is there a such thing as an unlucky person???

[MzLisa]

hi all,

I have got to be the most unluckiest person in poker. If i have AA and raise with them, sure nuff they lose. If i have Ak and raise with it no ace or king comes, and i dont even chase them.

If i have a four card striaght, my fifth card will not come.
If i have a four card flush, (high one too) the fifth card will not come.

If i have 2 pair, someone flops a striaght.
Today i have a straight and someone with J6 off got a full house.

to put it simply, i am an unlucky person. My cards may hit one day really good, and i may make 150 bucks easy in a 1-2 game. But u know what that may not happen again for at least a week and a half. None of my cards will hit. That puts me on a serious tilt. This sucks.

I dont know if its the limits, cuz its no foldem holdem or what. But i do know that on one occassion i remember losing AA to an A9 off.

I also remember losing with jacks 3 times in one day.

I also i remember having a decent bankroll, lol.

this sucks man, a buddy on here who is a really good player and won lots and lots of money recently told me to just wait and get some money together and play 3-6 cuz the lower limits are too shaky. I dont know, poker is starting to drain me honestly. There is really no formula to sucess when every one calls every thing and ur cards dont come and when they do they get busted by lucky bad players #1,2 and 3.

Pot odds dont matter when ur cards dont come, its just another way to lose more money.

Am i having a bad player's rant?? I dont know, i play like Mr. sklansky's book tells me too. So what is a girl to do??

i dont know, i need help.

[William]

I could tell you a lot a girl's got to do [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] but in your case, poker it appears, is not one of them.

Hang in there [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[MzLisa]

u know, i was watching party poker million II last night and i saw the guy who won second, play the most rediculous hands, and when he beat that lady out, i just felt that was a very bad beat for her. These people who play with crap, Layne Flack being one of them, seem to be the luckiest MF-ers ive ever seen. They make bad play look good.

I just dont know about this poker thing, the line is too crooked, you can have the best training in the world, but nothing will protecting you from losing a couple bankrolls. I think thats why most pro players end up broke.

[uuDevil]

MzLisa,

There certainly are people who have been luckier than others (lottery winners). And some who have been less lucky (got hit by a truck). But except for the dead guy, there's no way to extrapolate into the future. Seems like even lottery winners end up getting ripped off at strip clubs or something.

As long as you have somewhere near average luck and play good poker, you will win eventually. If you feel your style and temperament really are better suited to higher limits you may want to try it (provided you have the bankroll). But it doesn't sound like you're in a good frame of mind to do that. Maybe it would be better to take a break for a while-- just study and make sure you really are playing right for the games you are in. Go get 'em when you feel more confident.

This post might help:

Homer's views on streaks

Good Luck!

[fluff]

Poker is not for everyone. Maybe it's time to face up to that?

[Henke]

If you have AK preflop, you'll only flop an A or a K about 1/3 of the time. Same goes for 4-str8 and 4-flush. It's not bad luck, it's a statistical fact. If you believe you are unlucky, get pokertracker. Once you've gotten AK more than a hundred times, check how often you'll have flopped the A or the K.
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this sucks man, a buddy on here who is a really good player and won lots and lots of money recently told me to just wait and get some money together and play 3-6 cuz the lower limits are too shaky.

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Well, the variance for a skilled player is probably a bit higher if the unit is nr of bets! Somehow, I still doubt that the variance in terms of $$ should be lower at 3-6.
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I dont know, poker is starting to drain me honestly. There is really no formula to sucess when every one calls every thing and ur cards dont come and when they do they get busted by lucky bad players #1,2 and 3.

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I think there is, play solid poker. Of course, there's variance in hold'em, and hence you won't allways win. BUT you wouldn't win neither if "bad players #1,2,3" weren't in the game.

[LetsRock]

This game can be very cruel. We all go through stretches where the cards appear to prove the math "wrong". It's not fun. For some of us it's torture.

As much as I understand your desire to move up in limits hoping to play against "real" players, I'd advise you learn to deal with the wrath of the poker gods while you're still at low limits. How are you going to feel when these stretches (and you'll get these stretches at higher limits to) cost you $2000 instead of $300? (I don't know the extent of your streak - just trying to make a point.)

If this painful stretch of rotten luck is unbearable, I would seriously consider finding another hobby or part time job or whatever poker is in your life. Or at least take a break. It's very possible that you've been pummeled so much lately that you're afraid to play some of your hands correctly (ie raise) and are partially repsonsible for your own bad luck. It's not hard to get gunshy when the cards don't cooperate.


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But i do know that on one occassion i remember losing AA to an A9 off.

I also remember losing with jacks 3 times in one day.


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It's funny how we can only seem to remember the awful beats. Even we "better" players have our share of nonsense luck, but we choose to implant the beats into our memory banks. Giving you the benefit of the doubt that you are playing correctly, the cards will turn around and you'll have a monster winning session. Dwell on THAT session to help boost your confidence, forget all the times when you get tough beats. It's hard, but maybe you can look at those hands like they're a deposit for the future; "I lost $10 on that beat, but next time I get in this spot I'm gonna win $30."

Have you read "The TAO of Poker" or the poker "Zen" (forget the actual title) book? I just finished the TAO book and it's full of juicy little nuggets to help remind ourselves that "THIS" hand has no real meaning other than it contributes to the lifelong poker session.

Remember that poker success is about making good decisions on EVERY action; it's not about dragging every pot we "deserve". If you are making correct decisions the "luck" will turn around in the long run. Review you plays and make sure that you are making the correct decisions. If you are, keep at it. If you find that you are making some mistakes, work on fixing the leaks.

Again, if you can't deal with the concept of poker being a "long run" game, then stop fighting it. It's not worth the grief.

[Sam T.]

To underline and expand upon a point that Henke made, as much as we love to see pocket aces, they get cracked more often than we like. (Jones says 1/3 of the time, I think, but it could be 2/3.) But the rest of the time they don't, we take down the pot from some fish betting his pair of tens, and then we forget the hand ever happened. It's when we lose that it sticks with us.

I'm happy to be corrected on the subject of pocket jacks, but I've become increasingly skeptical of their value in a low-limit game. When players hang on with Ax down to garbage like Q7, there are twelve cards out there that can beat you. It doesn't make the game better or worse, but it does change the way we have to play.

[Still the Spank E]

Your friend's advice is solid--the lower the limits, the more mindless chasing. Everyone assures me (I've posted a similarly-themed rant here) that you really should learn the reading skills (and other multi-way play tools) developed at the low levels, and that without them the move to, say, 3/6 (or higher) is no picnic. Lots of 3/6 tables are just like this, too. When you're better able to sense when your big pairs are beaten, and when you're getting in (cheaply) with hands that play better in these kinds of games (i.e., suited connectors, particularly) and learning how to win with them, you'll be well-equipped to beat games at higher levels. I'm in the very same situation you describe, playing 2/4 at the Taj every weekend. Sometimes I win, sometimes I get beaten by the army of calling stations, but everyone here at 2+2 assures me that, with time and practice, the (highly necessary) skills come. And they have been, for me. If you're playing at a REALLY low limits (.25/.50), this battle may continue forever, because it's hard to imagine EVER getting ANYONE to EVER fold ANY hand it only costs .50 to call. Take $100 to a 2/4 table and take your lumps like I'm doing. I'm making progress and feel convinced that you will too (see my posts in the beginners' forum). DON'T GIVE UP and don't stop learning!

[LetsRock]

I agree in general with what you say. There will tend to be fewer fish per table as you move up. But there always be fish.

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If you're playing at a REALLY low limits (.25/.50), this battle may continue forever, because it's hard to imagine EVER getting ANYONE to EVER fold ANY hand it only costs .50 to call.

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True, but this calling station mentality is not strictly limited to very low limits. It's a character trait, not a limit traight. As spank says, you need to learn how to recognize when this tool (betting to take down the pot uncontested) will not work so you don't waste lots of bets counting on it to work.

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DON'T GIVE UP

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I can't agree with this statement 100%. I beleive that most people can learn to play this game profitably with just a little work and patience. That doesn't mean that most everybody should. I'm not telling you to quit, but it is possible that you don't have the personal make-up to handle the long term "fairness" of the game and you may just really be better off finding other ways to fulfill your life. The game appears very unfair at times, and for those of us who thrive on "fairness" and immediate reward for proper play (I suffer from this affliction) can suffer severe emotional swings when the game is being unkind.

Personal "victory" story:
I am working very hard on remembering the "long term" aspect of the game and not getting caught up in the short term rotten breaks. I had a session this week that was pure nonsense; nothing held up, I couldn't catch a draw, blah, blah, blah. I dropped 25 BB in 3 hours. I didn't like it one bit, but I patted myself on the back for just rolling with it and chalking it up to one of those nights. This seems stupid, but it's a bit of a breakthrough for me. Keeping solid stats helps; I noticed that this bad session reduced my hourly wage by only $.15. So that's all it did, lowered my "salary" from $10.65/hr to $10.50/hr for the month to date.

Seeing things from this angle, really helps to ease the blow of a few bad sessions.

If I couldn't find a way to deal with the short term uglies I would have to give it up because it goes beyond game tilt - I go on life tilt and that can't be good.

Does it affect you that severely? Find a way to deal with it or quit. It ain't worth it.