Hey bro!

I am still hovering around $2350. I have only played about 50 hands in the last 3 or 4 days. I was fortunate enough to get backed for the Sunday Bovada series and played every big MTT. Ended up losing about $80 on $1250 in buyins. Ran deep in the 100k and 200k.

I plan on getting back to the cash games on Monday. I have family over for the weekend and won't be able to play much until then.

I'll get back to where I was. I just need to put in the hours and not tilt.

Since July 1 I am down roughly $1,400 in EV. Once I can get a stretch of one or two months where I run neutral or above neutral I should be able to bring in a nice profit.

You ever thought about getting with a staking stable? Most good ones have coaches that will work with you to improve you game and help you move up. Just a thought...

A backer would be amazing, especially for MTTs. Honestly I would quit cash games completely if I had a solid back for MTTs. I know I have a huge edge there and seem to produce good results. Cash on the other hand I am not so sure about. Paying $3k+ in rake per month in the cash games is probably not worth playing until 200NL+. How many months can I stay even/lose a few hundred whilst paying 30+ buyins in rake with zero promotions?

_______________________________________________

Quick update:

Played tonight for the first time in 4 days. I got dominated at 100NL. Lost about $400. I am starting to accept that I am nowhere near as good as I thought I was. No point in blaming run bad anymore. At some point that has to not be a valid excuse.

-392
Bankroll: $1950

Correction: Finished at $2091 bankroll.

Sorry to hear things aren't going well at the moment. As a few others have said you should definitely move down for a bit and pad the bankroll a little bit and regain some confidence. The biggest thing is to just not focus on getting back to whatever your peak $ was and instead make sure to just focus on making the most profitable decision in every hand. When you focus on achieving a certain desired $ result it is going to cause you to make mistakes. Being a big winner in the games is a byproduct of making the best decision in each hand, focus on playing well and the $ will follow. 2k is a very solid roll for 50nl, especially in bovada games. Grind 50nl until you win 10 buyins and take a 5 buyin shot at 100nl and rinse/repeat until you break through.

Might also want to take Pots advice and think about applying to some stables that offer coaching as it will massively speed up your progress if you work hard/listen to the stables coaches and it will also take away a lot of the short term financial pressure. Gl!

A backer would be amazing. I will definitely look into this.

You are absolutely right. All I have been thinking about is getting back to 4.6k.

The mental block with moving down is the rake. I pay over a buyin per day in rake at 100NLz so moving down to 50NL, which is even more of a raketrap, is discouraging. Last month I paid $3100 in rake with no 50NL at all.

A backer would be amazing right now. For MTTs or cash. Last week when I got the 1.2k in backing for the MTT series I played the best poker I have ever played. I wasn't playing scared money and wasn't afraid to bust a tournament getting it in good. My backer was really cool about not caring if I busted a big tournament as long as I was making what I thought were the best decisions.

Are there any particular stables you would suggest I look into? I know you were with Imawhale at one point. I do have a solid winrate at all holdem games over fairly large samples.

some dude on twitch talked about using poker points to buy blackjack chips and then just play optimal blackjack for an average 95% ROI on your points. it's like a round about way of turning points into cash aka rakeback

also if you are concerned about rake paid nit it up. you win a higher % of hands you enter and when you do you'll be playing bigger pots due to your higher cbet and better wwsd. it will mean passing up marginal +ev spots and upping variance a bit but it will make you pay less rake

I'm not very familiar with any other stables back in on us sites besides imawhale. I'm sure there are some others in the marketplace offering stakes section though. Imawhale is a good one though.

Where are you getting your rake numbers from? Because if you are getting them from HEM, you are not really paying that much rake.

HM2, sorted by month. Is it not accurate? Its sounds ridiculously high doesn't it? Last month was $2700 in rake at cash games over 42k hands and $350 in MTT/SnG rake.

No, it is not accurate. There is a bug in the HH convertor. Check bovada thread in Internet poker for more details.

I started reading this thread at 2:00 p.m. today when I got to my computer ready to play Bovada. It is now 8:01 p.m. and I have not played a single hand because I have, off and on, read every single post in this thread. I'm not a winning poker player by any stretch of the imagination. Although I think I have some real potential, I've never really given online a shot and your thread makes me want to do that.

I started playing poker in 2008 and played on and off, never taking it seriously. Some house games, some free poker at bars, some Oklahoma casinos, meh.

My biggest cash was a min-cash at the WPT $200k GTD last month and it was only for $450 with an additional $100 tournament voucher I sold for $50 bucks.

I don't want to make this post about me, I just wanted you to know that my advice can not be heeded and maybe you're smarter for it. I also just wanted to say that although I have played collectively for seven years, and although I've never put in a run like you have where you're being exposed to thousands upon thousands of more hands than I've probably played, I want you to know that I am you.

All of us are you, have been you, etc. when it comes to your mental game. From what I've read, and what I know, it sounds like you are a really solid player. You need to be proud of that. This is your first real run at online poker, and you're handling it this well? Are you kidding me? Be excited! Don't forget that excitement, either. Because it will rain.

You need to be proud of the fact that you can bink a couple MTT's and proud of the fact that you're to the good on your money. Not sulk over the fact that you are down "X" amount from your highest BR point. If you can get your mental game under control, you might **** this game up, hard. And by "this game", I mean NLHE!

You might should tell Bovada to ban you from PLO, lol. Not because you're bad at it, but because it seems like you have an uncontrollable tendency to play that game when you're already tilted, or behind. So, it wouldn't matter if you played stud, razz, plo or any other game....when you're playing ANY game while emotional, behind, or after bad beats, you're gonna be -EV. You know that.

I'm gonna tell you something else that may not help you at all, but it definitely helped me. It's about how I view the game of poker. I used to view poker like I viewed roulette (which I love) or blackjack, or any other casino game. I would get spewey after thinking about how much I was just down.

For example, I was up to maybe $500 yesterday in Bovada, ran good a couple of days playing blackjack up $200, etc. Lost $250 of that yesterday playing a combination of 50nl and $5 SnG(-$40), Roulette (-$60), and BlackJack ($150). Now, should I have just taken my BJ winnings and played poker? Sure. But you have to have the ability to almost mentally "reset" and pretend you never, ever were up to $4.6k. It's not going to do me any good going in to play poker with my remaining $250 with that on my mind.

How would you be playing if your current BR was the highest it had ever been, and you have ****ing amnesia or something?

The tl;dr of what I am getting at, and what I want to tell you about how I now view the game of poker is this, and it seems really obvious, but give it some thought: it's a game of mastering your current situation. This isn't a sprint, it's a marathon race that (hopefully) lasts the rest of your life. In the long-run, you lose some 2-outer's, lose 5, hell, 10 buy-in's in a day? So what? As long as you don't go spewey or go run-bad at PLO, in the long-run, you're going to destroy this game. And not doing those things will be the best +ev thing you can do, anyway.

Forget the past, forget the money made and lost, forget everything except for the information you've picked up on your villains in your current session.

It's NOT about "having to" MAKE your AA get there! It's really NOT about "having to" capitalize on the times you get AA (or insert any other good hand here); you're going to lose with AA, right? I used to get so married to premiums after a long grind and think "Ok, here is where all these hours pay off, I have to get there with this hand."

But that was killing me. What would have saved me way more money and made me way more +ev would have been to realize that it doesn't matter. You know what you are supposed to do in every single situation that comes your way (for the most part) - thats because you are a great poker player.

Just make it a game of your current situation. Get amnesia when it comes to the tilty stuff. You WILL make that money back by getting control of your mentality and not feeling the need to "have to" make that money back by making decisions you otherwise would not have made.

Stick to your guns, keep posting, you're a baller and don't let anyone tell you any different. I'd say I'm sorry to be preachy and longwinded, but I'm not - you took six hours from me, jk.

You're going to kill, even if you go busto, you've learned so much that you will only be better in the future. Keep learning. Have fun at the tables. Subbed.

Hunter, thank you for that awesome post man!! I really appreciate it!! I'm glad you enjoyed reading my thread. It's not the most interesting but it's a good depiction of what a young, immature and tilting new player goes through.

I recall having similar mental game issues when I played golf in high school. I might be even par through 15 holes and then make a double bogey and finish 9 over. Not because I suddenly lost my entire golf game. It was because I made a double bogey and could not 'play in the moment' on the last few holes. Maybe I would have finished under par if I birdied the last three holes. But not when all I can think about is how badly I just ****ed up a great round.

Doing things other than poker should make it easier to stay in the moment. If I play 50 hours of poker in a week and think about poker all day long then obviously I am going to get upset when poker is going poorly... because I'm investing all of my time playing poker I am letting poker define who I am. And a few bad beats really hurt because I start wondering why I am investing all of this time into poker when I can't even win? It's just a negative chain reaction that starts with playing too much and constantly harping on things in the past.

Learning to play in the moment and forget everything that happened in the past, whether it's a month ago(4.6k roll) or 2 hands ago(lose an 80/20 for stacks) is what will take my game to the next level. I don't doubt that I have the skills to crush these games. No amount of poker study is going to dramatically change my game right now. I need to and play the hands in front of me, not the ones yesterday, an hour ago, or the prior orbit.

Subbed. I feel you man, I have a lot of troubles with online as well. I find it easier to tilt, and easier to respond in bad ways to the tilt (i.e. jump up in stakes, open more tables, play a different game that you are not good in). But I am determined to improve and it sounds like you are too. I am also taking a break from Bovada for 2-3 weeks before I get back to focus on PLO50.

Let's stay in touch and conquer this adventure. Also, we have a mutual friend in angel zera. From what I hear, you are doing pretty well in OFC Pineapple so at least you got that going for you

Hahaha I am just running really hot vs zera.

PLO50 is super soft. You will crush it if you can handle the swings. Playing a 99/94 guy who pots every street and losing a few buyins to him is very tilting. The potential winrate in PLO is just insane though. The fish are so much worse than holdem fish, they just have a much better chance at winning when they play bad.

Thx for checking out my thread bro. Add me on skype or PM me anytime you want to chat.

Getting it in good repeatedly and getting backdoored or losing my 70/30s. Playing mostly 50NL with a little bit of 100NLz. I'm gonna take a few days off and try and figure this out. I don't know if I've completely lost anything resembling a poker game or if this is just still run bad.

Right now I am rolled for 25NL. After playing for months with $500/hr swings it's really difficult to move down to a stake where I am making $5/hr.

I played mostly 50NL today and yesterday. The game is tighter and tougher than 100NL zone. It's very discouraging.

I can't foresee anything but a $0 balance at this rate. I haven't had a 3 day stretch where I made profit in over a month. It's hard to say if my game has fallen apart, if I am running bad or what. I don't know...

I may just ditch cash for awhile and go back to the micro/low stake MTTs under $22. I need to change something because what I am doing is not working.

-497
Bankroll: $1594

your mind f'n yourself again and obv your confidence is shot. you say youre getting it in way good and your opponents are getting there but then you say you dont know if youre still just running bad? if you do take some time off you definitely need to put in a good amount of time reviewing your hands. playing some lower stakes mtt's might not be a bad idea, just so you start enjoying the game again win or lose, maybe even micros to ensure that and so you dont care about the $ whatsoever. sure everyone likes to win and make money but im sure when you first started playing you did so because you had fun.

saying youre rolled for 25nl when you have 1600 is way too nitty imo, youre fine to play 50nl. i wouldnt be mixing in 100zone tho. while its very beatable 1 nasty run of variance will really hurt you right now. if you dip below 1k which hopefully you dont then you might wanna consider dropping down to 25nl, i dont expect you to lose 12 buyins@50nl tho unless you go on uber tilt. GL in turnin it around

You need to work harder on focusing on each hand and making the right decisions and not chase peak. If you try to force results it will end poorly. I've never played 50nl on bovada but I can assure you there is no chance that those games are not very very beatable if you focus on playing well. Don't worry about getting back to 100nl as quick as possible, don't worry about being a few thousand from peak. If you wake up tomorrow with a fresh mindset and start playing good poker at 50nl you very easily could turn this all around very quickly with some volume. Set some short term goals to focus on instead of focusing on the overwhelming goal that you are setting for yourself of immediately getting back to peak. Small goals (ex. make 20 buyins at 50nl, grind x hours the next 14 days, etc) will give you something more achievable to focus on so you aren't overwhelmed and in a bad mindset as well as give you some confidence when you achieve them. These kinds of times are a big part of what separate a small winner/loser from a big winner. Mental game is just so unbelievably important, especially as games get harder and variance increases. No one is immune from variance and not letting it get the best of you and shake your confidence/alter your play is necessary for long term success. Best of luck!

Skimmed through the thread, sorry to hear it's not going well for you lately OP.
Like I said I only skimmed through and didn't take a look/read every post so take this with a grain of salt. My suggestion to you is to stop playing all other forms of poker if you haven't already, basically meaning PLO. Word on the street is Bovada's tourneys are super soft, so you should stick to low buy-in tourneys to rebuild your roll. Forget about playing 100NL. Money is nice there, but I don't think you are ready for 100NL. You can't do anything about getting it all-in good and losing, that just sux. No clue how much FR compared to 6max you are playing, but going by some of your posts and graphs, you are way too goddamn nitty for 6max. You are probably missing a shlt ton of +ev spots. My suggestion would be drop to 25NL, play 50k hands at reg tables or 100k at zone and then reassess yourself regardless of if you are over-rolled for the stake. Post hh of tough spots, look at your stats, and then if things are going good, move up to 50NL and rinse and repeat.
Saw some of your latest posts, and I really cannot stress how important it is for you to forget about 100NL. With your mentality you have a high probability of going busto from not being able to move down stakes when BRM requires it. That's fine if you are working and can afford to reload.

wow I never even realized you had one of these. subbed/will read now

First off, ty 4GET2PWNED0, TheTyman9 and fatNsweaty for your replies. I have officially moved down to low stakes SnGs and 50NL cash. Mentally I am doing much better than I was last week.

I've found a new format of poker that I am really enjoying. Heads up Holdem. I've been working on my HU game with a few friends on stars for play money. It has really improved HU game tremendously. I'm up a few buyins in the SnGs since yesterday. For now I am playing 1-2 at a time which is allowing me to really pay attention and pick up reads. Any more than 2 and I lose focus so I'd rather keep the BRM aggressive and play less tables which should increase my ROI. I figure even if I don't stick with HU for a long period of time, it will help my hand reading skills which should translate over to 6-max.

I would definitely like to play the full Mad Monday schedule. I will buy in for the $10-$33 myself but if anyone is interested in buying action for the larger events please let me know via PM. Any remotely reasonable offers will be considered.

BTW if anyone else is interested in working on their short handed/heads up game let me know. I will invite you to my PokerStars Club and we can work on our games.

-44.54
Bankroll: $1549.46

Deep ITM of the $22 10k. Player #337. 10/32. LETS GO!!

Busted in 11th. JJ < 66 for chip lead AIPF. 66 < JK for busto.

What a night. So I went on mega tilt after losing that big hand in the $22 10k just off the final table. Was definitely quitting poker for about a 20 minute stretch. Finally got my **** together and decided to play 100NLz. I was still really tilted at this point, but in a good way. All I could think about is dominating my opponents and that is exactly what I did. Made 5 buyins in under 2 hours. Ran up a 600bb stack on one table. I played the best poker I have ever played. Aggressive, solid and not scared to fold big hands poker. Idk if it is the HU I have been playing that improved my handreading, or just rungood or being extremely determined to play my best game due to the frustration of busting that MTT. Probably a combo of all 3.

This is about the 6th MTT in 3 months I ran top 18 and stacked off, or nearly stacked off with 80% equity to put me in a top 3 spot. I have busted every single one with bigger pairs into lower PP AIPF. Tilting, but something I have to learn to deal with. I will turn it around if I put in the hours and keep studying. I plan on studying HU intensely the next few months and branching off from there. It will really help my final table game when I finally do get there again.

+453.14
Bankroll: $2002.60

[x] OP states that they officially moved down to 50NL
[x] Get tilted and play outside of BRM
[x] On the correct path of going busto