Why am I getting creamed at these games?

First thing. It has been said, but I am very sure you are making your fair share of mistakes that are costing you money. The good news is, the people you are playing at .5/1 will make much more than you. The high rake dampers your win rate as well.

Running bad sucks, it makes you qustion you game and other things. Realize that!! You will very often have a losing session. I have had a 5 days of losing sessions before, that were made up for on one day where I ran well. Over that increadibly small stretch of time I feel I ran close to even, and my winrate represented my long turn rate.

The best thing you can do when this happens is realize that you can't do anything about it. All you can control is how you react to a bad run. If you cry about it, you will feel like a victim and compound your badluck with bad play.

Just make the best plays you can, and if you are as good as you think you are you will win.

And yes this happens to us all, and i beleive it has happened to others worse than you and I . I have had a 10 hand stretch where my pocket Aces got cracked. But still that hand is my biggest winner. I have had the same with Kings, still it is my second biggest winner. AK has missed more flops than it has it (that is supposed to happen) and still I am showing a profit.

Bad players play bad! If a bad player plays bad and draws out on you, congratulate him, tell him he is a great player, or say nothing. Don't get angry because they are doing what you want them to do, play bad. What you should be doing is getting excited. I have been in rooms with total morons that were just taking my money. I lost 20BB over an hour and kept my cool and refused to leave because they were so horrible. I figure it this way, if this is gonna be one of my bad runs, why not hav against bad players whom don't get enough value on thier hands, but give me too much on my winners. To end that story, I played for two more hours and left -3BB. My cards were pretty bad, and I won 6 out of 300 hands. The lucky part for me was that 5 of those 6 winners were massive pots padded by bad players doing what they do, playing bad.

Minimize your losses on your losers, and maximize your winners. Thats what gets the money.

Good luck

Finally,

Seems like the "donkey" played his pocket 3's the same way I would have. I admit that I suck. What site are you playing at? I'd love to be the next subject of your post about someone who sucks that just won.

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why do you think you are good? serious question

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Is this to me or original poster? I didn't say anything about my own play being good. I feel like I'm moderately ok and am always working to improve. I hope I never feel content with my own play, which will keep me constantly looking to tweak my game.

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why do you think you are good? serious question

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Is this to me or original poster? I didn't say anything about my own play being good. I feel like I'm moderately ok and am always working to improve. I hope I never feel content with my own play, which will keep me constantly looking to tweak my game.

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to the op, it really surprises me when people with little experience go and play a game and find they are losing....

when in any other game the first thought would be yeah, these guys are better, obviously i have quite a way to go... or if i play socially im just gonna be a net loser against these better players.

but somehow in poker people like this say... amazingly, that everyone else (the more experienced, positive players) are somehow worse than them because they dont play in a style that they read in a book somewhere.

i just find it interesting, was trying to get some insight.

shlucky: i didnt even realise you had responded in this thread until you replied to me

Thanks all for the replies and for not completely flaming me. The sex anaology line was funny, I liked that. I will take your suggestions. As for the question of why do I think I'm good, here's the thing. I started playing before I read SSHE and I was winning (small profit, but no huge losing sessions). Then I read SSHE and now I'm playing worse for some reason. I realize now that I'm probably not applying the concepts completely correctly, and I need to go back and re-read it. I only started playing this game last summer, a mere five months ago, so I have plenty of room/time for improvement. Alright, from now on I'm just going to post hands I have difficulty with and try to gain insight to. I'll also try to reply to other people's hands and see how my suggestions match-up. I think that's good advice. Thanks again.

[kiemo]

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I realize now that I'm probably not applying the concepts completely correctly, .

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Your checking top pair after raising preflop is all the evidence you need to prove that you could eliminate the probably from the above quote.

Buck up though trooper. Every player has gone through the phase you are in.

[masse75]

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If you really want to become a good poker player you will. First you have to understand that variance is a bitch. You may just be running bad, or you may not be as good as you think you are. Or your opponents maybe better than you give them credit for.



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As someone going through the often mentioned 200 BB downswing (over many sessions), all 3 are true.

Overconfidence:I'm better, I can knock this guy off his hand (yeah, right)
Losing to a donk play: Watch me slow play these flopped trip A's (guy goes runner-runner to catch the wheel, holding 34 on an A7A board.
Bad luck: Overpair loses to flopped bottom set.

[censored] happens. Deal with it.

[KingOtter]

One thing I fail to understand is why people think that a poker forum can be completely free from these kinds of posts.

Ignoring them won't make them go away. It's like there's bad mojo around downswing posts and people just don't want to hear about it.

It's poker. There is a large element of chance in it. Yes, skilled players can make consistent profits in the game but over any small sample variance can be a mother.

After 9 months of making a very good piece of change playing poker (on the order of 2000BB including bonuses), I am suddenly having a hard time keeping my bankroll. And this isn't over a small sample size. I'm seriously having a real hard time keeping even.

Have I suddenly started to suck? Have I suddenly started misapplying all the concepts I've been learning up until this point? I don't think so, but maybe. Sure, steaming and tilt has had some affect on my game. Then I over-correct and get super-cautious. It's nothing new in my game, it's been there since I started. I know it, I take steps to prevent myself from doing anything real stupid.

IMO the REAL answer to posts like this is a question, rather than a statement:

How bad do you want to be a poker player?

If the answer is REAL bad then:
- learn more
- read more
- pay very close attention when you play
- trust your skills even when you lose (evaluate yourself honestly, though)

And then how much money you win or lose is irrelevant (because once you're good, the money will take care of itself). Who cares if you played a hand terribly and lost 32BB on that one hand? Can you look at it, identify your errors and take steps to prevent it from happening again? Then you're better for it, and the 32BB might be well spent saving or making you money in the future.

Up to this point in my poker game I think I've been cruising. Learning just enough, not really getting INTO it. I have PokerTracker, I sort of go over my play. But I think I need to make a commitment to it to go to the next level.

And I don't know if I realized that until I just typed it just now.

KO

[checkmate36]

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damn another one of these threads...

guys, just don't respond to it. [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

to the op: there's a beats, brags, and variance forum now. go post this there and get railed.

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