quick poll

[shadow.]

this summer has been pretty disastrous in terms of poker for me.

you guys really have no idea how much variance there is in sh lhe. two 400 bb downswings, damn near daily 50 bb swings, and 100k breakeven stretches all characterize my poker playing from end of may till now (mainly 5/10 and 10/20 short). i'm leaving out bj, roulette, and drunkern playing fwiw.

anyway, i took a week off in june and in july, to no avail.

i'm cashing out all my money from party, save a br with which to build back up. where should i go? .5/1 short? 1/2 short? 2/4 short? 3/6 short? 5/10 short? 10/20 short? i still have 1000 bb+ brs for all of the games above, but things just aren't going well.

i'll end this now before it becomes too emo.

lata!!!!!!!!!!11

[Wetdog]

I grew tired of the micro LHE and went to micro $5 NL 2, 3 & 5 table SNGs and the occasional 20 table $4/180s. I'm doing much better there.

I think you need a change of pace. Use what you learned here and expand your game, grasshopper. Great ROI awaits you.

[Smurph64]

Not that my advice means a helluva lot but from a micro limit point of view where bankroll management is extremely important for me, I would do a complete reset.

After nearly losing my entire bankroll in two brutal 5/10 sessions, I took a month off entirely from poker. When I came back I started at the bottom all over again.

I did one helluva lot of reading during that restart and analyzed almost every single hand, making sure I was comfortable with my play.

I just doubled up playing .50/1 and plan on staying here until my confidence is back to its normal egocentric self.

Playing shorthanded, NL and the higher limit for single sessions all proved disastrous and it was obvious my confidence plays a major part in my success.

So I guess what I am saying is play at the lowest level you are comfortable at where you play your best game and can kill it.

[NIX]

If the variance from shorthanded LHE is getting to you now, I'd probably take a break from it as well. If you want to stick with cash games with less variance, why not give NL ring games a shot? Maybe FR or SH NL100?

[car ramrod]

I had a similar experience a few months ago so I switched to full ring. I felt like it was easier to handle and I didn't feel compelled to play a lot of hands b/c I had longer to wait for my blinds.

For me going back to .5/1 or 1/2 does not sound like much fun. If I were you I would play some 2/4 full, that game is super soft. The 3/6 full does not have a great table selection, lots of tight nits. But it might be a good switch to get away from the crazy aggressive games you have been used to.

Poker can really suck sometimes, good luck to ya.

[KingOtter]

I'm getting slapped with the variance monster myself in short-handed. My ill-advised shot up at 1/2 has endangered my bankroll. I've backed off to .5/1, but still getting rivered continuously. I'm fine with'em calling, just wish they wouldn't river me so damn much.

I'm considering returning to full-ring, or maybe looking at some nano NL, I dunno.

[loyalguard]

I'll chime in with the nano/ss NL recommnedations. I found when I was getting bored (aka losing) at 6-max, adventures into nano NL were a lot of fun.

Instead of dropping down limits (which everytime I won all I would think of how I could've won that at at higher limit) I found the adventures in NL to be a good way to restart my brain. To use logic paths that were different then LHE. It was also good paractice for home games since most of my friends will only play NL now.

[V4P]

Going any lower than 5/10 is absurd. Your playing style is really, really aggressive(I'm not talking Aaron W. aggro, but pretty [censored] close). With aggression comes variance, so I'd suggest toning down the aggression for a few K hands until youre back in your "groove".

[bottomset]

NL200 6max

[Hielko]

Drop one level, and/or perhaps play FR for lower variance.