getting broke

[sweeneyagonistes]

Anyone who has any tips on how to cope with this incredibly depressing event should respond at their earliest possible convenience. I built 50 (actually 0 real dollers) into 700 on party poker since april by playing smart. The other night i decided to play 6 max 10/20 with my entire bank roll, and got drawn out on and, to be fair, outplayed at times, for the whole thing. I know it doesnt really matter because it was all profit, but it still makes me question if i should continue playing poker, especially online. People say everyone gets broke at some point, but that doesnt make it any easier. Any advice on getting started again, especially conquering the psychological stumbling block?

[juanez]

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I built 50 (actually 0 real dollers) into 700 on party poker since april

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How did you do this? What limits, how many hands, etc.?

[sweeneyagonistes]

started by winning a $10 tourny on a friends account and he transfered the winnings. Then i had one big night at a 25 nl table which brought me to about 300. after that i think i mostly played tournaments, 10 and 20, and played some 50 nl and 2/4 and very lately 3/6. i suck at limit though, until recently it just took one sweetheart getting cracked and i would blow a whole stack. I didnt count hands and i dont have poker tracker. but i also havent been playing that long. i had 0 in early april, had 700 three nights ago, have 2 now. I started playing poker in general in september. (No i didnt get lucky). Clearly i tried to move up too quickly, but after losing it all, i feel like it was a fluke i had it in the first place.

[tempest7178]

About two years ago I had a similar experience. My poker "bankroll" was approximately $250 earned from beating $5 buy in NL Holdem cash games with friends. I decided to try online poker and invested $100 into poker room. After about a week I was broke, a result of playing limits way too high for my meager bankroll. At first I was terribly depressed about losing the money I had worked so hard to get (poor college student). The next thought that entered my mind was how to get it all back. I put everything I had left in and haven't looked back since.
I was able to stay break even for a long time but it wasn't until putting serious thought and study (this forum, all the books, all the other websites, cardplayer, pokerpages) that I was able to choose a game to beat and then beat it. "Going Broke" was, in hindsight, a great experience for me to get my act together and become more serious about the game.
I don't know if you've read posts in the heads up and shorthanded forum, but to enter a 10/20 6 max game with 35 BB's is suicide. Just like entering the 1/2 games and 2/4 games with a 50 BB or 25 BB bankroll in my time was suicide. Unless its money you don't mind losing (that kind of money exists?) then its a terrible idea and something you can chalk up to as a learning experience. How you react to going broke is something I think is very player dependant. Whether it strengthens your resolve to continue or makes you decide to quit the game, either choice is respectable IMO.

[twolf]

I to made my money through a tournament, I won a 20 dollar tourney at Pacific the 2nd day they had tourneys ($240). I promptly started playing there 3/6 games with much success building my bankroll enough to quit my day job and immediately realized how stupid it was, within a month I went from playing on a 1100 dollar bankroll down to 90 dollars but I got lucky and played one of there 100 dollar tourneys and took 1st for 1800 and then the next week won one of there huge tournements for 4300 dollars and vowed to never play less than 300BB's again at a limit. So yes you should play but do not play above your bankroll limitations. Also you may have heard everybody goes broke every once in a while (probably taking the quote from rounders rather than hearing anybody's experiences), they don't go broke if they're a compitent player and have a sufficient b/r. Good luck in your decision.

[asdf1234]

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I know it doesnt really matter because it was all profit

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That's a poor way to view this.

You played well above your bankroll and probably above your skill as well. There is a reason that bankrolls are suggested to be hundreds of bets.

[47outs]

If you would have stayed on 2/4 or 3/6 then you would have lost only $140 or $210 respectively. I know how frustrating it is to have worked so hard only to have made 1 mistake and blow it. The thing is that you can pick yourself up after this painful learning experience and start over. Take some time off until your huff about losing $700 is over.

goodluck,

outs

[jdl22]

The biggest problem I see is that your pattern seems to be consistently playing stakes way to high for your bankroll. You got 50 bucks for free. Next move is to play NL25 with 2 buy ins. That's way too short. After that you seem ok bankroll wise with the tourneys (can't say for sure though without more details). NL50 on 6 buy ins is pretty short as well if that's what you were doing. 2/4 and 3/6 are extremely swingy because the play is way too loose so you really shouldn't play those without at least a 1200 bucks or so.

As for your comment about not getting lucky I think you were lucky to hold on to your roll for as long as you did given that you were constantly over playing it. That doesn't mean that you're a bad player it just means you were playing too high.

Here is what I would do:
decide what your game will be and stick with it for awhile. If that's NL do this:
put $500 bucks or so into your party account. You could possibly make due with a little less but I wouldn't reccomend under 300 unless you feel ok busting and reloading, which it seems is not the case. Play NL25 FULL ring games (the 6 max variance is too high and you want to minimize risk of getting broke again) until you have 20 buy ins at the NL50 tables. Play NL50 tables until you get to $2000 then move up to the NL100 tables. Play these until you get over $3000 and drop down to play the NL50 6 max tables to get used to those. When you can beat those give the NL100 6 max tables a shot. These are pretty much the highest tables on Party in terms of how much you can take in. The NL200 tables seem tougher. After moving up if you go on a losing skid drop back down. If you ever have less than $750 drop back down to NL25. With less than 1500 drop down to NL50. Similarly if you are dropping money like crazy after switching to 6 max just play full.

Basically the point of this is that you should establish a fairly rigid system for moving up. It doesn't have to be so rigid as the one I gave above. For example after having over $1000 you could just give the NL100 tables a shot but make sure that if you drop below 750 or so that you are prepared to drop back down.

[CrackerZack]

you sat 10/20 6 max with $700 total? Wow. did you last an hour? read Schneids posts in this forum to get an idea of the swings to expect there.

[gonores]

17 of my last 18 400+ hand days have shown at least one $700 downswing at 10/20 6max. 1 iota of properly guided effort in searching on 2+2 will provide you a perfect blueprint from where you are at to beating 15/30 and 200NL, SnGs, Multis, whatever.

You've been registered for 4 months on 2+2 by now...haven't you read at least a few posts very similar to yours? Why did you think you would be different from all the other people who jumped too quick?

[sthief09]

limit hold'em is a game for grinding. if you want to get rich quick, play NL tournaments and hope you get lucky or something. you got greedy and hoped you should turn 700 into a lot more, and you (not surprisingly) got wiped out. just consider it a lesson learned and start from scratch.

and not everyone gets broke at one point. people with proper bankrolls don't go broke. people with 35 BB bankrolls go broke. just to put things in perspective, your bankroll wasn't even adequate for 2/4!

[fnord_too]

As others have noted, you played way above your BR if you were concerned about keeping it. Caro has suggested that small bankrolls don't need to be protected as much since they are easily replaced, and you obviously were playing for enjoyment, not employment. Most poeple who continually play beyond their br go bust at some point. As to restarting, you can either a) move some more money over or b) wait a few months and party will drop $50 in your account free for nothing. As for building up a bankroll, the low limit sit & goes are extremely easy to beat on party in my experience.

[sweeneyagonistes]

Thanks to everyone who gave advice. I think you are all right, though i prefer to chalk my playing too far up to ego rather than greed, they are both stupid reasons to go broke. I was at a friends house playing a 5 dollar tourny on party today, and i realized im still in a huge huff about losing, so ive decided the following; a. to study up big time on limit strategies, b. to not put any more into party until i can fund a proper .05/1 BR and to be studying until then (and after obviously) c. to move up at a logical pace d. to cool off in the mean time. It wasnt luck, it was stupid, and something my reading should have warned me amply about. I remember the second night i had money in party poker, i was down to 12 dollars on the fifty, and i sat .5/1 and grinded out 50 more. It wasn't Maverick, it wasn't even rounders, but it was smart, and i'm looking forward to doing it again. Thank you all for being an excellent and patient resource for us newbies.

[sweeneyagonistes]

ps. how long before party ponies up that sympathy dough?