Yeah when I was totally running these games over I was getting away with this. Definitely a mistake.

Yeah - when he calls, it's going to be tougher to play. When the CO calls, he's bad, and when the blinds come along it's +EV. The button calling and the rest folding is worst case scenario preflop.

I've snapped him off probably five times like this before, in fact I think this is the first, maybe second time he's showed up with the hand he's repping. He's done it with more than just draws, too, made hands with showdown value that aren't the hand that just got there. So like KJ, AT, etc. This is the hand in the mix that i feel fine about against the villain, but I expect most people who read it will think I gave money away on the river.

That's good advice. I was getting played back at a ton today and when you aren't making hands and that's happening and you aren't sure if you're getting owned by bluffs or running into hands, it's super frustrating and detrimental to your confidence.

Tomorrow if the weather is good I'm going to the driving range and taking the day off. If not, I'm going to DP to play live. Thursday through Saturday are broadcast days this week, so that'll get me away from poker a bit.

Thanks man. I need to get through this one and rebuild the confidence and I think it'll help a lot for the next one. It's been a while since I played this consistently, so I don't have a current track record to definitively prove I'm a winning player at X/hr live or X/100 online, thus these swings are scarier.

Phil Galfond had an awesome quote in his well

He says poker players are going to be defined by how they handle their downswings.

Just remember how hard you crushed Borgata 1/2 before you started running bad. Lose the minimum or you'll regret it when you start running neutral again.

I've tilted off over $3K in the last two months from tilt. That's almost 25% of my current BR. Would be nice to get that back. Don't be like Dook.

Yeah and I guess my live hourly is still solid at like $14.50 and my BB/100 online is probably still awesome once I calculate it. I'm going to keep reminding myself of those things and I'm going to focus more on proper sleep, diet, etc to try to give my mind what it needs to be sharp and fight off negativity.

April 3 - "Soy un perdedor, I'm a loser baby, so why don't you kill me?"

The run continues. Drawn out on. Coolered. Don't care to even get into it. Sent Duke a couple hands via text, I'm not spewing, I'm not tilting, I'm just running freaking awful. I'm tightening up, c-betting less and still getting them floated and raised even more. Either a few players who are fish were totally tilting a month ago and playing awful and were actually good, learned how to play at an expert level in a month, or are running amazing. When they raise and I make a stand with TPGK, they inevitably are behind and pair the kicker on the river.

About three hours online, but only one table, so I'm calling it 1.5 for my online volume goal. 332 hands. -$165.24, all at .25/.50.

This is now a $900 downswing on the online roll (45% of it), 2 buyins at .50/.1 and the rest at .25/.50, so that's a 16-buyin downswing online, plus the struggles live.

The upswing to follow better be f***ing epic.

I honestly believe you should avoid online poker entirely. Since it is so difficult nowadays to even find someplace online to play(talking about US) that the only people who will actually take the time to find a website that will accept US players AND whatever payment method they have are not going to be mega fish and will have knowledge of the game.

I have so many friends that absolutely suck at poker and I tell them to play online but they just simply won't if its not a simple Google search and credit card number away.... They just don't care that much

Every table online will be either all knowledgeable players or one or 2 slight fish that everyone is just begging to get in a hand with. But the majority of the time you are just waiting to cooler the guy next to you and he is waiting for the same thing.

I'm in Delaware, though, so it's legal/regulated and payment methods work pretty well. At the beginning the games were Party Poker 2004 good, but they do seem to be drying up somewhat. The player pool is also getting merged with Nevada, which should help. Unfortunately, they don't market it the way they should.

April 6 - "Tryin to tell you son if it wasn't for bad luck, oh, oh, I wouldn't have no luck at all."

I played the $15 satellite to the $150 Sunday GTD tourney on Delaware Park's online site. I won some pots, built slightly on my stack.

Five handed, CO/UTG opens to T150 at 25/50. I have 2,108 and he covers. I flat on the button with A9. BB comes laong

Flop (T475): AJ8

BB checks, CO bets T325, I call, BB folds. Villains been aggressive, so I'm ahead of his range and basically plan to call him down and let him spew with his weaker hands.

Turn (T1,125): K
CO bets T675. I call.

River (T2475): 6

He moves me in for my last 958, I call, he has KJ, nice hand, rebuy.

A few minutes later, 9 handed, I have T1,950, UTG at 50/100. Structure is fast so I'm opening up my ranges. I raise to T250 with A9

I get a call from the HJ who has T1,055 behind after calling.

Flop (T650): A44

I'm WA/WB and decide to check and trap him with his weaker hands. He bets 325, I call.

Turn (T1,300): K

I check, he jams 730, I call. He has KJ and he's drawing to two outs...

River (T2,760): K:diamonds:

Nice hand, sir.

I have 645 left, pass through the blinds unable to play a hand because I have garbage and raises and calls have been made so I know I'd get called in multiple spots.

In my cutoff, there's an EP limp and I jam T495 at 50/100 with AT

The SB calls with A6

Flop (T1,190): J94
Turn: 9
River: 8

And I'm out.

April 6 Continued - "Lost my money playing poker, so I had to leave town."

I'm torn between sharing all of the ridiculously sick beats I'm taking in order to show I'm not tilting or spewing, and just posting results, because I don't want to relive all of the bulls**t I'm dealing with. First, I've got some fish limp-calling me with any two, so I'm raising a lot of broadway cards. Every time I flop a draw, he's floating me out of position with A high and then I brick and check behind the river and he takes it. Every time I flop middle pair, he either flops top pair or like floats bottom pair and turns trips. We probably played 15-20 pots, and I think I won maybe 1.

Then, as I am giving up for the night, this against a solid opponent who I've 3bet a lot tonight. I mostly had hands, but he doesn't know that.

Six-handed, he raises in the HJ to $1.50. I make it $4.50 with AQ, the SB calls - he's been playing me LAGGY. BB folds, raiser calls.

Flop ($13.30): A96

I have $65.06 and both villains cover. It checks to me and I bet $8. SB folds and villain calls.

Turn ($28.50): 9

He checks, I bet $18, he calls. I liked this sizing to set up a river shove of about 2/3 pot. I don't think he check-calls AK on the flop, so unless he has A9, I should be in great shape.

River ($63): T

He leads for $25. What the f***????? If he had the boat, he'd just jam or check-jam. What the hell is this? It looks like AJ, AT, A8, A7 to me. I shove, he snap calls, AT is good. Nice hand sir, ship him the $141 pot.

In all I lost $348.36 in 3 hours, which takes my online roll down to $719.48. I've lost 64% of my online roll. I'm considering moving down to $20 NL.

To be honest, I'm considering quitting this whole thing. I've lost like 20 buyins at 50NL, and a couple at 100 NL. How often do 22 buyin downswings happen? Not to mention live, that remains a 5 buyin downswing. How often do 27 buyin downswings happen to good winning players? Maybe I just ran good for awhile and the game has passed me by in the last 6+ years since I used to really play regularly.

Given that I live at home, I'm going to be subjected to lectures for the rest of my life if I go busto about how I'm a sick degenerate gambler who gave away thousands of dollars.

I was going to go play live tonight if the online games weren't good, but I'm just not in the right headspace to go now. The online games are great, but no way I'm playing more right now.

I moved back home last April, and planned to only be here a few months, no more than six months. It's a year in, I've caught all kinds of career breaks in broadcasing and none have been worth enough money to move out. I turn 28 next month and it's already weighing on my mind because I'm leading a pretty solitary life here stuck at home. Poker was the way I was hoping I'd be able to move out and really get my life going, and I'm mired in this nonsense still.

I mean, sh*t, it'll take me a month of 40 hour weeks running neutral just to get back to even on this downswing now.

Stay strong. Whatever happens, know you are putting in your all and that is something most people can't say. Whether its poker/broadcast you are going out and trying to make them happen. Its not going to be easy, but its comes down to what type of life do you want to live? do you want to follow your passions? do you want to settle for the more safe conservative route? You have to make the choice and following this thread has been great. its amazing you can come out and make the last post.

I can't comment too much on the poker, we all know downswings suck and I imagine its time to take a solid look at your online game with that big a downswing. same with live. but take a break and do a little sou lsearching. you will be better for it.

there is no shame at living at home. I have done so for a bit and you need to realize that you are living your life and you are not stuck anywhere. that is your home. your life is going on and you can't see yourself as being stuck. keep moving forward. you know what you want and its times like this that really test that. I've been in your shoes and can say after moving home for a few I'm finally more clearheaded, focused, and happy than anytime prior in my life when I was living on my own. yes there were times I felt ashamed and depressed for myself but I worked out of that and continue to pursue my passions. family and a few close friends are always there to support you and you should never feel bad for using that support.

hit me up if you need. you're thread has been awesome. you know what you want to do, now you have to put in the work to do it.

i'll end with a rap quote from joell ortiz "brooklyn bull****" :
So what I still reside in my moms crib Nah **** that, I'm rhyming to get outta there kid

always made me laugh.

Get back to the fundamentals. You are playing way too many hands. Get the money off online and add it to your live roll. Play 4-5 nights a week live so you remain in the zone. Only 3 bet AQ+/JJ+ and only play AJ+/99+ in raised pots while obviously playing pot odds cards like suited connectors/1 gappers in position when you are in a spot where no one behind you is likely to raise. You can do it man stick with it and tighten up your game. It's 1/2 after all and I personally believe firing more than 1 barrel is very rarely ever correct. Play your hands face up and exploitable and people at this level will still fail to take advantage when you have nothing and give you money when you have the goods.

Now is when you define what kind of person you are...

Think about what you want to be, and decide if this is going to get the better of you, or if you will adjust and ride it out.

I believe the tightening up advice is very sound, and maybe take a day or two where you don't play at all, do something else for a day, and start studying the game, it will do wonders for your motivation...

Please don't stop, it is when things are hard you learn the most about yourself.
I love reading this thread, and would hate if it ended. (I am selfish i know)
GL

Chin up and buckle down man . Like it's been said already, you probably need to start playing fewer hands and get back to the basics before you start making plays again. Sure, you got unlucky in some of those hands, but you also set yourself up to be unlucky in some of them. If you know someone is floating you alot, then there's 2 ways to respond. You either a) tighten up or b) double barrel more since the flop is just a formality obviously.

Trying to make hands and checking it down when you miss isn't going to beat someone that's calling you light. If that's how you're going to play, then you should only be playing premium hands so that decisions are easier for you until you regain confidence in your game. Just my two cents. GL bro!

He said this perfectly.. Looking at the way you have been playing you've been setting yourself up for some sick spots. Focus on live & follow these guidelines at 1/2. Makes all of your decisions way easier & puts you back in control. Stop trying to complicate hands and keep it simple. Take people to value town & worry about balancing & playing "well" when you move up.

Thanks for all of the support, you guys are awesome - it really means a lot to know there's people reading along rooting for me and offering up advice/suggestions. I'll respond more specifically probably tomorrow. This may be the perfect week to just read/study and regroup.

Keep your head up, man. You're good player and things will turn around. Don't forget about how quickly you ran up your online roll initially. The swings can be ridiculous compared to live play.

In 2012, I literally made $586 in 242 hours of play. I'm much better now, but I still think that I was a reasonable winner in the games that I played. Live can be swingy as well. From what your posts in this thread, I think that you need to table change more often. Before I play a hand, I look at all of the possible tables and formulate a ranking of the games that I wish to transfer if I don't get into that game initially. If your game is no good within an orbit or so, don't hesitate to pull the trigger on a transfer. It's unlikely that the game with no action in 9-10 hands will be better than the game with a couple fish and terrible regs. Just do it. You seem to have the other facets of the game down well, so I hope that is helpful to getting on the winning track.

Thanks! More table changes are a good idea. My hesitation getting them speaks to one of my biggest weaknesses in life if not the biggest. Maybe I'll address that here more in depth.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using 2+2 Forums

So I actually went over the hours online but some I half-counted because there weren't enough games running. Some people here think those games might be too tough for me, but I think they're really soft. However, when only 1-3 tables are running, it's tough to get enough volume. I'm leaning towards putting about $500 from my online roll into my live roll and just leaving some on there to play occasionally. I may re-evaluate this summer.

I didn't play any live this week due to the downswing, and then just totally cleared my head from poker as much as possible. Three of my April 1-5 goals are being filled today - I'm booked at the Borgata 4/18 to 4/23, and as it gets closer I may go for a few nights at WWW on the end of it. I just started a new Bulletproof Rapid Fat Loss Protocol Cycle yesterday. It's extreme, but I want results fast. I plan to practice golf this weekend, in between Masters coverage.

My plan for this week is to read poker books, study, re-emphasize my fundamentals and watch The Masters, then get back at it with some intense volume starting next week.

I also have my Masters Pick 'Em Team. In parenthesis is who I could pick from.

Pool A: Adam Scott (Adam Scott, Rory McIlroy, Phil Mickelson)
Pool B: Dustin Johnson (Justin Rose, Dustin Johnson, Zach Johnson, Bubba Watson)
Pool C: Matt Kuchar (Matt Kuchar, Sergio Garcia, Jason Dufner, Henrik Stenson)
Pool D (2): Charl Schwartzel, Steve Stricker (Graeme McDowell, Webb Simpson, Charl Schwartzel, Jordan Spieth, Keegan Bradley, Brandt Snedeker, Hunter Mahan, Louis Oosthuizen, Steve Stricker, Luke Donald)
Pool E (2): Lee Westwood, Fred Couples (this one is from the rest of the field not in the other pools)

The scoring is that you get your players total final score. If they miss the cut you get the score plus a 10 shot penalty. If they withdraw at any point you get the worst final score plus 10 strokes. It's thus very important to minimize missed cuts, and going low is nice but there is no bonus for picking the winner (stupid IMO, but not my pool, so whatever).

I was torn on Dustin Johnson (hot right now) and Justin Rose (better in general in majors), but went with DJ - I think he could be primed to break through at Augusta with a strong finish. He's been solid there, his game matches the course well and he's on fire. I was torn between Fred Couples, Jason Day and Angel Cabrera. Couples is old, but has never missed cuts at Augusta except the two years he had major back issues. In this pool the last five years I think his average final score is like -1. Day has the thumb issue, and if he misses the cut or withdraws, that's too punitive. He's only got two years of results but his average final is -9.5. However, I think there's a reasonably high risk he doesn't finish. Angel Cabrera has been awesome the last five years or so at Augusta (-5 or -6 average in this pool), but has been having a bad year. Couples has been playing well recently on the Champions Tour, so that's the pick.

Lee Westwood is a wild card pick I like a lot. He's been close at Augusta, he seems to have the place figured out - he's having an off year with some swing changes, but he thinks he's peaking and I'm going to roll the dice and trust him. After last year's Masters I said he would be a guy to watch closely this year.

So, that's Team Cuserounder in the Masters pick 'em league I'm in. Relatively low stakes, $10 to get in and should be something around $150 to the winner, $75 to second, $40 for third. I'm also in for the US Open, British Open, PGA and cumulative for the majors.

Update! Now!

Not a ton to update. Taxes suck, and they waste a lot of time. They dented my life roll a bit.

Otherwise, I watched the Masters as planned, my team in the pool didn't deliver thanks to Johnson and Schwartzel. One poker book down, two to go.

I hit up the Sixers game last night with a free pass. It was a pretty exciting game for two teams having a rough year, and seeing MCW vs. Rondo was cool.



I work tomorrow and Thursday, then I'm off to the Borgata. The plan is to grind hard and add in a little balance watching Flyers playoff games and reading, and hanging out with family on Easter. Next week I work Wed-Fri.

I won't make the WSOPC goals, so I booked other poker plans and hopefully I can run the roll up enough to play the Millionaire Maker.

I'm feeling less beaten down, and the poker reading has me fired back up. I need to balance it more at all times instead of only doing my reading and improving when I'm struggling.

Also, no Borgata WPO refund for me it appears, and that whole ruling sucks. The final 27 are getting screwed and they let a bunch of other people freeroll it basically.

On the horizon, the skyline of Atlantic City came into my view. The Trop, Caesars, Bally's, the Taj, Revel, and over to the left, the Borgata, Water Club and Harrahs. Meek Mill's "I'm a Boss," blared over my speakers.

Scared money don't make no money, if I ever go broke, I'ma take your money.

I hammered the gas pedal to the floor and listened to the engine roar to life while watching the speedometer. 70...80...90...100... It reminded me of driving my Camaro in high school, except this car is way slower and less fun to drive... I did plenty of joy riding back in the day.

I hurdled down the AC Expressway, whipped around the connector over to the Borgata, grabbed my suitcase and strolled in ready to dominate... Only to find the longest line ever to check in. After 30 minutes of patiently waiting, I found out that I was in the Water Club, not the Borgata and the system was down so I had to go wait 20 minutes in the Water Club line to check in.

Now I'm in, and it's time to go grind. I'm in the right mind set, I've been doing more reading, I'm prepared to table change more if I have to and it seems to be a busy weekend here so it's time to crush souls.

You got it man...kill that ****!

Thanks man. Played well, ran good, solid win. Table started to get bad and I didn't want to try to switch and get new reads while tired so I called it a night and turned on Live at the Bike to watch my man Duke hold it down and apparently he didn't play long and I missed it. Waiting to get details from him but they were joking about a 3% VPIP so I think he may have been card dead and/or a nit.

Full report on my session tomorrow. I ran a nice bluff.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using 2+2 Forums

Duke is a confirmed nit. Lol just kidding he says he made like one tight fold in early position and didn't pick up hands... Played like 30 hands so small sample size and I don't know why they were calling him out.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using 2+2 Forums

+$151 in 1:45 can't hate on that