Alright, here's my quick story!

I started playing poker when I was 16, played online a lot, learned by losing, then started winning more and more. I live near foxwoods casino, so there is always a live game, I say this because I can no longer play online due to law.

When I was 22, I played live NL holdem successfully 1/2 NL at Foxwoods for 1 year. I made roughly 50,000 profit (starting from 5,000). I thought that was pretty good.

I finally decided to go back to college, stop playing, and do other things. At the age of 22, this decision seriously impacted my poker game.

To make a long story short, from age 22 til age 28 (my current age), I have stopped college, joined the U.S. Army, and tried many things other than playing poker. All have failed. (I was in the Army for 45 days due to medical discharge)


Now, age 28, recently discharged from the army, I have no direction in life. Luckily, my older brother who has a good income, came to my rescue.

He gave me $6,000 to play poker with. He called it a "career investment" for me. He holds no judgement whether I win or lose with the money, the money is mine.


My problem is that I returned to 1/2 NL after years without playing and I haven't had a great session yet. I have made 6 trips so far. Of the $6,000, I now have $4,800, mainly due to living expense (I only pay for food and gas) and I don't seem to be doing as well as I used to. (I used to make a ton of money at 1/2 NL at foxwoods)

I'm not sure if it's that I'm playing scared money (I shouldn't because my brother doesn't care about it) or if I'm rusty at poker, or have times changed and I'm not used to the "new thing".

I have considered starting limit poker instead of NL. I think my NL game MIGHT be off.

For example:

I had JJ... middle position (When an early position limped) I raised 4x the blinds. 2 callers, big blind and early position. Flop is 6 8 9 rainbow.... The big blind leads out a 80% pot bet... I call and the UTG player raises 4x his bet. BB folds and I folded.... The player who reraised said he had 10 10 and said (I had you right?) Which I cringed because the only reason I folded was the big blind open bet without my action first but he folded to the raise, which messed with my mind and then I folded which was probably a bad move.



I'm so messed up right now in life. The only thing I have is poker or re-joining the army. I dunno what I'm doing. I was thinking of trying limit poker since I seem to be a chicken in NL poker nowadays. Not sure what limit to start at with 4800$. Or if that is a good move. Someone enlighten me please!

People seeking direction often go to the army, not to poker.

Though I'm sure plenty of people feel the army is a bad idea for various reasons better left for a politics or life forum.

I think the game has changed a ton and the players are just better now. Means you have to put in a lot of work to be successful.

Agreed, the players are better and will continue to get better.

However, it's also easier to get better (more clear true ways to improve, more quality information available for affordable prices or for free).

In some games, pros make more money today than 5 years ago.