Hi I'm new to the site as a member..ive been following the forums for a while though and wasn't sure where the best spot I could put this.

I just had the worst tilt session of my life and am contemplating giving up the dream of going pro.

My quick story: I just graduated from college this past May and have always wanted to go Pro in poker as its my passion. So I got a job for the summer and decided to save up for decent sized deposit for the online games. About 3 weeks ago I deposited $1800. I've played roughly 60 hours of .25/.50 cent cash games playing 4 tables at once building my Bankroll up to about $3400. A few days ago I came in 1st in a 155 player tourny and cashed for about $570.

Everything was looking good until tonight. I decided to move up to .50/$1 and had success during my first two hour session. Then tonight I lost a few hundred due to bad beats/tilting/poor play. I then figured I could just win the money back I lost playing $2/$4 and even $3/6. Well my tilt/poor play continued and now my BRoll is at roughly $1200.

I'm devasted, embarrased, and just disapointed in myself. Everytime I try to build a roll or I get nice cash in a tourny, I tilt it off playing at stakes way past my BRoll limits. I feel as if this is a gambling problem and am at a crossroads on what to do with poker and my life. For 3 straight weeks I made over $1600 playing at proper limits all to see that hard work and time spent gone within a couple hours.

I was hoping that someone would have any ideas/tips or if I should just completely give up playing poker which is my passion. Thanks for any help.

Just restrict your table limits. At least it gives 24 hours to think about it. You could also look for staking if you have decent results. You wont be as tempted to tilt if its someone else's money and will teach you good BRM

I built up $100 up to $3500 in one night, and lost it all in a few hours. Could have bought a nice card and had a holiday.

I think something like this happens to most players at one stage in their lives.

I've personally lost 5k, 10k, and 20k at various stages of playing..... and that's at small-medium stakes. I remember Jason Somerville telling the story of first meeting Daniel Negreanu at the tables. Negreanu laughed and asked him nonchalantly "is this your first million?". Somerville nods and Negreanu instantly says "you'll lose it soon". Sure enough, Somerville lost most of his roll at one point and had to rebuild.

Truth is very few people have the discipline to understand that being on a heater doesn't mean that you're permanently untouchable. It's like we have to lose money at some point to appreciate the value of it. Learn from it, don't beat yourself up over it too much, and stick to your BR management guidelines to avoid having it happen again.

Appreciate both responses. This isn't the first time I've blown a roll playing in higher limits. I think for now the best thing is to just take a break for a while.