Feeling like I should just give up. (Low Content)

[KingOtter]

Wow... a lot of people having a helluva time with poker lately.

I would take a look at some of the other posts in this forum about the same sort of thing.. I responded to some of them and don't really want to type it all again... but basically when I had issues and I was sure it wasn't my game... it was my game.

And I agree with the others... post what you would do to hands that are posted. When you're corrected, argue back. Get convinced, and play it that way.

KO

[Token]

I've played over 10,000 hands now, and I have -2BB/100 to show for it.

Feel free to congratulate me on my insane winrate.

[PuertoKid]

Budda, it is possible for all your "stats" to be good, but for you to be playing poorly. How much time do you devote to reviewing your hands immediately after your sessions? I suspect not much.

I suspect your problem is that you are not reading your opponents well and adjusting appropriately to their style of play. You need to review your losing hands and see when and why you lose. Are you pushing AK, AQ too hard when you miss? Are you overplaying low-mid pocket pairs? Are you calling down with strong preflop hands that don't look so great given the board because "that damn fish just can't possibly have me beat with his crap hand?" Are you betting/raising with flush draws when you have 3+ people in the pot with you on non-paired boards? Are you bluffing too much?

There are a lot of questions you need to ask yourself about your play. Your stats may be "good", but your play can still be bad.

Good luck.

[GrunchCan]

A pooh-bah with 2000 posts isn't necesarrily a good player. So a high post count doesn't correlate with poker knowledge.

But you are the opposite. You have a respectable poker career of 30K hands, but only 130 posts to your name. I daresay that you have not gotten out of 2+2 even close to the maxmimum. In fact, youv'e probably gotten the minimum.

You must contribute to the forum if you wish to improve your play. You can't learn by lurking. At least, you can't learn as much as you can by posting. Its easy to read someone else's post and then the replies from the pooh-bahs and say to yourself, "yea, I agree with that advice. that's the right way to play."

But if you stick your neck out and respond with original advice to someone's post, you will learn. You'll either be right you you'll be clobbered by those who know better. Experience is the best teacher, but only if that experience is interactive, not passive on your part.

I'll start a new thread on micros in a moment issuing a general challenge to all posters. Please try it. It will help your game.

Good luck.

[detruncate]

Poker is hard. Long, frustrating flat periods are part of what makes it hard.

Two things are almost certainly true:

1) You've spent some time on the business end of variance

2) Your game can be improved

Do the current empire reload, and the sign-up bonus first if you don't have an empire account. That's $150-250 right there. Also consider trying 2 tables -- the challenge might help you on the enjoyment front. Multi-tabling is a skill that needs to be learned, practiced, refined just like any other aspect of online poker.

But don't do any of this unless you think you can bring a healthier attitude to the table. It's supposed to be fun. Who gives a [censored] what other people are apparently achieving. You have to remember that winrates are almost meaningless for most of the sample sizes presented here, and people almost invariably report when they're running well. Streaks have a huge impact when you're dealing with very few hands, so it's easy to write off being below where you should be to variance. It's also correspondingly easy to declare yourself back to where you should be when you get hot and spike back over some arbitrary number that makes you feel good about yourself.

Measure your success on the basis of how much your decision-making process is improving, not your winrate. I've played nearly 100,000 hands of .5/1, and had flat spots that lasted way longer than I thought was reasonable. It happens. Take a break if you need it... but the best thing would be to let go of your expectations. You're the player your stats suggest right this minute. And that's cool. We've all been there, or will be. There are worse things is life than being a more-or-less break-even poker player. Accept it, and make a plan to go forward. Wishing your results had been better is destructive and pointless. All you can ever control is the quality of your next decision.

I suggest you start by doing your best to leave your ego out of it -- it'll only bring you unnecessary pain. Recognize that luck plays a much larger role in the short term than most of us can bring ourselves to believe. Then set PT to filter from today forward and just play. Ignore your stats for a while unless your bankroll is in jeopardy. You're starting from scratch. Each moment going forward is brand new. Just play. Reevaluate if you find yourself a little further down the road and still aren't enjoying yourself.

Best of luck and happy pokering.

[Ian M.]

I think it would definitely help to post your stats. I know you say everything is where it should be but I'm sure posters would be able to identify some possible problems, or be able to tell that you are truly running bad (which would help the ego).