Background: I'm a baby-pro.

I'm looking for software engineering work but there's a massive, MASSIVE slump in the job market right now for software engineers. I'm starting at the lowest stakes offered ($1/3) and just try to grind myself to a net positive of +5000 before moving on to 2/5. If I'm going to figure out that this isn't going to work for me, I'm going to figure it out in the small scale first.

But it's not just *money* that's only the line. If I can prove to myself that *no matter where I go*, I can always put at least a *basic* roof over my head and food in my mouth with poker, then all of a sudden I don't have to wait for the largesse of some billionaire software company to deign to select me from all the other worker drones, I can move to where I want and pick-and-choose the job I want.

And considering I'm living in a town where there's NOTHING to do, socially (even the casino is 1 hr away by car), have no friends or support network, and am living with my parents who are trying to be supportive... I just want to get out of this state into a much bluer one. Then I might feel safer to be *me*.

Which makes yesterday's session, where I lost 4 buy-ins in 2 hours, including being felted in the first hand of the first session and the first hand of the second session... it just make it all the more tilting, and I just feel that screaming into the void that is the internet might act as a balm for the soul.

I'm looking back at the hands (I write down the ones I'm not sure about so I can study them later) and I think I'm just destined to lose my entire stack there. KQ vs. JT on a JTxxQ runout (first hand of the first session), TT vs. AJ when we got it all in on a AT8 flop with a 7 on the turn and a 9 on the river, and 99 vs. the worst, WORST played QQ that I've ever seen in my life on a J93T8 runout (first hand of the second session).

Long story short I lost four buy-ins that session. I was a net positive player to the tune of +$750 yesterday, and today I'm net -$450.

I just want to know from other live pros - how often does this happen? How do you deal with a session like that? I ended up going home, taking the rest of the day off, and took today off as well. Tomorrow I go back into "the office" and try to get back on the horse that bucked me.

In other words, I'd like some reassurance that this is just part of what happens and I'm not just a horrible, dunning-kreuger of a donkey of a player who has no business playing live poker.

Although this thread kind of fits in BBV, I decided to move it here because the responses in BGQ tend to be more constructive.

"I ended up going home, taking the rest of the day off, and took today off as well. Tomorrow I go back into "the office" and try to get back on the horse that bucked me"

Not a pro that plays for a living. But fwiw I'm 20 year rec micro/low stakes online winning player. This is what I've done many times over the years after a bad enough session that felt like I might tilt off more money the next day. I've even in the past taken a second day away from playing. Basically I'd just do something else with my poker time for a day or two or till I felt a bit more comfortable/confident. Good luck.

EDIT: Online recently I've lost 10 buy-ins playing two tables rather quickly. Variance is a hell of thing.


Cheers!!!

Losing 4 buyins in a session is something that happens occasionally, but should be pretty rare for a solid winner. In my last 100 live sessions, I think it's happened twice and one of those times involved more than one plo5 bomb pot at a home game. Of course I don't know how often it should really happen, but definitely <5% of sessions. If it regularly happens to you, that likely means there are problems in your game.

From what you posted about the hands, I'm also a bit worried about your current level. Of course I don't know the action, but you likely shouldn't be "destined to lose your stack" with KQ on JTxxQ or maybe even with set of 9s on that board depending on how the hand plays. It's likely putting more work into your game is necessary if you want to have some chance of success.

four in a live session is a lot and might be a tilt thing IMO. My worst session ever at 2/3 600 cap I lost a little over 1K. My worst 3/5 1500 cap session I lost 3K.

I have 3100 hrs so far

Not a pro but I really find it depends on how aggressive the same is

In any basic poker game a good winning player losing 4 buy ins is pretty rare, but it does happen. Variance can be a beotch. Sets over sets happen, or even having opponents hitting a few badly played flush draws in a row happens. But it should be extremely rare.

That said, much depends upon the aggressiveness of the game. If it is a game where players aggressively push draws or there is lots of 3 and 4 betting preflop then the variance goes way up.

One thing to consider however is your talent level compared to your opponents. I am not saying this is true, but I am just warning that it might be something to consider. The most common ways good players have an advantage over other players is through hand selection (playing better cards in general than your opponents) and being able to read boards/players better than your opponents.

A lesser understood way good players take advantage of weaker players is pot size (especially postflop). Better players are better at manipulating the size of the pot throughout the hand than weaker players are. This leads to good players winning huge pots with weaker holdings when they get lucky in a hand, yet seemingly losing little pots when their weaker hands do not hit.

Again, I do not know if this is true or not, you didn't provide enough details to evaluate the hands, but if losing big pots (and rebuying) is an issue, you might want to consider if you let a better player manipulated pot size on you.

Losing 4 buyins is bad when you have a job and your own apartment…and worse when you have neither. While jobs in tech are scarcer than they were last year, software engineers are in high demand in other industries. We’re still in the tightest job market in decades. There are millions of jobs right now. Move to a blue city, get a job, and rent a tiny overpriced apartment. Poker is so much more fun when you have cash flow and your own bed.

The problem is that I can't really afford to move to a blue city *before* I can get a job.