Help me please. I need to know what I'm doing wrong.

[cobalt]

Here's the thing. I'm a tight aggressive player who occasionaly bluffs. Yes, pretty standard, no big whoop.

I like to play low NL (25 -50 cents). I play pretty well but apparently not well enough to prevent losing all my money all the time.

I slowly grind and build my stack/bankroll and then I get sucked out on 2-3 big money hands and I'm done.

I only allow myself $50 per month (which should be plenty for the low limits I play at).

Here are this months bad beats that took my bankroll after building for 3 days.

I have AA in the hole, I raise 3x the pot. Everyone folds but one person calls.
Flop: Q 2 6 rainbow. I bet again, 4x the pot. Guy calls.
4th: 3 of something. I go all in. Guy calls. His hand shows 10 6 offsuit. I'm thrilled cause I'm about to make a major pot.
River: 6, I lose to a set of 6's.

I suppose I could have folded, but I didn't think he had it (which he didn't until the lame 6 on the river).


Next days Big beat: I was dealt KQ diamonds. I bet 4x the pot. One guy calls.
Flop: Kh 8d 2d. I have high pair and a possible flush. I go all in. Guy calls. His hand shows 2 3 hearts.
4th: 5c. Again I'm happy cause I'm about to get the money I lost the day before back.
River: 3s. I lose to two pair. 2's and 3's.

And that was the end of my bankroll for the month.

Now I've tried playing like these guys do, but all I do is lose my money even faster against good hands. So why on earth can they get away with playing this way and I can't? What am I doing wrong? I couldn't possibly be more aggressive when I have it, and being as tight a player as I am, when I put my chips in, people who are paying attention would fold (which is what most of the table does, except for the idiots who bust me with crap hands).

And this has been happening every month for about a year. I usually lose all my money over a few hands and then I don't have any money so I can stick around to bust the loose calling stations. Are these guys like bankrolled like crazy playing low limits and playing anything for sh!ts and giggles?

[skoal2k4]

i think you're too quick to take all your chips to the felt... You're the favorite to win... doesn't mean it's a lock. Quit over-betting if you aren't prepared to lose it all. I don't want you to think I'm being an ass... I really am not. That's just the one obvious solution to your situation. I hope that helps!

[Matador225]

I agree with skoal in that you might be a little too hasty in going all in but you didn't really misplay any of the posted hands. As for your question "how can they get away with playing like that" the answer is that in the long run they can't. Everytime someone sucks out on you on the river with a weak hand pre-river that is +ev. In the long run it should be money in your wallet. If you continue to be frustrated by these suckouts you might consider switching to a Limit Hold'em. When playing limit even if you do suffer a bad beat against a calling station your loss is never insurmountable and you can keep going and hopefully eventually turn a profit.

[lil feller]

[ QUOTE ]
If you continue to be frustrated by these suckouts you might consider switching to a Limit Hold'em.

[/ QUOTE ]

No offense, but telling someone that doesn't like getting rivered in NL to switch to limit holdem is like telling a frustrated limit holdem player to go play omaha h/lo 8 or better. You get rivered MUCH more in limit holdem because it only cost one bet for them to try. Playing limit requires much more tolerance for this type of thing, and comes with much larger and more frustrating swings.

lf

[Niediam]

You should be playing $2 or $4 max buyin because of the small size of your bankroll.

[3N1GM4]

yeah, if you are allowing yourself $50 per month, that is only 1 buyin at 25c/50c... If you only have one buyin a month available to you, it's gonna be frustrating when you lose a buyin! Everyone gets stacked from time to time, so maybe you need to step further down the limits where your $50 will get you a few more buyins, or if you have it, try putting a little more money into it. I think the former would probably be best, especially if you said money was tight with kids etc etc.

[grouchie]

[ QUOTE ]
Help me please. I need to know what I'm doing wrong.

[/ QUOTE ]


you're complaining to a bunch of people who have worse happen to them weekly (heck, even daily for some of these peole that play an astronomical amount of hands) and don't particularly like reading stories about bad beats.

You got your money in when you were ahead, that is the best you can ask for. Someone sucked out, live with it. This is poker, suckouts are something you have to learn to deal with or quit playing (or go spastic and become a redpill clone).

You are also playing a stakes way too high for your bankroll. You should never play in a game that if you get sucked out once or twice you will not have any money left. Drop to lower stakes. If you play at the lowest stakes at the site you are on then switch over to GC, UB, or Stars who have penny and nickle tables.

If you are happy with just depositing 50 bucks a month and losing it, then continue, but please do not whine because someone rivered you. It's going to happen alot if you decided to become serious about this game. The more it happens the more you realize everytime someone makes a horrible call you really win as you get their stack more often than not.


grouch

[augie00]

[ QUOTE ]
Help me please. I need to know what I'm doing wrong.

[/ QUOTE ]

You're posting bad beat stories.

[memphis57]

Well, I guess you realize now that bad beats are not the problem. Basically the idea is they will always happen, so you have to make enough on all your winning hands to cover the bad beats, and then some. If you aren't covering them and you're losing money, then the obvious answer is you aren't good enough. And I'm not saying that in a gloating sense, because I'm a struggling player myself.

So what you got to do is drop down in limits, read more books and this forum, and improve your skills.

[jman220]

[ QUOTE ]
Here's the thing. I'm a tight aggressive player

[/ QUOTE ]

You're probably not. Not trying to be an ass, but a lot of people think they're tight aggressive when they are in fact not even close. How do you know you're a TAG? Do you have a large pokertracker database where you've looked at your VP$IP, PFR, and PFA? If not, then you don't really know. A lot of TAG play is counterintuitive to people who have just started playing. I played losing poker for almost a year thinking I was "Tight Aggressive" because I had heard that term in a book once, only to learn, once I got pokertracker, that I had been autorated as semi-tight to loose/passive. Move down in limits, and start tracking your stats, it is the only way you can improve.

Edit: And even when I was safely playing winning no limit, when I made the switch to limit shorthanded, and posted my stats here, I was in for a shock there too on how bad my play was compared to others (just good enough to barely beat the game for .75bb/100). So track your stats.