Hello. My name is Emmitt2222 and I suck at poker.

[Emmitt2222]

I guess some people might see this as a whining post, but I don't really intend it to be. I am just coming out of the closet with a truth that I have had a hard time accepting. This summer I played poker as a job and with rakeback and bonuses I made probably as much as I would have doing any other job, but that's just about all I made this summer. I played 2/4 [much more than I wanted to], I played 3/6, 100NL, 200NL, 10+1 SnGs and now finally 3/6 6max. Over the approximately 63k hands I've played this summer I have made around -$200 dollars [yes, thats a negative]. Here are a few graphs to show my drier points:




I have spent a lot of time in SS over the summer so I just figured I would post this here now. So why all this bragging? Well, I just thought this may be useful to people as a reality check. I may not be a C/T yet, but I do have over 1,000 posts. Yet I am still not the greatest player out there, not even close. If anything I just want to put this out there for people who are newer to the game to show that the more veteran posters aren't invisible, and to point out to those who are more weathered here that the long run is really long and we are never done learning. I thought that I was at least a decent player, but I got shown that I have a long freakin' way to go.

I know that you can look at this in a negative way, throwing out some wise-ass comment, but I really hope that at least someone gets something useful out of looking at this. I've been here almost exactly one year now and I can't imagine how much learning I have to look forward to here in year two. The thing I have to lookg forward to is that the only way to look is up... I hope.

Thanks to all those who have helped me in the last year. I hope one day I can put some results behind my advice.

[QTip]

All summer long you only played 62K hands? That doesn't seem like that much playing then.

I've had a 20K break even spell before in the 2/4 full game as well.

[weevil]

Is that first graph from 2/4 and 3/6 full ring? Those are insane swings if so, looks like something you'd see in a rocky run of sixmax sessions.

[pokerstudAA]

Focus on playing better poker - that is all you can do. Variance can be a dirty whore. Keep your head up. Poker sucks.

I had a 20-25k break even stretch over about 90k hands. This game is sick. I also had a 6000 hand 300BB upswing.

It is a roller coaster. Poker is fun.

[KidPokerX]

the graph just shows 30k hands, where are the other 30k? It also looks much too jumpy for such a low variance game, this could be a leak in your game. Can you post the detailed info from your poker tracker (VPIP, PFR, etc)?
Let's fix this.

[detruncate]

Hi Emmitt2222. You don't suck at poker. Even assuming you're actually a breakeven player (which I don't), you're still better than most everyone you played with over the summer. More to the point, there are worse places to be than motivated to improve + properly rolled. I also wouldn't discount the role that pokering for money played. There are additional skill sets to learn when the cash needs to keep coming in.

I'm far less good than I want to be, and I sometimes get pissed off with myself for not being better. But most days I manage to remember that things can only ever be so bad when I stand up from the table with a healthy roll and a little bit more experience. Think about how far you've come in the last year starting with far less. Baby stepping your way toward a solid foundation.

Congratulations on your success thus far -- every day you can afford to keep playing should be counted as a victory in my book. Where you go from here is up to you. Best of luck and happy pokering.