I been a pro for about 8 years now, mainly playing 2-5-10 live NL. I am not a wizard nor great but was considered the top winner/player in the casino I played at.

I took about a year off due to family obligation and got distracted with crypto as well. I just recently got back into poker, but I find myself being nervous and lost in many spots at the tables. It seems as though I have the yipes. I act to fast and feel like I am a fish now. Anyone else experience this? any advice would be appreciated.


I am on a major downswing too. I tried lowering stakes but still feel nervous.

Probably there are big leaks in your game.. have you looked into getting coaching? What area do you play in?

I kind of had the same reaction. Best thing to do is move down in stakes and play a very basic tag game. It might take a week or 2 to readjust to the game.

this is good advice.

i'm also weird in that when i haven't played in a long time i'm a little lost and play passive at first. eventually i get my head split open in a hand and then start playing well again.

I actually was a coach, but I am open to coaching. I travel, I play in NorCal and New Orleans area. If there are any live coaches out there, plz reply.

I tried this, I moved down in stakes and play 1-2 and 2-5, I find myself bored and not focus. Thanks for the advice, I will give it another go at lower stakes.

I think even people who work outside of poker go through similar experiences after returning to work after a long hiatus. Women who leave workforce (to have and raise children) then return are good example. Or, even people who make changes in fields or industries.

- there's no substitute for table time to shake off the high levels of anxiousness and weird feelings; so, it may be a good idea to move down in stakes and put in a lot of hours there so that the re-socialization into poker won't cost too much money

- "I act too fast" in conjunction with "I find myself bored/not focused" seem directly related; it sounds like you are not being observant nearly enough which would lead to acting fast (aka thinking too fast) and not being focused; your brain power is being expended on too much stuff outside the hand; try putting a ton of time at the tables but initially make it a goal not to win money but rather just sit there and observe; make observing the goal (not playing or winning hands);

- try to get back to the basics and not overly cloud or overfill your brain; just set some hard and fast rules until you start feeling comfortable and confident again; for example, set a rule that says you won't even look at your cards in EP/MP and just autofold (obviosuly, you need to act like you're peaking or risk looking like an idiot); build a calling and raising range for hijack/cutoff/button and BB only; this will help you achieve your goal of focusing on being observant as your number one priority/goal

At the end of the day, I think more table time and keeping things simple will get you back on your way to being who you were.

This is terrible advice imo. If you don't look at your cards you will be folding AA, KK, QQ, JJ, and AK which are huge money makers.

I'm in the same boat. I played full time for 6 years and then the emotional roller coaster and tough lifestyle got to me. I made a choice to walk away from the game. At the time I didn't know if my time away from the game was going to be 2 weeks or 2 months. Fast forward to today and its been 5 years since the last time I played cards.

Last week end I found my at the Bellagio. I got the on list for 5/10, no seats, tried 2/5 no seats, so I sat a 1/3 table. Its a good thing that only lasted for about 30 minutes because I have little patience for the small/scared/paranoid simpletons tiny stakes retired loser bitter grinders.


I jumped in a $2/5 game and made plenty of mistakes over the next 4 hours, along he way I did make a couple of decent plays and knocked off some of the ring rust. Next a seat was open at the 5/10, for un-explainable reasons I went on a heater for the next 6 hours and destroyed the game. I raked 3 pots over $3,000 each. I was playing my "old 20/40 style" with a littlte attitude and super/hyper aggrsive. Of course when you play this aggressive the swings are huge, but for the first time in a very long time it was actually "fun". I had left the game because it was fun anymore.


Moving forward my plan is to continue to study and hone the old skill set I used to have. For now my plan is to play 5/10 games with the anticipation of moving up to a deep stacked un-capped 20/40 game in the near future.


That said, the best advice I can give is it sure seems like a lot more fun when you're playing well and then making stupid mistakes. Of course you do everything "right" and still loose, maybe a session, maybe a month or more. However it really comes down to simple math. If you continuously play well you WILL be a long term winner and probably enjoy playing again. Best wishes moving forward sir

Fair enough.

I'm just saying fold hands and just observe a lot more than you think you need to. If you don't look at your cards, you won't know you have those premiums. It's irrelevant. The real issue is he will be taxed since he's paying blinds and playing less cards per orbit. But, again, I didn't say he should do this in a prolonged manner. Just until he feels more comfortable.

After a long hiatus from golf, it's not the swing mechanics that hard to get back (go to the range a lot and play practice rounds). The more nuanced parts are what is hard to get back ... short game, putting. The mental and feel based aspects. The feel based part can come back by observing more while not in hands.

None of this makes any sense. If taking 1 second to look at your cards preflop makes it impossible to observe things then you just need to quit poker.

This makes sense. Main goals right now are hours and being focus at the table till I get my feel of the game back. Thx for the reply.

Meditate for 15 minutes prior to each session. Tell yourself you're going to pay attention, play your best, but not beat yourself up when you fail to do those things. Take a 10-15 minute break every couple of hours or so.

Buy PIO Solver. After your sessions pick a couple spots where you weren’t sure and plug them in. Rinse and repeat till you don’t suck

Just study. Start with the fundamentals (you can literally start with just hammering down your standard MP opening range) and go from there. Addressing the symptoms of being lost (tilt control, fixing the yips, etc) does not fix the root problem: that you're frequently finding yourself lost. Gain a confidence in the core elements of the game so that you can stack good decisions on top of good decisions until you're stacking good hands together.

Appreciate all the replies, I will try all the advice given. I am studying more and relearning poker again.