Idk even know where to start and hope this is the right place for this but ill start from the beginning...i started gambling 3 years ago at age 16 for fun and its progressively gotten worse (spent more and more hours, and kept raising the stakes) from sports betting to poker, ive alternated between the 2 for a while now, i started playing micro stakes and have worked my way up too around a couple hundred nothing too big, but big enough for me and my age. Recently ive been depositing around 25 and running it up to a couple hundred which is a very large amount for me and i seem to be going broke every time. Ill start playing .50/1 omaha which a 250 bankroll then go broke, and play so reckless when i have 250 as if 30 40 dollars isnt anything, but when i get down to my last 15 dollars, i lower the stakes and play as if its the last 15 dollars ill ever have on earth.


Ive kept having these swings consistently in the past few months, and know i can beat the game and its becoming very stressful and feel like ive completely lost the value of a dollar, ill work my ass off for 80 dollars doing manual labor then deposit on sportsbook or pokerstars and just go crazy with it....and once i lose i get so depressed and sad, and ask myself everysingle time "wtf am i doing" after i go broke. I keep seeing this vision of me playing the highest stakes on pokerstars or at the wsop and winning the huge amounts of money, and especially when i see the 21 year old at the wsop and online making a killing at the tables....i feel like its necessary for me to reach that level as soon as possible...but the only problem is that i never get there....and iam just wondering tomyself if ill ever get there, and debating now if its just a waste of time, my parents say i have a gambling problem....but i just tell i love to play poker, but unlike your normal player i tend to have no bankroll management or limitations, iam unemployed and whatever money i can scrap up tends to go straight to pokerstars, and whenever i run up a good bankroll i just keep playing higher and higher and try to get to the top, but iam starting to feel as if the top is just too far of a climb.

Sorry for this long post, i made an account on 2 + 2 just to see if someone could lend me some advice not even just on poker, but also on life it possible, and whoever took the time to read this thanks for your time, god bless

Well after you reading this it already looks like you know the answer to all your problems. It doesnt seem like your a bad player so i would stick with it. You really do need to learn bankroll management though if you ever want to be successful. Maybe you have a friend that you can tell your password to so when you feel like you are tilting or moving up stakes you can have him change it. Just learn bankroll management and you are good to go. And if you cant do this then i recommend gamblers anonymous

I thought this was BBV and this response weirded me out. Seriously.

whats BBV? and thanks for the response breakyaneck

Beats Brags and Variance. Its under the general poker forum

You know your problem. DISCIPLINE. DISCIPLINE. DISCIPLINE.

When the pros talk about keys to becoming a better poker player, everyone of them will tell you, bankroll management is one of (if not) THE most important thing. If you are playing within your bankroll, you play more relaxed, you see the table better, and you are comfortable making that big bet/call/lay down.

If you think you want to be serious about poker as profession, then get serious about this. Read books, talk to other players, get Poker Tracker, join card runners, play when you are rested like it is a 9-5 job, get a journal and track your play, print off and study your hand histories, and download some discipline.

You don't have a job, and you like most of us are not a phenom (Durrrrrr), so you have a lower earning potential than many of your opponents. Do everything you can to exploit the extra time you might have so you can have as much of an edge as possible on the virtual felt.

Discipline without talent is a day dream, talent without discipline is a nightmare.

Make your luck.

You're not the only one with such problems. Remember that you only hear about the luckboxes, not about the last 99.9%...

dont play plo
dont play a level unless you have 100 buy ins

+1...

i went through this about 5 years ago.

keep the hope, op, but remember that it's not enough to see where you want to be, you're gonna have to work hard, or give up on your dreams.

you may be forgetting to first rule of poker. Its the same as the first rule of investing and the first rule of war. Don't bust out. Don't die, don't lose your money don't go broke. However you want to say it the first rule seems forgotten by many people. Once you lock this rule into your head tough choices become easier.

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Ummm. Call Gambler's annoymous.

You say you are unemployed and whatever money you get you just dump online - seems like a gambling addiction you might want to get some help.

Bankroll management is also important. Don't play with money you can't afford to lose (i.e. the rent money)

After reading your post I am morally certain of two things:

1. Your parents are right. You do have a serious gambling problem.

2. You won't listen to me either.

If this was really true you would not radically increase limits everytime you got up a few dollars. Perhaps you enjoy the game but you love the gamble. There is no skill and precious little game in playing PLO with 2.5 buy-ins. The way you actually behave is the real you regardless of what you may tell yourself and others.

So what? Lots of people have the technical skills to win at poker but very few actually do. It's really the least part of the qualifications. Unless you are actually consistently building a bankroll and not going broke you cannot beat the game. To paraphrase Yoda there is no "try" in poker. You are either doing it or you are not and clearly you are not.

The real issue here is that there are skillful poker players and gambling addicts and many of them are the same people. It's never been a mutually exclusive thing.

The irony is that not only is your inability to control your gambling destroying the rest of your life, it is also destroying any possibility of realizing your dream of becoming a successful high-stakes player. You can't learn unless you practice and you can't practice when you are trapped in a vicious circle of bankroll suicide and low-paid manual labor.

BTW, do you also think you can beat sports betting? That you are going broke in two different forms of gambling is the reddest of red flags.

My advice to you is to completely stop gambling and either get an education or learn a trade so that you can have a good life.

I can't believe it took that many posts for someone to give your reply.

The guy doesn't have a dime, and he's gambling what he DOES have? (And isn't a pro.)

BRM for him sound to me like telling a drug addict to regulate their crack use.
No offense intended, but it sounds a bit more serious than the average rec-gambler.

My poker bank roll currently represents .002 of my yearly income. (And poker is a great source of entertainment for me, and hopefully a little extra income.)

I would honestly recommend people not respond to this kind of post by recommending BRM. Just my .02 cents.

Listen carefully to an old vegas myth.

The myth..."poker dealers make the worst poker players."

The reality...anyone who works hard, then plays poker, its at a huge disadvantage. You are tired...they might not be. Their jobs might be easy, they might not even work.

3 concrete things i suggest to start off.

1) If you KNOW you can beat the game, don't quit, just adjust. Ignore anyone who tells you to quit. They mean well but have no clue.

2) Only play on your days off, when you are fresh

3) Only play weekends, when the games are really good

.....if you have weekends off, should be simple enough...otherwise might get tricky

Bankroll management is hugely important, but I believe that is a secondary problem.

I went through similar just recently. I know I am more of a tournament player than cash games. Why? Because I lack discipline on cash tables. I can sit at a live $1/2 table and double my money. Then in a few short hands be bored and lose it. My friends now no when to pull me off. Whereas in tournament play I am far more patient. I see the others being knocked out around me. Even if my stack isn't building that much (not that I am deliberately folding down) I feel that I a making progress. Whereas on cash tables the chips in front of me are the progress. Try playing some tournaments and learn some discipline. Also, I agree, don't bet what you can't afford to lose. I am just getting into fully documenting my spend and win / losses so I fully understand where I am at and possibly going. I have a good job and can set a budget. But I need to fully understand where I am at. Stick to what you are good at. As the roll is there to increase the stakes then do so. But play with your profit not your livelihood. Just my opinion.

^^^^^
The only guy in this whole thread with a lick of sense.