Falling Apart

[gonores]

First-time poster, got into poker approx. 6 mos. ago, played w/ play money, then read and re-read HEP and WLLHE, played around w/ Turbo daily for a month, and finally decided to start playing on pokerroom. I turned $50 into a little over $1000 playing 1-2 at a rate of about 4BB an hour, continued to play 1-2, and over the past week, I've lost about $300 at about 3BB an hour without any changes in my style or gameplan. I know that a bankroll is supposed 300xBB. so my guess is that what I am experiencing is cold cards and that I don't have that much to worry about, but I would like to know what you guys think. Is losing 150BB telling me I should go back to the "minors" and brush up on fundamentals without putting money on the line, or does the $1000 I made justify my ability and things will improve?

[Jason Pohl]

For what it's worth, $1/2 is the minor leagues. Going to play money is like equivalent to going back to the sandlot and playing around w/ the kids.

My advice...take a few days off. Come back, make mental notes of whether you are playing correctly on the flop. And don't take any money out of your bankroll for any reason. In all likelihood, you are probably hitting cold cards AND you're making mistakes. But that's to be expected as you continue to play and learn.

Good luck,

--Jason

[gonores]

Yeah, play money is a joke. I was thinking more along the lines of picking up a book or two, re-reading the ones I have, and running tests on Turbo.

[Fitz]

First of all, it is way too soon to know if you are a winning player or not. You've had an excellent run, but it is far to soon to be into the longterm yet. A 150 bb losing streak sucks, but they do happen.

I would suggest taking a little time away from the game; read and study HPFAP and WLLH. You are very early in your poker career, and study can never hurt. I would also suggest keeping records of your play. It really helps to be able to look at your records and see the ups and down especially when it is an overall up trend.

Keeping a separate bankroll is an excellent idea. If the money is just earmarked for poker, it takes away any potential pressure of playing with money you should be using for other things, and that is the biggest mistake of all. You are also learning a very important fact about a proper bankroll right now; it can save you from being out of the game. Protect your bankroll, relax and take a few days completely away from the game, study your reading materials for a few days after you have rested, and when you come back to play stay relaxed and do what you know is right. Tight aggressive play will get the money in the long run. In the short run, anything can and will happen.

I recently had a great run where I won over 5 bb an hour over 70 hours; I followed that up with an average loss of 4 bb an hour over the next 40 or so hours. That works out to an average of just over 2 bb an hour in a little over 100 hours. Remember, if we can win 1 to 2 bb an hour, we are doing very well in this game of ours.

Hang in there, relax, look to fix the holes in your game, but don't look for monsters under the bed.

Good luck,

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

ALWAYS re-read the books, especially HPFAP & TOP. The more you play, the more the books make sense.