Help me change what I'm doing wrong...

[ElSapo]

...two months ago I decided to change what I was doing. I left a good job writing and editing some energy-financial publications and decided to pursue photography and fiction writing full time. It was never meant to be a full-time move, more of a springboard to something else, and I accepted the fact that it would be, overall, a money-losing proposition.

In short, I wanted to spend six months doing things I really cared about, and I was prepared to simply live on savings to do this.

Obviously, poker helps. And in the past three or four months I was making enough online to cover the absolute basics. To put a figure on it, I was prepaerd to live on $1,500 a month to make the project work — and aruond $1,500 a month was what I was able to make, grinding low-limit games.

The past month, however, has been frustrating. Perhaps it's just a bad run of cards but I also know that my game has changed with it. With rakeback and bonuses I'm about break-even, so while it's not a financial disaster it's simply frustrating.

Part of my problem is that I've grown frustrated with two things every player must accept — variance and grinding. I play in the AbsolutePoker low-limit games quite a bit, and they are not the easiest games. My swings can be severe, and combined with a tendancy to tilt, I no longer think I'm a favorite there.

So combine the swings with coming to dislike the "grind" of it all, things have been bad lately.

I'm considering moving to SNGs for a bit on Party, for two reasons. One, I believe I'm +EV up to the $20+2 level, though I have not consistently played beyond that. Second, because single table tournaments have a relatively quick beginning and end, it might help get rid of some of the "grind" feeling I have.

I don't mean this to be a bitch and moan post. My bankroll is intact, the project is moving forward and things are mostly good. But in the last few months I've sort of burnt out playing poker and don't enjoy it the way I used to. But I still need and want to play, because frankly making rent online is better than writing checks out of savings.

I suppose the real answer is "take a break," and I should do that. But if others have input or suggestions I'd love to hear them because I'm frustrated and just not loving the game these days.

ElSapo

[joop]

What limit do you play? How many tables? How many hands/day? And how many hands have you played in your breakeven month?

[ElSapo]

[ QUOTE ]
What limit do you play? How many tables? How many hands/day? And how many hands have you played in your breakeven month?

[/ QUOTE ]

I play mostly 2/4, some 3/6 and on ocassion 5/10 ... When I was enjoying playing and had some decent results, maybe 1,200 hands per day. I think the aggro nature of the short daytime games I was in contributed a lot to this dillema.

Truth is, I think my problem is mostly emotional/mental following a bad run in aggro conditions. Most days I start in a good frame of mind and quickly just want to not-lose.