i thought i was good

so as many of you know, i am a 19 yr old college student who has been playing online poker for about a year.

last year at this time i was learning the game of NL at .10/.25c on party and empire. i understood the basics pretty quick and moved up the ranks to 100, 200 NL where I found some trouble at first.

i used to work w. a 20 buy in bank roll at those levels and it seemed like more than enough even though i was 4 tabling usually. the games were just really soft and not too aggressive where I was getting it in on the flop/preflop very often as a 60/40 or stuff like that which is seen all the time at HSNL.

so i learned about variance and how to not tilt. as i got to 400nl i started trying to play more and more tables. i went from 4 to 6 to 8 to 10. basically i would sit at all fullring games and play straightforward poker w. pt stats something like 20/12. it seemed to work really well and my bankroll grew quickly.

took a few shots at 1000nl with my tiny bankroll (about 20buyins) and after going back and forth between 400, 600, adn 1000nl i finally ran good enough to have a sufficienty bankroll to mutlitable the 1000nl fullring game. i basically played the same as at 400nl just a little more agressive preflop on the button. with quick sucess, i grew eager to step to the next level of 2000nl. i took some shots at fullring and it seemd a little tougher than 1k but lots of online poker buddies kept warning me to STAY OUT OF 6MAX especially vs the "dragons."

well, i watched them play a bit and realized how much more agressive than me they were and at first felt that they would be pushing me off every pot. id occasionally sit in between lolo, bld, and samo with 2,000 w/ my meager 25ish buyin bankroll and try to play straightforward and make hands so they could bluff into me.

needless to say, it didn't work too well so i started trying to use their 'moves' and i started to get a hang of this agressive HSNL.

fastforward about 250,000 hands later of me multitabling the heck out of 1k/2k 6max nl and runnin very good and i got rich quick.

basically what i am getting at is that the skill that made me all this money from the 'fish' or sub-par players just isn't working anymore in what is left of online HSNL. the games are noticably tougher and it seems that every time i sit down at a table i am 50-50 against all my opponents. we are all playing the same game, with the same strategies, and its just a matter of who gets more lucky. apparently i am not one of those people:




a large part of this downswing is from 25-50nl shorthanded/heads up games on pokerstars. i have reviewed basically every all in i played and, yes, of course, i didn't get it in as a favorite EVERY time but a lot of the hands are just high variance all ins (e.g. QQ vs AK aipf, pair+fd vs overpair ai on flop, etc.etc.etc.)

so i feel i have to take a break/move down for a WHILE before i dare go back to multitabling 25-50nl. i feel comfortable winning/losing 10, 15, 20k a day still as long as I see its going both ways. lately it is basically just me losing over and over and over and over and it's killing me psychologically.

i still have a large enough bankroll to multitable 1k/2k games but i feel i am really risking my bankroll/well being by continuing to play 5k (but havent paid my taxes yet so im not exactly sure what the net is going to be).

so i am asking you HSNL pros what kind of advice u can give me. i think the best thing for me to do right now would be

a) take 1/2 of my "bankroll" and put it somewhere safe(investment) or buy something (house)
b) STAY THE [censored] AWAY FROM 25-50 until I have a bigger bankroll/confidence
c) take some time off. even if its just a week. so stuff to keep my mind off poker.

anything else one can suggest?

[Ansky]

Grim,

1 thing I notice about you, is you have horrific game selection. Sitting 3 handed with bld and snake8484, or h@ll, or strassa, is not going to get you money. There is no shame in sitting out when you are the last 2 players at a table with strassa. He is better than you. He has an edge. If you want to play him for the challenge, recognize that, if you are playing for the money, then you are being retarded.

A huge part of high stakes is game selection. It is a skill in itself, one which you need to learn.

i used to practice great game selection at party w. the buddy list feature.

appartently stars does have it (or i havent found it yet)

[wizardplow]

Grim,

I had about a 40k downswing last week and it was pretty devastating. Lately, I have moved WAY down in stakes, and I only play when I feel like it, and quit when I don't feel like playing. Sometimes I'll only log like 5 hours in a week. I'm not making much money, but I'm happier. Also, I took a large portion of my BR out and hired an investor, and so far I'm up a little bit in the stock market. All in all, I think poker was just becoming far too stressful and time-consuming for me.

[aba20]

I think you put it in to easily and are unable to fold a hand.

[JMa]

if you feel like you dont have an edge, then you obv need to move down or change game/site.

also, i said this to you in the other thread; do not check your balance on the poker sites every minute/hour/day. it will take away most of the psychological downsides when running bad.

[john kane]

im not HSNL and im not a pro. but FWIW id suggest going on a holiday and be [censored] happy with how much you've won the past year.

if you want to carry on playing when you come back, then do so. just play whatever your happy playing.

[luckychewy]

[ QUOTE ]

basically what i am getting at is that the skill that made me all this money from the 'fish' or sub-par players just isn't working anymore in what is left of online HSNL. the games are noticably tougher and it seems that every time i sit down at a table i am 50-50 against all my opponents. we are all playing the same game, with the same strategies, and its just a matter of who gets more lucky. apparently i am not one of those people...

[/ QUOTE ]

if i were u i'd take a break. but this part stuck out as so rediculously false.

which part of it?

the fact that i see my opponents nowadays as 50-50 vs me?
the fact i consider my downswing a result of "bad luck"?

[luckychewy]

the 50-50 part. i think putting numbers on peoples edges vs. one another is near impossible, and it will almost never be 50-50.