Haha, that's weird title, but I didn't know how to describe my "problem" better.

I'm interested in Poker since a few years, but never really got into it, I just watched some games on TV and played a bit online, for fun. Now I'd like to get more into it and start playing on a serious level.

The problem I got, is that I have a hard time to play tight on NL20 tables, because these two cents, or four cents, or even 4 dollar doesn't mean much to me. I'm making serious money online (from advertising) and just can't play tight enough on these levels. Now of course I could move up to NL50 or NL100 where it kinda starts to hurt, but obviously I don't think I'm good enough to beat these levels, so what to do?

I'm trying SnGs, since it feels better for me to have 3k chips in front of me, even when the buyin was just $6, but that helps just to a certain point. When I hit a pair or something and the villain doesn't fold or bets too, I have hard time to fold, because I still got the $6 buyin in mind and tell myself, that I'm going to waste $200 on booze next weekend so what's with these 6 bucks. Plus you got a bigger variance in STTs/MTTs, so that doesn't help me much either...

I even thought about staking somebody else - that involves some serious money, but defeats the purpose that I want to become better at Poker

I think I'll try NL50 and maybe if I lost enough money I'll start to value the small amounts more. And no I'm not going to tell you my online nick, so that you can take my money!

learn to make the correct decision based on information given not based on how much money u are playing for

idk if poker is for u tho

Think of it as bb's not $'s.

As the above poster suggested, think of it as bb's, instead of $$.

Also, instead of focusing on your winrate and how useful the money is that you win/lose, just focus on improving your play and making the correct decisions. If you continue to do this, over time you will be ready to play at levels where the monetary value may mean more to you.

Good luck.

yep, I tried that. And it works. To a certain point. But than I start to tilt, but maybe it's not even because of the low amount of money, but because of my bad play, means that I would do the same mistake, even if there is a $1k pot.

I'll try to my best to do the "correct" decision, but like I said, sometimes when I see a "8 cent" raise I just think...god damnit, put your whole stack in, otherwise we're going to sit here until tomorrow, before I made a "notable" amount of money.

drop a few buy ins at nl400 you'll play tighter. if pokers a hobby and you can afford to play high why not? obviously youre not trying to make a career out of this, if its recreation treat it as so and do what you want, if not, then learn to play low stakes and build a br.

If u don't like the "game" of poker enough to try study and beat it at whatever the level of your abilities, then ur just a gambler.

A poker player that is serious about his game and being good, is happy to win at any level he is playing at. And once he is beating that level for a while he moves up. And so on and so forth. The endgame of poker IS making money if ur good, but the game is about how many bb's/100 that u can rack up, and being better than ur opp's.

A good poker player looks at any game he is in as bb's won, no matter what those bb's are valued at for that particular game. .2 cents or 1k. When Dwan was asked how he was able to play poker, and not play scared w/ $400 - $1k or more in blinds, he said he doesn't think about it as money, but as bb's. U shud do the same thing, it's just the opposite situation for u.

Play at higher stakes, seriously. Not everyone playing at 200NL or higher is fricking Phil Ivey or anything. If you're bored with the stakes that you're at and you can afford the swings to play higher, there's no harm in giving it a shot.

If you find yourself having no chance to make money, then drop back down, but you never know until you try. And if you make a lot of money off other means, it's not going to kill you if it doesn't work out.

U just sound like an impatient, bad player from ur posts. AKA "fish".

Are you playing to make money, or because you want to become good? I mean, is this more like playing basketball, or betting on NBA games to you? If you want to become good, dissociate money with poker, and see it as bb. Then try starting at level 1 (2NL), move up when you can beat level 1 and have enough bb to play at level 2 (5NL), etc. If it's just for the thrill of GAMBOOL!!! then play at the stakes that make it interesting for you, but set a limit as to how much you can lose so it stays a hobby, and doesn't become the reason you're broke.

Hmm send me some , since I value it. Read title and nothing else.

This is a common problem - eg most people here won't be able to take NL2 seriously.

Try convincing yourself that you're playing with no money at all, and that you're just trying to just win.

I think I'll give it a try, maybe not NL400, but something like that. Even tho that I don't value small amounts that much, that doesn't mean I'm the ****ing welfare and want to ship the money to some other player, because I'm bored - I don't got THAT much money

Def. an interesting view. And I'm def. a competitive person who wants to win. The fact that I "lost" the game hurts def. more than the money (at the low levels).

I def. agree here. It's just that I always read how everybody tries to build a bankroll from scratch and grinds the lower limits in order to learn the basics (if def. sounds correct to me) so that he can move up - and right now I def. think I need A LOT of practice to beat the higher levels. But it def. can't hurt to give it a try once...gonna try it with NL100 tomorrow.

Haha, I'm most def. a "fish" at the moment. I know the basics and read some stuff, but I don't know by far enough to beat even the smaller limits. (I think I could beat NL20 max. Today I played NL20 for 1,5h hours and ended up with ~$6 beginning from $4...nice ROI, but the total amount just doesn't justify the 2hours I wasted. If I had been working on my regular job I probably made x100 the amount. Time is much more valuable to me than money (to a certain point) I know I probably sound like a bored millionaire, which I'm not. Probably bored sometimes, but not a millionaire (at least not yet )

Kinda both. I want to be good at everything I do. And earning some extra money never hurts. (Esp. when I see these nice $$$ you win, when you make #1 on a $160 buyin tournament with 300 ppl.) I guess I have to find out the hard way and see where I end up And I think I'm resistant enough to some kind of gambling fever, because at the end of the day I know that I have to work for the money too.


Bottom line. Thanks for the responses so far. I'm a member on a couple of forums and I rarely see such long and useful replies in a thread, esp. when it's started by a new member of the community. Thanks for the warm welcome everybody - and from now on I'll try to be a good addition to this place and not bore you with similar stories. Hopefully I'll come back with some success stories

this and saying the amount of money isn't worth it to you just makes you a bad player. saying you would care at a higher level doesn't mean you'd be better. learn to bet the lower levels, build the confidence to know you can move up progressively and then learn each step of the way.

If you are playing for the thrill of throwing around big bucks, then clearly you need to play higher stakes. If this is the case, however, you are the antithesis of the majority of players on this forum, who try to not think in terms of the money or let the amounts being played for make them nervous.

I play poker because I like to win and I like to track my improvement using BB/100. If you don't want to get involved with the skill aspect online casinos are great...

That or do tournaments. That way you aren't evaluating bets in terms of $$ but in terms of T chips.

play live games where you can play much worse talent at higher stakes than you can online?

Teach me marketing and I'll teach you the pokarz.

hehe, that's actually a good idea

def.

If you're really up for it PM me.

Poker is hard. It takes discipline. If you want to learn the game, start near the bottom and work your way up. To begin with, that'll mean playing at stakes where the money doesn't mean much. The important thing is, there's still plenty to learn at those stakes.

On the other hand, if you just want to have fun (and nothing wrong with that) shove any two.

Good Luck.

Just play 50NL or 100NL, then either you'll


a) win (no problem!)

b) lose tooo much and just quit (also no big deal)

c) feel the pain and decide that 20NL is an interesting place to hang out (good outcome too)



Win win imo, GL !

I agree with this folks here. There's a difference between a player that plays for the sake of being good at it and playing for just whatever. Once you play poker for entertainment and don't mind losing money in it, you are just simply gambling. But once you put an effort of being good at it and being a more serious player, I think that's more definable as a true poker player.

Not everyone can be a Phil Ivey like SpartanDoug said, but if you are beating a lot of players in that level why not get in the next level? At least, you are challenging yourself to be a much better player than you are now.

stop thinking about the $ and more along the lines of blinds and what that % bet means...

if you got the money, then get a good coach....


edit: or sign up to a coaching video site like Drag the Bar, Leggopoker, Deuces Cracked, Bluefire.... theres loads out there