Could use some advice

New to the forum, looks like a solid and active place.

Anyway, I need some advice. Currently I'm playing .25/.50 NL at empire. I've just really started playing for real money (started in Nov). I usually played home games and play money. So far I've been fine. I had my ups and downs, but never really was consistent. Over the last few weeks I’ve begun to play top notch wherever I played. At a sitting I always left with a $50-80 profit and was happy. My bankroll was built from my original $100 buy in into around $500 (cashed out my original buy in last week) and considered moving up to bigger tables. Then all of a sudden I bent my Wookie... I just haven’t had any cards, and that’s not an exaggeration. No matter how many hands I play I can’t seem to get hands, and even worse If I see something at all decent (KQos look like rockets to me) I can’t hit a flop. I consider myself a pretty good player, and I learned early on that the only edge I have over anyone else is through notes. I am the Peyton Manning of note taking. I have players dead to rights when it comes to my notes. I usually can manipulate a table, but as of late it hasn’t been that way. If I win a pot, It’s because I bluffed away blinds. No matter how bad or loose the player I can’t get the cards. I know that stats prove you can never be up always, but what I’m going through is more of a swing, it’s pure trash. If I were a baseball player I would be sent to the back of the order. My pocket QQ are always out dueled by KK. I can’t hit a set to save my life. I’ve been patient and do not get caught up in the bad that I play ridiculous hands. I wait and wait... I remember playing 200+ hands, and I won 0 big bets. I think I won something like 5% of the hands I played.

What do I do? I know it can’t last forever, and I know I can always re-buy back in (I’m now down to like 80 bucks in my account). Someone must have gone through something similar... Just looking for any help whatsoever.

i know this is probably not what you're lookin for....but just ride it out. even the best players go on 100BB losing streaks. SnG players can play 10 in a row without seeing any money. MTT players can go a month with no money, yet take 1st in one and make up for all the losses.

go back to your hand histories and replay them, post any hands you were unsure of so we can help you analyze.

wait it out, you should get some good cards sooner or later.

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Originally Posted by Ripptyde

Play more marginal cards with affordable bets and watch your success grow.

Beautifully said my friend.

Originally Posted by Ripptyde

another reason to step outside the box with marginal cards. Ca,ping out waiting on monster starting hands will be the death of you. I used to sit and wait around for monsters all day long and used to lose my ass. Then started playing suited connecters and hands like 10/9, J/9 , etc and you'd be really surprised how often they turn into the monster you were looking for. Yesterday in a 55 SnG it was early and I catch 4/6 suited. Guy raises ahead of me 100 and I fold only to see the flop 6/6/4. Starting hands are only a small part of the game and more often than not you are going to get burned with you shove all your chips in the pot with that big slick you waited 20 orbits for. Play more marginal cards with affordable bets and watch your success grow.

I don't think this is good advice for a beginner. You need a lot of reads and you need to get to a feel when you can push better hands out by strong betting to play like that. It may work for you, but it requires poker skills most beginners don't possess.

Originally Posted by Cocco_Bill

You need a lot of reads and you need to get to a feel when you can push better hands out by strong betting to play like that. It may work for you, but it requires poker skills most beginners don't possess.

very true, you do need to have a "feel" for when you will be able bluff out hands that are better than yours by betting strongly. Usually takes time and lots of experience to develop that sort of ability.

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Originally Posted by Ripptyde

Calling affordable raises with marginal cards (suited connectors, low pocket pairs, A/xsuited, etc) and playing the flop with common sense is a far more lucrative approach than just folding orbit after orbit waiting on big slick or pocket Aces.

This is exactly the approach that any NLHE player should take to the game....beginner or not

but dont you think it takes a bit of experience to play marginal hands properly. Because I know that when i first started playing, I had no idea when to fold these hands, when to push them etc, and ended up losing a ton of money.

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I already have this "feel." That was never a question. I wasn't waiting on AK every time, But I couldn't collect QJ even... I tried all sorts of things. If i had QQ a K or Ace would appear and I would fire a bullet and then would be re-raised. It was that kinda crap. If I hit TP I was outkicked... I couldn't do anything more, I played the best way possible.

The good news is my current funk might be gone... I won 45 bucks in less then 75 hands earlier tonight. It was KQs I raised UTG 2.5 and got a few callers. the flop was Kh Jh 4d and I raised a little more then half the pot and got 2 callers. The river was 9d and I went all in with 12 bucks left. One folded and one called (I figured one was on a Flush draw and was with 6h, 5h) the river was Ad and I won a pretty big pot off that one hand and a few other smaller ones. All in all I felt really comfortable for the first time in a while. I actually got some cards today. AKs (1) AKos (1) JJ (1) AQ (2) but when I raised with those I got 1 or no callers who folded after the flop anyway. KQs turned out to be the one to break my streak. I picked a really tight table to play at because I figured I was gonna play tighter then usual. Turned out it wouldn't have mattered. Gotta keep it up tommarow I guess.

IMO if you're playing tight aggro you wanna play at a loose table, if you're playing loose you want to find a tight table to eat up blinds and blow people off their "top pair ok kicker" hands on the flop.

If you play tight aggressive you want loose players that are going to call your AK with K9 and then get busted bad on the flop when that K comes.

Maybe your funk is your table selection.

Depends on what you're playing
If you're playing limit... too bad
If you're playing no limit sometimes it's good to play connectors, suited or not
In no limit, 6-7 offsuit looks like a good hand to me - I'll call one raise with it even
and if someone has a big pair it's always fun outdrawing them since you have better chance to hit the straight

you'll find that more aggressive players need less good cards

limit is just mostly about playing tight
there is much less variation so I don't like it
I like to play no-limit tournaments

I don't know if no-limit cash games are that popular or not