I've been playing on Fortune (.5/1) since i get rakeback. The players there are generally pretty awful and i am up 52BB overall right now. The problem is not so much the variance (which has been huge) but the way the variance comes about. I started up 60BB, then down to 0, then up to 100 (as of yesterday) then went all the way back down to 52 today.

Now I know variance is part of the game, but I'm having trouble dealing with it when then downswings happen because of terrible plays by opponents. Here's a snippet of the last hand I played before quitting:

Hand #120454089 at table: Table TH 705
Started: Sat Oct 22 02:51:44 2005

heret1k is at seat 1 with 2.25
Hennej is at seat 2 with 19.50
kegyetlen is at seat 3 with 16.25
tonidani is at seat 4 with 60.25
Betty6 is at seat 5 with 29.75
CH-Luke is at seat 6 with 10.50
manuavi is at seat 7 with 18.00
Oliver28 is at seat 8 with 13.20
rafik is at seat 9 with 34.50
lukeduke72 is at seat 10 with 30.75

lukeduke72 posts the large blind 0.50
rafik posts the small blind 0.25

rafik: --, --
lukeduke72: --, --
heret1k: Kh, Jc
Hennej: --, --
kegyetlen: --, --
tonidani: --, --
Betty6: --, --
CH-Luke: --, --
manuavi: --, --
Oliver28: --, --

Pre-flop:

heret1k: Call 0.50
Hennej: Fold
kegyetlen: Call 0.50
tonidani: Call 0.50
Betty6: Call 0.50
CH-Luke: Call 0.50
manuavi: Fold
Oliver28: Raise 1.00
rafik: Fold
lukeduke72: Raise 1.50
heret1k: Call 1.50
kegyetlen: Fold
tonidani: Call 1.50
Betty6: Call 1.50
CH-Luke: Call 1.50
Oliver28: Raise 2.00
lukeduke72: Call 2.00
heret1k: Call 2.00
tonidani: Call 2.00
Betty6: Call 2.00
CH-Luke: Call 2.00

Flop (Board: Qc, 4s, 5s):

lukeduke72: Bet 0.50
heret1k: Fold


Now it's obvious I'm a bit on tilt, but here's the thing. lukeduke72 only had A9s, yet played as if he had AA or some other monster hand. He continued to bet like that throughout the hand. The result? He had Ace high and lost to 33 (I actually would have won the hand had i thrown in my last quarter, ironically. Makes me even more annoyed). Also notice all the callers, even to 3 raises.

Now here's what I want to ask:

1) How do I deal with downswings caused by other players playing awful but getting lucky, versus just being outplayed by better players? I mean if I just went down in the second fashion, I wouldn't feel nearly as shitty as I do right now. I just feel.. like even with all my reading of SSHE and studying hands here and elsewhere, the ill effects of getting beaten out by donks who play like they're on acid doesn't make it feel worth it very much.

2) Is playing these type of people really HELPING my game? I mean if I move up limits in the future my opponents won't be like this (for example I'll be able to put people on hands a bit more, protect my hand etc. where right now it's just a crapshoot, everyone bets on everything).

I just feel lost and hopefully some people here could give me some pointers. I'm pretty new to the game and obviously want to play my best, but stuff like this makes it hard to figure out what that is. Thanks.