Thought I had it

I've been playing since end Memorial day 2005. Read a couple of books. Had frequent wins in $1mil, $750k, $500K & $200K qualifying tournaments, while never made money in actual big trnys. Around end Aug 05, came in 2nd place in $20+$2 tourny won ~$4700, out of over 2100 players. But still never made money in cash game until recently.

I usually deposit $50. Play a few qualifying trny. Make a little money in small cash games to play more qualifying trnyes. About a week ago, I turned $50 into $400 in about 7hrs. I never won this much in cash game before and was pretty excited. Cahsed out $200. The very next day, made money again to $400 in ~5hrs & cashed out $200 again. The 3rd day, made more money this time to $800 in about 5hrs and chased out $400. Mostly playing 100NL games.

I though I finally figured out. I was playing the cards on the board and the bets others playing. I was really care less about what I held sometimes. It worked. I was able to win big pots just by various betting strategies with nothng or bottome pair time after time. I was really excited & I thought I could make some serious money playing poker.

The 4th day, I lost all my $400 bank roll. I admit that I got very cocky and palyed almost reklessly. I went back to playing $50 a day again. And have lost 4 days in a row. Just can't repeat the winnings I had a week ago. Tried to play similar style, tried a little tighter, a little loser..., just can't repeat. Someone always seemed to have big hands or better hands than mine.

I still believe I became a better player from the experience last week, at least I'm hoping. Has anyone experienced similar situation? Was I just extremely lucky for 3 days??? Or, is this a type of many stages that one goes thru on the road to becoming a better palyer???

study your sessions in pokertracker or similar and see mistakes you made. that helps me.

Well you got lucky and went on a winning streak early on in your poker life. You will have bankroll swings good and bad simply part of the game. Your upswing was a VERY good one not a normal occurance. That is why you can't duplicate the results unless you find equally bad players and get equally good cards you likely won't duplicate it for quite some time. The key is to max your wins and minimize your loses thats all you can do... Congrats though good to see you will continue playing