.

And my total poker tracker stats. I only included the main games that I have played and I did win some decent money in the micro limits. So all in all, I have lost around $700 after playing close to 115k hands of poker.



Where to now?

So where do I go from here? Honestly, I have no idea. I read 2+2 everyday….EVERY forum and the majority of the posts. I have re-read every poker book I have numerous times.

I have the time, dedication, and willpower to put in the needed effort to beat this game. I haven’t given up and yet I still don’t know why I haven’t won.

So I will continue to grind out the 2/4 and 100 and 200NL games.

I have never failed at anything in my life.

This is too good of an opportunity to make a ton of money.

If anyone would want to offer coaching or advice, I would gladly appreciate it.

Thanks.

DrSues02

[Eder]

I think you should uninstall pokertracker for starters

[Arnfinn Madsen]

Sorry to be so harsh and direct, but you are not playing well. When you have ok-looking stats for 1/2 but show a net loss after 42k hands you too often make the wrong decision (even if your %s are ok). The low PFR% seems to me to be an indication of not understanding the dynamics of the game, as there are more good spots to raise preflop than you have identified. You may have read a lot of books, posts etc. without catching the essence. Since you feel lost, you need to either post a lot of hands (one by one in the appropriate forum) or hire a coach. If you are very destined to become good, I would recommend a coach (since he may realize what you have misunderstood). But, good coaching is relatively expensive (since all good players make a lot of money playing), so if you choose to do it, be prepared that it is an investment it will take quite some time to earn back (I would think you would need from $500 to $1k of coaching).

[FranchizeBoyz]

All you have to do is defend your blinds more, attempt to steal more blinds with LP raises (with marginal hands), go to showdown more, and in general raise more preflop. That may change things around for you...

[djhoneybear]

Here are my thoughts in no particular order...

1) you need to specialize. Either its NL or limit but playing both is tough as they require different skill sets.
2) why would you move up limits before you are a winning player? You should play 1/2 until you can establish that you can beat it over 20 K+ hands.
3) good players put in time away from the table.
I have started going through the hands I've played every session. I first consider whether folded, calling or raising was correct pre-flop and then analyze the play post-flop. Could I have played it differently and saved a bet? Could I have gained a bet? Did I have the odds to call his check-raise on the turn. This is where real learning occurs.
4) post hands you think are close or you are unclear on on this site
5) get a rakeback deal.

[4thstreetpete]

hmmm, it looks like you're playing a very weak tight game. There really is no reason that you shouldn't be winning at these limits for this many hands. Get a good rakeback deal to help cover for these extended slumps but it appears you're playing bad poker.

Try to learn 1 style well before jumping to other games.

[young Nut]

Wow, I really admire your presistence. Going through 2 400+bb swings is pretty brutal, I know I wouldn't be able to handle it. And yet you still have the drive to want to play and get better, I respect that completely.

I would suggest that you do something different than you usually do to improve your game. Reading books and posts on the forums is a great source of knowledge, but I think you might need something more personal. Try some coaching maybe or find a few people you can hop on AIM and discuss hands with. Most likely there is a problem in your game, and if you talk with experienced players or a coach for a while they should be able to point it out after a short while.

GL to you, and keep on grindin.

[pkrNinja]

???? why uninstall PT?

[DrSues02]

I would say for the first 30k hands of limit I was playing very weak tight poker and I understand that. The funny thing is, thats the only time I was actually winning.

Even so, I understand that isnt the correct way to play and over the last 28k hands of limit poker, I was playing at 19/10....still a bit weak but it has progressively gotten higher (meaning I lose more)

I can't really decide which one I like better. Playing NL and especially shorthanded is absolutely essential to getting the juicy bonuses on the B2B network and I have found I have liked that more.

However, after my recent skid, I have tried playing a bit of 2/4 limit and found the change refreshing. The fact is, I really don't know which one I like better and I truly don't care. I just want to make as much money as humanly possible.

Even as a slight loser, I have netted almost 6k in bonuses so it isnt entirely profitable. I can only dream what a slight winning percentage will do.

I assure you: I will beat this game no matter what it takes, NL or Limit. I'm 21 and am very very confident that I will be sucessful in work and life. But now things are personal I think.

Coaching is definitely an option. I don't know about paying sustantial money but if anyone would like to PM me, I would love to talk about taking steps in the right direction.

As for pokertracker, the first thing I was told to get Pokertracker to improve my game. Now people are telling me to get rid of it. LOL

DrSues02

[Perseus]

I just skimmed though this post, but I got enough out of what I read to give some general comments.

This whole "I've never failed at anything in my life" nonsense is a bunch of nonsense. Congrats on your life, I guess. I've failed at stuff. I've also done well at things.

I used to have a similar "I've never failed" mentality and i'll tell you this...it's not going to help.

Instead, take the "I don't like failing so how can I improve?" line of thought.

A lot of people on these forums are very smart, straight A students that cannot win. Others are B or less students who solid winners. Having straight A's in school means you are a hard worker but it's going to take more than book smarts to be a solid, long term winner.

For instance, you have 30 something posts. In the time it took you to write this up and upload graphs and whatnot, you could have made 15 strategy posts. See how you could have better spent your time?

As for stats, your VPIP is too high for someone who is not even breakeven. I played at 2/4 with a VPIP of 16 for 100k before I felt comfortable enough to add more, and I recently dropped down to that 16VPIP level because I wasn't playing the added extra hand correctly.

Next, your went to showdown rate is way too low because you're probably playing scared weak tight poker.

My suggest is to make 1000 strategy posts, play another 100k hands, and then see where you're at.