New to online NL Hold 'Em...and getting frustrated.

[flavaham]

Okay, I started at UB with $25. I won a $5+.50 SNG and got up to $45. I started playing the $.05/.10 NL tables and got up to $140 in about a week. (playing about 1-2 hours at a time). Over the last two days I have dropped $70. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. I am taking notes (but would like to know what kind of notes you all are taking). I am playing pot odds and not calling or raising with crap. I'm really trying to play tight aggressive poker. I'm really frustrated by the huge swing in the last few days. Was my first winning week a fluke? I know I'm a decent player, but this doesn't make sense right now.
I guess I don't have anything specific but I think my confidence has just been kicked in the junk and I need to know if I'm the one doing this or if I'm just on a bad run of cards.
Also, how are you all tracking how many hands you are playing, win-rate, SD, etc...
Thanks
-g /images/graemlins/smirk.gif

[mike3076]

ITS REALLY HARD TO TELL IF OR WHAT YOURE DOING WRONG OR RIGHT ,IF YOU DO NOT LET US KNOW WHAT PRE-FLOP GUIDLINES YOU ARE FOLLOWING. poker does have fluctuations and that is normal.also-how much is in your bankroll? should be about 300bb for limit and 2 or 3x that for no limit.give a little more detail and im sure some one could help you.
p.s. you can track using stats notes etc.paradise poker has a nice built in stat tracker.

[DavidC]

Man, I'm totally frustrated too!

Last time I got AA preflop at the .5/1 table, I tried to go all-in, and they only let me raise $0.50.

What the crap is that?

/images/graemlins/smile.gif

(Just so you know, you're in the wrong forum, you need to look for the pot-limit / no limit forum, likely small-stakes.)

Take care,
Dave.

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Edit from this point forward.

I had a bit of a similar experience when I started with poker online (and I also started NL).

I deposited $20 at paradise, played the NL $2 tables until I got to $25, played NL $10 until I got to $45, and then played NL $25 until I got to 160.

A month later I was back down to maybe $4 in my account.

Now THAT's a kick in the junk! /images/graemlins/smile.gif

You're going to find that it's much easier to find bad opponents at limit than no limit.

I haven't found any literature out there on what hands to play pre-flop.

Check out Ciaffone's book on pot/no limit poker for information on how to use stack size and pot size, as well as relative position, to your advantage.

Avoid hands like KJ/AJ/KQ that are dominated, unless you have a reason to play them (Position, reads, etc.).

Don't put your whole stack in with just a pair.

--Dave.

Second Edit: ...and post hands! (but make sure it's to the proper forum)

[bear187]

I disagree about the bad players thing, DavidC. Any big newbie who watched Tilt or the WSOP is going to want to play NL, not limit :P

[DavidC]

going to want to, but going to run out of money faster.