I recently started playing live 1/2. I was fortunate enough to have house money to play on from some other winnings. However after about 70 hours of play, I am in the negative about $900, by negative I mean I tracked all of my sessions, winnings minus losses put me to that figure. I still have profits from what I initially won from something non poker related, but poker is my passion and what I enjoy. I know $900 is not a lot of money, but I am trying to see if this is an indicator of me not being a winning player, or if this is not uncommon to learning live play. I am obviously not a winning player currently, but I believe I know more about proper calls, bets, and odds than most players at my tables.

The places I play out are filled with a lot of casual players, they chase quite a bit, and bet big with air quite a lot. I am kind of a tight player, especially being new to live, and I have been folding winning hands quite a bit when two or three of the casuals will get into a betting war with each other. I can't imagine justifying many calls if I were to continue playing at these tables. I would possibly need to loosen up a bit and start calling. The most money I have lost though has been on coolers, I would say more than half of the $900 I have lost so far has been after getting in with my stack ahead of the other guys then having them outdraw me.

I guess my two questions are, is it abnormal to start out with a hit to your bankroll at the beginning?

When playing against loose casual players, is it justified to call more than usual?

This better belongs in the beginner quesitons, psychology, or general poker forums

Meh. When I started my initial downswing was around $1800. I played 150-ish hours before getting positive and staying there.

I never played poker strictly for fun, as I don't enjoy gambling and actually find it somewhat repulsive. I just treated the initial loss as an investment which has payed off.

Thanks, I made a post in beginner questions.

So I guess it isn't that abnormal. I look at it is an investment as well, hopefully I will start getting some returns. One thing I believe I need to do is start taking more risks when the table is good and players are very loose. I am not making enough on the days I got positive to make up for the days I go negative.

I am not a big gambler, I do not like slot machines, horses, betting on sports, or any other casino games really. I enjoy playing cards though, there is something different about it, but in the end you are gambling because you play the odds with no guarantees.

Do you want to have fun or make money? Once you decide which of these two options is most important, you will then know what to do.

At the moment, you are anything but tight, although you may be having fun.

Poker has a learning curve of course, but the biggest part of playing poker to win is playing responsibly to your reasons for playing. The rest comes with experience.

it depends how it affects you. Last year I ran pretty good and profited 40K.

This year I am not as focused and am currently down $1500 after having a fantastic January.

I made $4000 in January only to be stuck $1500 by April =)

You can have some pretty sick runs in this game. Like literally flopping no value hands for a very long time. I can't remember the last time I flopped a set and got action was. All my bluffs seem to get called by random hands and just sick **** that you dread of happening.


If you enjoy it - you should keep playing and it will turn around if you are making the correct decisions.

One thing I notice a leak of mine is bluffing too much in games where people don't fold because I get "bored" and tilted that i'm not making a hand hour after hour after hour. And than when I do flop the nuts - i get all the money in only to be sucked out on the river. It causes me to maybe bluff more in future pots.

Beating 1/2 is not hard at all but you have to be patient unless you are really good at hand reading, which i'm sure you are not since you are just starting.

I'd keep playing but i'm addicted and really enjoy this game.

70 hours doesn't tell you much. You're losing at about 13hr, but where that fits vs your expected results over this small sample is hard to tell.

For further discussion on this, I'd suggest the Official Winrates, Bankroll and Finances thread, a link to which can be found in the stickies.