Hah, I just assumed you had quoted a post from the previous page. given your response to it, I thought it was going to be some epic robbed at gunpoint story. Got about 1/3 of the way through before I realized that I'd read this story before..

Yeah like I tried quoting corlaths post and failed

Having money in a safe is not ******ed. Sometimes spots will come up where you may have no access to the bank for 1-3 days. If you have a few buy ins on hand you remain flexible and liquid enough to never miss an opportunity to play at a game should a juicy one arise at a moments notice. Its happened to me.

I pass all those qualifications (sadly?).

Most places I play (clubs) force you to cash out at the end of the night.

Was about to, haha.

Yeah, though that would still allow for saying "don't keep the majority of your bankroll at home."

You completely misunderstand what I'm saying

if this is in the wrong place feel free to move it


what are some common negative swings in terms of buyins do you winning players have. also positive swings

i buyin in for 75bb in my 1/2 game and just faced a 5 buyin loss(bad play/bluffing too much/tilt) after winning 5 sessions in a row

losing 3 buy ins for 100bbs happens

usually ill keep playing and finish somewhere around even

but i would say 1/50 5 hour sessions ill be down 300 bbs. then i usuallu stay and as i said finish a little down or a little up

Buy in for the max.
Really that's a huge mistake not to

Oh and 5 months is a small sample size let alone 5 sessions, so don't sweat short term so much.

Bad play/bluffing incorrectly/tilt /=/ swings.

Bad play will produce bad results.

right now I'm on a down swing. I've lost the majority of my huge pots ( 4/5) over the last week and when I put the hands in pokerstove after the session, I saw that I got the money in with around 70%+ equity to win the hand each time. Most of them were $350+ pots at 1/2 including a $550+ last night. I know I got the money in good so I'm not mad/tilting, just a blow to my spirits. Nonetheless, before this happened and I started really working on my game, I got it in bad a few times against better player and ended up winning pots so I know it's inescapable and I have to just stick to the plan and not be results oriented. I keep telling myself that I make money if I make the same play 100 times, its' +EV, and I just gotta keep playing.

I donno if this is bad or good (probably bad if I have to mention that), but I've folded in some spots where I have a slight edge (scared money) possibly based on a bias towards recent results.

Nonetheless, like I said, I working just as tirelessly to improve so that the next upswing will be even bigger!

This is something I still struggle with and it really is tough to deal with when our monsters don't hold or we get coolered, but truth is its going to happen till the day we stop playing poker. I'm going through a downswing myself but the thing I keep telling myself is who cares about the times you got it in ahead and lost let's focus on spots where I could have made a slightly better decision here or there and made this spot just a little bit more profitable. That's what's most important and what makes a truely winning player. Instead of saying I hope to run good next session say in your mind I will take advantage of every weakness in my opponents and make the most of every pot regardless of hands etc.

I have had a.five hundred hour break even stretch. (Last fall) My biggest down swing was like 16k. Which is around 20-30 buy ins. My buy in has since increased from the 500-1000 range to 2000. Games have gotten bigger. Mostly plo. I expect my.next downswing to easily eclipse 20k.
I don't tilt or.spew so my downswings aren't as rough as some of my.opponents.

Were you tiliting at all? It sounds like you were so losing 5 buy ins under those parameters is standard.


If you want more info about upswings pm me. I don't wanna post graphs on forums. My observed sample is around 2k hours.

I've just crossed the 1600 hour mark of live 1/3 NL and have yet to record a 5 BI = 500bb = $1500 downswing at the end of a recorded session (I once found myself over this threshold within the middle of a particular session, but I turned that particular session around).

I recall an older poster, canoodles, stating that he had never encountered a 3 BI downswing (I believe stating that earlier in this thread), but I haven't seen him around in ages (so obviously busto, ldo).

Ggod'solderandbetterlookingbrother,pullingashardas IcanonthepushdoomswitchG

My "winrate" changes so much from year to year, but ATM it's about $25 per hour online. I'd like this to be my most profitable year and I'm aiming for $13k profits ($3,759.92 so far this year as of last night) simply playing part time as I have a full 40 hour a week day job and a wife and life that limits the number of hours I can play.

As an American in this post Black Friday landscape, I'm actually pretty proud of that hourly number at the moment, although not cocky as something bad in the poker world never seems far away. Below are four current lifetime graphs: my live casino results, my live home game results, my online results, and ALL results combined. The graphs were made using a custom program I made and use. The x axis is simply sessions or days I played poker and the y axis is profit/loss.

If you look at the online graph a little before session 1255, you'll notice the graph flatlines a bit. That's right after Black Friday when I had to move from PokerStars to Merge and basically start over from $100NL to $4NL.

Live Casino Results


Live Home Game Results


Online Results


ALL Results Combined

I think people in this thread are greatly over-estimating their run bad and grossly underestimating their tilt/bad play. When people are card dead/running bad they start opening up their range a lot and call more questionable pre-flop bets or perhaps chasing a flush/straight without the correct odds. These seemingly small 4BB -10BB mistakes add up quickly over the course of a few sessions. I've never seen anybody at LLSNL that continues to play their A-game after being card dead for a couple of sessions.

Obviously when you lose 3/4 of your stack when you get your set in against a flush draw that hits it is a bit of run bad but don't ignore that last 1/4 of your stack you lose because you make a few bad preflop calls.

This x 1,000,000 (and I should remind myself of this often)

Phatty, what game/stakes do you play online and what are your thoughts on Bovada?

I play on NL Carbon full ring $50NL and $100NL.

I've been pretty outspoken against Bovada. For cash games online and live, I strongly believe that getting reads on players, having dynamics with players, taking notes on players, and NOT having anonymity is not only a crucial element of poker, but a mandatory one. I'm against Rush poker for the same reason.

Defenders of Bovada will say they can make money, but I make a helluva a lot of money at my day job, too. You can make $ in a lot of ways in a lot of different places. I play poker to play poker and Bovada isn't poker. The skills I practice, hone, and develop on first Stars, then Full Tilt, and now Carbon are applicable to all other online AND live home games and casino NLHE games and vice versa.

At the moment, I just don't want to invest any time in Bovada. If things got bad enough, maybe I would, but I'm pretty happy with Carbon and live poker.

Long time lurker, first time posting.

I played live $3-$5 to $5-10NL for a living between 2005 and 2008 in the LA & Bay Area. Decided to go to law school in 2007; stopped playing seriously in 2009 when I burned through my BR paying for living expenses in law school. Continued to play recreationally. After two years of lawyering, I've decided to take 3-6 months to pursue other interests and re-consider whether I want to spend the next 30 years committed to the law.

I'm planning on playing poker 3-4 days a week at Hustler, Hawaiian Gardens, Commerce (I live in Seal Beach, so Hawaiian G is the closest.) Would it be worth my while to get a live coach?? I've logged a a decent amount of hours since September of 2012; here are my results from poker journal:

Total Game Count: 61
Total Won (Gross): $19,076.
Standard Deviation: $439.94
Hours: 327:23
Average/Hour: $58.27

116hrs are from $5/$5 ($500 or $1k cap)
125hrs are from $3/$5 ($300 cap)
60hrs are from $5/$10 ($1k cap)

I have no aspirations of moving beyond $5/$10NL. Thanks in advance for any feedback.

Yes it'll help your game

You seem pretty solid already - pick wisely on a coach or you will just leave the session disappointed. You need someone who crushes and has records to back it up along with testimonials from other players.

This is correct...I have had some coaches I left wondering why I paid fees and others that I probably would have paid double for.

Can someone recommend a good live coach via pm or here if u dont mind? The only one i see here in 2+2 is ANL but the scandal kinda made me skeptical.

I recommend ATsai