Crappy Session....

P-Hound

I'm beginning to wonder if I should play poker or not...

I deposited $490US into my poker stars account. I'am now down to $443 US I played .50/$1 limit holdem' and basically lost about $55US in the three hours I have played. Now I am realitivley new to poker been playing hold'em steadily for about a year, I've read some recommened books, by Skalanksy/Malmuth and Lee Jones, I enjoy playing nl, but for whatever reason I can't seem to do the most important thing of all is win. I study my readings and fourms for hours upon hours, and just plainly suck when it comes to the main show.

I can see by my play tonight that I basically went to far with a lot of my hands, but my pre-flop play was solid, played only premium hands etc. I'm really at my wits end and just needed to vent. Anyone think I should just pack up the remainder of my bankroll and save what is left. I knew I was no Daniel Negreaneu but this was just brutal, and left me feeling bitter....

Anyone else have these experinces....

P.

VladK

Well...my problem is i'm not getting any good cards to start. Cards that are not even worth calling with. Like i said in my previous thread...i played for 3 hours in a tourney and never had a pocket pair. I'm thinking that at the end things will even out, so I'll keep playing.

If you play right, then at some point you should be winning. So stick to it , i guess.

But I dont like playing on line, i just dont trust it. What if 2 or 3 people who know each other play at the same table? You never know...they could be chatting on MSN and helping each other out. Thats why i never play online anymore.

magithighs

Cheating happens online/offline -- no reason not to play. And, not winning happens all the time. I've been playing for quite some time, and averaging over 3BB/100 hands for the past year, and I've run into the coldest streak in a very long time. It's amazing how many mistakes I've been making -- it happens alot when you're running cold. This has been going on for the last three weeks, and keeps getting worse. Fortunately, I've reviewed my play and plugged some of my leaks, so I'm making about 1BB/100 hands and playing through the crap. In the past I lost most of my bankroll during these cold streaks. The good thing, is that after you play through them, you'll emerge a much stronger and smarter plyaer. So, if the money is really iimportant to you, then I'd pull back. If you want to learn, keep reviewing your sessions in fine detail -- it helps if you can replay the hands with a replayer and see the hands play out with the cards face up (look into pokertracker). Fix you errors and keep working at it.

If you're mostly a B&M player and home game player, then the speed of play may be a factor. Try 1 on 1 .02/.04 cent, it's a great way to get used to the speed and it's a fun cheep way to learn.

Cheers
Magi

ol-stone-face

Hey P-Hound, you're being too hard on yourself. Three hours of play is not enough to determine anything. Is your bankroll just throw away money which you don't need for anything else or does losing it hurt you financially? If it hurts financially then Stars have some micro limit tables right down to 0.02/0.04. There isn't a player on these forums that doesn't go through a losing session now and again.
Bring those hands into Pokertracker and start looking at your game. If there are hands that are bothering you then post some of them. Just be ready to hear some honest feedback, some posters will sugarcoat it and others won't, but the info is always good.

Yorkpoker

P-Hound wrote:

Now I am realitivley new to poker been playing hold'em steadily for about a year, I've read some recommened books, by Skalanksy/Malmuth and Lee Jones, I enjoy playing nl, but for whatever reason I can't seem to do the most important thing of all is win.... Anyone else have these experinces....

I'd agree with a bunch of the advice in the responses thus far.

How regularly do you play? If it's a session or two a week, you don't experience the same trends as if it's daily for a few hours. In any case, keep studying your game but give it a few more months or even years to develop. Some people have a great run of luck to start and then cool off. You seem to have started the other way round.

IMHO, this is the best lesson you could have had. Making money isn't as easy as people make it look. There are peaks and valleys and all that stuff, and you seem to be mucking your way through some valleys. I can tell you that the highs are incredible (winning a tournament or a month of winning sessions) but they come at a price.

I happen to be a BM player only. I managed to do well for myself over the years in the various clubs and card rooms. I went online last year after speaking with some regular online winners. All the fun of winning and never having to put on pants. I could do 4 or 5 sessions a week and net $500 US. Until I lost. I pumped about $3k into the game before I realized that I am just not built to play online. So I don'ttry online anymore. I still do well when I play face to face.

Bottom line, keep it up but also keep an open mind.

Cheers.

Hork42

Continue to focus on playing solidly. The wins will come in the long run... You can have the best pre-flop strategy in the world, but going too far with hands post-flop can be a big leak - make sure to limit that... You will lose a lot of bets by playing poorly post-flop.

Re-read Lee Jones. One read is not enough to completely digest the information. Once you have Lee Jones memorized, read Ed Miller 145 times (or however long it takes you to get it) If you read and comprehend what these books preach, you will understand that 3 hours is certainly not enough play to determine success or failure.

ScoobyD

Bad sessions are nasty, yet inevitable. The poker Gods don't give you a standard amount of good hands each session. Some sessions you'll seem to hit your set every time you have a pocket pair. Others you'll consistantly see an ace on the flop when you preflop raise with KK. On another note, you may want to consider your opposition. I've found the .50-1 full ring game Stars tables to be the tightest online at that level (the shorthanded tables are another story). I recently deposited into Party, and had a win rate of about 10BB/100 over my first 3000 hands! (I'm pretty sure this is way beyond sustainable). I've just recently been coming down to earth, with some cold cards. Every big ace I raise, the board comes rags. I have KK, someone has AA. I have overpair, someone flops a set, etc. etc. etc... It can be tough, but I'm trying to look at this downswing as a challenge to stay off tilt, and keep my losses small, so that when the cards do return I can pad my roll accordingly...

Zithal

I deposited $490US into my poker stars account. I'am now down to $443 US I played .50/$1 limit holdem'...

I find pokerStars a hard place to cut your teeth on. You may want to consider switching sites, or even dropping limits to try that out. I find the play on PS's .25/.50 about the same as Party's .5/1, and at the .5/1, the PS game tends to tighten up on the majority of tables which makes it difficult to exploit the mistakes that you're opponents are making.

I think this trend is because PS has a reputation of having the "best players", the player's believe the hype, then play tight to support the image.

I agree with the comments above though, three hours is just a session and anything can happen in that time period.

Play with what you're comfortable losing and treat the losses as the cost of an education. Reading is an important part of a good poker education, but nothing takes the place of practing what's in print.