Is it safe to say I suck?

[ThaHero]

8,682 hands of .25/.50 limit on Pokerstars. I've made $13.72 or roughly 27BB. I had faith when I was up 200bb at the 5,498 mark, but these losses are hurting my beginner's ego.

I'm really considering starting from scratch at the bottom levels now, but I feel I've made so much progress that I really don't want to go back. If I can't beat this level there's no point in moving upward. I've read SSH 3 times and I get a passing grade on the hand quizzes and the Q&A(I tested myself lol) so I'm not sure if my problem is just applying the principles or if it's deeper than that.

I'm considering cashing some money out, buying some NL books and moving to that, since I hear the winrates are higher and the variance is lower. Not sure I can deal with some of this variance(if it is variance, I may have just gotten a run of good cards and now my real play is showing).

I know NL punishes beginners but I think starting at the lowest level I may know more about pot odds, implied odds, etc. than most of my opponents there.

I am just confused. I posted this in the beginner's forum because I know you guys won't flame me. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] So any advice I'm all ears.

[mattw]

friend, 8.7k hands is a raindrop in the ocean. way too small a sample size. general concensus is 100k hands starts to become significant. being up at all after your short playing time is a good sign. break-even play means you are beating the rake which is more than most players do.

im sure you know that 300BB's is the recommended bankroll for limit. if you play long enough, you will experience 300BB swings. i have many times.

for NL, the recommended bankroll is 20 buy-ins. i have had swings of 10 buy-ins over three days (~4500 hands.)

keep reading/posting at this site. get the recommended books and PT.

gl or more appropriatley(sp), good variance.

[Jacob_Gilliam]

I wouldn't worry too much about it. As the other poster said, 8,700 is nothing. As long as you have the bankroll to keep playing at this level, you should do so. Just keep an eye out for any leaks in your game and remember that your in this for the long haul, so what happens over a couple of weeks doesn't really matter much.

[ThaHero]

Thanks for the encouragement guys. As a beginner I often times second guess myself. I love playing poker, it's very fun and challenging, but even the most entertaining things can become a chore when you aren't doing them well.

I will forge ahead! I am aware of the bankroll limits and soon I will have to drop down to .05/.10 where I will be vastly overbankrolled if things don't turn for the better, but alas, this is poker. I'm glad to hear my situation isn't so abnormal. That's pretty reassuring. And I am happy I'm up a little bit, lol, there are some players in my PT database that have horrible losses and a little fish icon next to their name lol

[Webster]

Hell - with 100,000 hands in I STILL 2nd guess myself all the time. Get used to it!! LOL

When you have a bad streakm go back to the beginning and play straight up poker. Don't get fancy. IF you flop a hand play it. I'm not saying play conservative but play smart.

Anybody that has taken the time to read this forum and have PT and obviously thinks about the game is above 80% of the players out there.

I really think that a lot of times when people are hot they start to play outside the box and win on hands that REALLY are marginal. Then, variance hits and those hands no longer work but they forgot that they added them in a hot streak.

Just take a step back and play smart again. It'll come back. Bad beats happen to EVERYBODY and run in streaks.

No Worries.


Grinders Warehouse BLOG Edition

[signal]

hi,

like the others have said, just keep playing. i can give an anecdotal example of what can possibly be happening.

I used to play 1/2 6 max as my main game. my win rate was usually between 3-4bb/100 for ~30k hands. then i hit a 20k cold streak where after i came out the other end i only showed a less than fifty dollar profit.

it took a lot longer to bounce back. so cold streaks can happen; usually they are only 10k hands but 20k and 30k can happen.

use this as an opportunity to examine if there are possible leaks; however, you are probably getting cold decked.

good luck

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

Go somewhere other than 'Stars. For some reason, even their low-limit games are real rock gardens.

[LINES]

You want cash? play at FTP. I've never met more fish in my entire life, even when i swam in the ocean.

[bholdr]

There's nothing wrong with taking some shots at NL if your bankroll can handle some losses, and you're right, you clearly have the tools (know how, experience, etc) to beat the very small games, $10 buy in or so sounds right. I started in NL (which wasn't optimum, but that's what i wanted to play) and switched to limit. I'm just now getting back into the NL games, since my bankroll is big enough to be playing the 1/2 games, and i'd forgotten how fun and challenging it can be (not to mention profitable)

I'm very much in favor of players being well rounded- it's important to be able to play not only different structures (NL vs Limit vs PL), but different games: stud, omaha, etc... anyone who's serious about becoming a good player should play everything, and if you're a little burnt out on LHE, this may be a good time to diversify a bit and broaden your poker horizons.

[ThaHero]

Yeah I played about 300 hands of $10NL and did pretty well. Made a little money. Played limit and lost again. I always envisioned branching out. It has been a nice change of pace. I wouldnt say Im burnt out but definately frustrated with limit and not getting cards. In NL it seems the cards matter less and you play your opponents more. Any N books to recommend? GSIH is one I may pick up.

Ive also played a few free roll tournys. Nice change of pace as well.

Thanks for the encouragement fellas. Im not giving up that easy!