Small Potatos, but...

[RainierBob]

July thru October I had been doing nicely on Stars at $1/$2 Stud high, averaging about 4 BB/100. Then the bottom fell out in November. I've now dropped back to $.50/$1 and am slightly a loser there since late Nov.

Not sure what's happened. I may have been playing somewhat carelessly but not to the extent of my losses. Maybe the games have gotten tougher. That seems likely to me. I notice that I'm now seeing many of the same ppl I was playing at $1/$2 at the $.50/$1 tables. Of course, there was always some overlap, but still seems to be some trend there. Or maybe my luck's gotten worse.

Any thghts for me?

[PoorLawyer]

how big a BB swing? Big swings happen...can't win em all as they say.

[big e]

The best thing to do is analyze your hands using something like poker tracker, an estimate would be min 2 hour analysis for 1 hour play in the beginning.

Each Day.
Step 1. Look at you winning sessions and try and see if it was good play or just good cards and bad op's.

Step 2. Look at your losing sessions and try and identify one or two things that you are doing wrong and try and fix them. Write each one on a post-it and stick it to your computer screen.

Step 3. Try and identify one scenario that you see regularly and develop a game plan for it and monitor the results.

Step 4. Make a note of your mood and time of day.

Step 5. Try and identify good players to look out for (the ones winning the most money from the table) and avoid them.

Step 6. Try and identify bad players and try and find them to play against.

As Stud/Razz doesn't have as many players as Holdem ect this is still possible.

Step 7. Read a chapter in a poker book, listen to a podcast or post a hand for review.

Repeat Steps 1-7.

I just need to do this myself [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

As most players talk in the 10-100,000 of hands short term BB is too unpredictable and only analyzing your own play will tell you the answer.

[Bartholow]

My advice is to move UP so you can beat the rake more easily. The players aren't that much better in my experience though slightly more predictable.

[Wahoo73]

[ QUOTE ]
My advice is to move UP so you can beat the rake more easily. The players aren't that much better in my experience though slightly more predictable.

[/ QUOTE ]

Good advice! In my experience, this is particularly applicable at PS. Although I don't play much there now, I played stud at PS almost exclusively for about two years, and was never much better than a break-even player there. A lot of my play was at the $.50/1 and $1/2 level. However, the one game I consistently was able to win at was the $3/6 game, which has the best ante-to-BI-to-SB/BB ratio, i.e., tightest structure, of any stud game on the internet. When I do play stud cash games at PS now, this is about the only one that I will play.

[TheSalche]

There's some skill difference between 1/2 and .5/1 and I've found it easier to play 1/2 since you don't have 5 players seeing 5th street every hand. Obviously you can adjust your play, but you have to be very patient and stud is a pretty slow game already. In the 1/2 game you can usually spot who the regulars are after a while and try to stay out of their way when they're raising/betting a lot.

1/2 gets you the FPPs too ... so you can get like a shirt or something.

[SA125]

You're probably experiencing some of what happened to me today. I dropped $1500 playing live $20-40. 40 BB's.

It's not the money. It sucks for sure but I've lost that much or more plenty of times. It's the sinking feeling that the world is against you and it'll never change. That no one's luck is as bad as yours because of the nature of the losses. No balance. I was always caught and never did the catching.

I had A's twice, once split and once buried. Both times I was against roll up's - 9's and T's. What are the odds of that? I caught 2P on 5th in both hands to get sucked in and didn't improve.

I had two fl's. One was obvious when I coldcalled a 4th suit on 4th and hit a 5th on 5th, so collected a small pot. The other I caught on 5th and got in a nice c/r on the other two ppl's. I was rivered and raised by a boat.

I opened J's and folded to a re-pop by K's. I had Q's and folded on 5th to K's.

One hand I had (QT) A and was against a T and a K. They BOTH caught KJ on 4th and 5th and I caught 86. What are the odds of that?

Twice I folded 4th or 5th and would have caught trips had I called, which would have been a mistake at the time.

All in all, I had the kind of day that makes you forget what it's like to win at poker. And wonder if you'll ever win again.

There now. Hope my little venting weeping session made you feel better, or at least not alone.

I left the table not wanting to see a deck for a long time. Three hours later I'm sitting here talking poker and looking forward to tomorrow.