help!!!

OK I'm freaking out now. I put in $25 into pokerstars a lil over 2 weeks ago and in the first week i more than doubled up to almost 55. But now I just keep losing and losing and losing and im down to $27. What's wrong? Am I too passive? I know I'm seeing a lot of flops but I try to keep them to either quality hands (ie AK etc) or suited connectors, gapped connectors, though in LP i'll go with unsuited sometimes too, it just depends on my mood.
I also sometimes play High card low kicker out of LP, mostly from the button and if theres huge betting on the flop, turn etc i'll dump usually. Here is a sample hand and I figured that the guy was on Ax and I was right! This is so frustrating cause I was doing so well for 1 week and now i've lost almost everything I won, and the funny thing is almost all the tourneys I enter I get ITM though almost always the first 2 or 3 levels of it, though I have 1 4th place finish in a super microstakes SNG...I can go through all my HH's and post other sample hands too of where i've been busted or even quit hand after the betting got too hot. If there is anything else I need to add that I haven't even thought about that would help any critiquing please ask. I'm still a noob with serious poker and on here bear with me please, which also means I can't post urls til i make 10 posts!!! so i had to edit the html to leave out the convenient suit images...pain in the butt. Thanks for all the help! OK trying 1 more session wtih $2 before going to sleep and will be much more patient this time, or try to be...

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.02 BB (9 handed) -

UTG ($5.21)
UTG+1 ($7.08)
MP1 ($1.02)
Hero (MP2) ($2.90)
MP3 ($2.13)
CO ($3.47)
Button ($8.11)
SB ($2)
BB ($3.09)

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with 9s, 9h
1 fold, UTG+1 raises to $0.10, 1 fold, Hero calls $0.10, 1 fold, CO calls $0.10, 3 folds

Flop: ($0.33) 5d, 2d, 4c(3 players)
UTG+1 bets $0.10, Hero calls $0.10, 1 fold

Turn: ($0.53) 10c (2 players)
UTG+1 bets $0.20, Hero calls $0.20

River: ($0.93) Jd (2 players)
UTG+1 bets $6.68 (All-In), Hero calls $2.50 (All-In)

Total pot: $5.93 | Rake: $0.25

Have you read the Beginner's Digest? Very helpful stuff. Check out the classic Noobie Circle of Death which you (and most of us, at one time or another) can probably relate to.

On the one hand you posted. You really had no plan for postflop. You seem to be going street by street, and playing tentatively. Which is bad, particularly if you're going to stack off to a massive overbet on this river without some kind of read of villain that makes this line make sense.

Seems like some kind of raise earlier in the hand would have made this is lot easier (and much more profitable). To raise, tho', you need some idea of when it's time to fold. A plan. Just some 4 AM thoughts - probably worthless, but I tried.

(1) You probably aren't that good at poker. You just luckily hit a bit of positive variance to start.

(2) You could be a Breakeven player or better, and are now just hitting a bit of negative variance.

(3) You have leaks and played the 99 hand badly. I don't mind the flop and turn, but you can't possibly call this river. And at 2nl, I would not mind folding the turn all that much as I doubt villains 2barrel bluff scare cards all that often, as the masses at 2nl are generally passive (except for the crazy maniac spewtards).

(4) The hand above, plus the statements about how you like to see alot of flops, leads me to believe you are likely a calling station.. Which would mean you are likely calling down too weakly too often, playing relatively passively, and think everyone is always bluffing you, amirite?

My advice for now is to tighten up remarkably.. I don't mean only play QQ+, AK. However, take a few things into consideration, and do so everytime it is your turn to make a decision.

Firstly, Position is key... When you are in position you will have an entire streets worth more of information to base your decision off of. That is, on the turn when OOP you know how villain reacted preflop and on the flop. But IP on the turn, you know how villain reacted preflop, flop, and turn. Good stuff. This means you want to play a wider range when IP, and well it's hard to be too nitty OOP. I suggest you stop, or at least seriously limit, the number of marginal QT, K9, JT type hands that you play OOP.

Also.. The manner in which you play certain hands may be a problem. You state that you like to see flops when in Late Position with hands that have a big card and a little card.. Well I'm not going to tell you this is wrong because well it isn't. But the manner in which you are doing it is likely wrong. You are probably limping in behind the limpers, hoping to flop big.. But then you end up flopping Top pair with your weak 6 kicker, and are incredibly confused because you freakin' have toppest of all pairs. Well this is incorrect in most instances.

Instead hands like K9, A5, QJ, etc are fine hands to isolate limpers with. That is instead of limping behind, and flopping a hand that is likely going to get very little value when you are ahead, you should be raising those hands (when in position, and against proper villains. Ones that limp/fold often, or limp/call, then check/fold).

A bit on aggression. Betting and raising, when applied in proper situations, is very effective. For instances, you are rarely 100% to win the pot (say we aren't on the river). Say, you are 70% to win a pot of $100. This means that at this point you stand to win on average $70. Well by making a bet/raise, you give the villain a chance to surrender his 30% equity in the pot, and therefore that's $30 more in your pocket. Also good stuff.

Also, know why you are making a play.. Actively engage your mind in every decision you are making and try to understand to your best abilities what each action you choose will do, and what you want it to do.. Know that if you are betting whether you are doing it for value or as a bluff. Know what hands you expect him to call with, or what hands he could reasonably be expected to fold.

Also start thinking of villains cards in the manner of ranges. It is good that you are actually thinking of villains cards. You stated in the hand you posted that you believed villain had Ax. Congrats on being right, but this is the improper way to look at this. You want to think of all the possible hands that villain would play in this manner. Ax would just fall under a small portion of that range. What other hands does this villain raise UTG+1 with preflop, then bet this 5d2d4c flop with? A5? A4? A2? AK? 55? 44? 22? A3? 66+? Think on this and give some answers.. Not just to the hands I stated but any hands you feel he could/should reasonably have in this situation (raising UTG+1) and what his actions might be with some of these hands. And then think about it all over again on the turn given the remaining range from the flop. If villain would bet A5 on the flop, is he likely to still bet it on the turn? Etc...

About all I've got for now.. I know this is a whole lot to take in, and you might not get it all. Hell some of what I said could be incorrect. But I'm more interested in whether you will actually read all of this and how much you will apply it, if any.. Either post here or PM me with any questions.

some thoughts.
0. read http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...st-t81222.html it should help you on things to fiocus on.
1. thats one hell of a drawy board , straight draws flush draws etc.
2. you need to start attempting to make reads on your opponents and put them on hands
3. You went all in with third pair, he could very well have been playing TT+,KJ+ AJ+ from UTG+1 and he raised it preflop from out of position . Usually hes playing a strong handand hes got quite a big stack for the limits so likely to have some knowledge.
4. try out pokertrackers free two month trial.it will help you get stats on your villains and also yourself.when you say you see a lot of flops , you might well be surprised how high your vpip stats are and how low your PFR and AF stats are.[/url]

Remarkable post xxstacksxx!

Incredible how you are always responding so painfully honest and that you take the time to formulate such good answers.

99 hand is played absolutely terrible. If you understand why you will become a better player.

Thanks for the comments! I have to say in regards to seeing more flops, thats happened more recently which coincidentally is when I started losing more than winning so ok tighten up got it! But not gonna turn into a rock, or I hope I don't.

That was a mighty a fine post stacks, thanks very much for taking the time to formulate all that, and yeah you are right, its a bit much for me to thoroughly digest at the moment, but I'll go back to it to remind myself of certain things and hopefully my game will improve overall. I try not to be a calling station too often, but perhaps you are right and I have been a bit, though not cause I think my opponents are always bluffing but cause I do think my hand is better at the time and/or I think my odds are good enough to chase a draw. The pot odds bit has me a bit I dunno what the right word is....but I don't want to be the a-hole that uses up the timer trying to divide x/52 and then bet/pot, though I know at some point I'm just gonna have to suck it up and be able to do math in my head.

In regards to this 99 hand I had, in retrospect should I have reraised double even triple his flop bet? Since these are the microstakes tables I have noticed that a significant reraise can push people out of pots where they are holding an A.

One last point I feel I should tell you. My Strategy/Plan- find the horrible horrible players, the donks, fish, super maniac players, and get a good hand and hopefully beat them wtih that. The first week it worked quite well. This second week it didn't, although a lot of hands i've lost were against good or better players, so I know now I have to turn my radar on more and try to really evaluate each person's game strength. Don't get involved too much with better players unless my hand is really that good.

Anyways thats enough from me at this time, will read that noobie circle of death....gotta love morbid sounding stuff...hit up a table and hope I play better now! Thanks again

I just thought of something too totally dawned on me while having a smoke just now. I get into the most trouble after i build my stack. I always start at $2 and usually I can build up .50, 1, 2 etc. But thats when the trouble starts a lot of times. So I'm thinking it wouldn't be too bad of an idea to win a buck or 2 and get out of dodge! Save myself from the tricky decisions when I have to play deep stack until I get better. Thoughts?

Originally Posted by oneman426

I just thought of something too totally dawned on me while having a smoke just now. I get into the most trouble after i build my stack. I always start at $2 and usually I can build up .50, 1, 2 etc. But thats when the trouble starts a lot of times. So I'm thinking it wouldn't be too bad of an idea to win a buck or 2 and get out of dodge! Save myself from the tricky decisions when I have to play deep stack until I get better. Thoughts?

If you've spotted a leaky trend they yes, leave the table. There are a lot of folks who don't know how to play deep. I find that I'm more comfortable playing deep, and that I play my best at a table after I'm up about 40-60BB. When I get to that point, my decisions are based more on 'what equity do I have here' vs 'do I think my good hand is beat.' It's a leak...but we all have stuff we need to work on.

I think you need to get your preflop game fixed first. There ought to be a guideline somewhere in this forum what you should open from what postion.
99 you should open from any position.
Most of the hands you want to play, you should raise preflop and follow up on most flops.
So limping behind is the first huge mistake in that hand.

Flop... raise. Don't ever try to trap at microstakes. Bet when you have a hand, fold if you don't. At 2NL that's all you need to do.

Same thing on the turn.

River: never ever call that bet. If he doesn't have a flush, then he misplayed a set. This is pretty much always a value shove, not a bluff.

You could not have played that hand any worse. Get your opening requirements straight. Make a plan for each hand. Don't call an all-in for 3x the pot with 2nd pair.

Easy,never call overbet shove unless you have a solid,solid read
Hey,its ok to be bluffed once in a while,rather than calling your whole buy in.

Follow the Beginner's Digest.

OK before I go off to the dentist I just want to report on 2 sessions I had the past hour. I thought things were finally turning around for me luckwise. AA followed by KK. AA was an easy win and i thought KK was too til it was cracked by JJ, but i was SB with 1.xx after all the preflop raising and reraising and just went for it, and I got nailed by his pocket. I managed to recover back to a buck with a timely 78 straight draw that I just went all in on flop cause i need the T and got it the turn, then hit AK and got back to a buck. Internet went down reset my modem and tried a new table and this time lady luck really started to smile on me. 3AKs, AJ and I got my stack up to 3.57 before looking at the time and also thinking this is where I traditionally get into trouble...get the hell out now while you can! LOL

So maybe this is the beginning of a new upswing...I folded almost everything that was given to me basically all i played were the hands I showed you not counting SB and BB hands I got to limp in on. Crossing my fingers that this is just the beginning of a good streak and get my confidence back up!

Originally Posted by oneman426

OK before I go off to the dentist I just want to report on 2 sessions I had the past hour. I thought things were finally turning around for me luckwise.

Stopped reading here because - noone cares. Skillwise yes - luckwise no. If all you're thinking about is your luck this is the wrong forum for you.

There is some fantastic advice for you in this thread alone. Read it and think about it imo.

Originally Posted by Erpel

Originally Posted by oneman426

OK before I go off to the dentist I just want to report on 2 sessions I had the past hour. I thought things were finally turning around for me luckwise.

Stopped reading here because - noone cares. Skillwise yes - luckwise no. If all you're thinking about is your luck this is the wrong forum for you.

There is some fantastic advice for you in this thread alone. Read it and think about it imo.

luls... Your killing your wpp!!

And to OP.. A few more things. Don't worry about the results of a hand. If you have AA and run it into KK allin preflop and lose.. You should be okay with this. This doesn't mean happy, but you shouldn't be sad. You should know that on average you will win 80%ish of the time, and that in the long run you will win that often.

Also you may want to start topping off back to $2. Alot of people don't know how to adjust their game when they start getting shortstacked and they don't start playing the right hands etc. So if you are playing PokerStars you can have it so that if you fall below $2 it will add enough money to put you back to $2.

And to go along with the above you may want to just start leaving a table once you get maybe 200-300bb deep. But remember your not deep if the other guy isnt' deep also. But alot of microstakes players have said that they feel this is a problem for them also, and I can see why. It becomes less of a problem past 10nl when you can only buy in for 100bb and no more, because then your usually only deep with one or two players and not the entire table like could happen at 2nl, 5nl.

just a quick question as i find this in the button right now...when on the button or CO, would you raise say K3suited or any face card plus rag kicker? Or is this one of those situationally dependent things? These hands happen all the time and sometimes I fold them sometimes keep them, just trying to figure out if there is any sort of guideline to adhere to...

And stacks, thanks again for the post, yeah I try not to get worked up about losing KK all in, its the right play in most situations...just requires a bit of a break to recover from tho! And as i type KK but 4 straight so i folded ((( villain had JJ for the straight...Put a dent in my stack so rebuild to 3 and im gone. BTW whats wpp and OP??? is there some glossary of commonly used acronyms for pokerspeak so i can understand some of these posts better?

dont ever call an overbet shove. you need at least the second nuts or some wickedly strong hand

Originally Posted by AFchung

dont ever call an overbet shove. you need at least the second nuts or some wickedly strong hand

Quit with the useless blanket statements. They are so often incorrect in sooo many instances.

OP = Original Poster (that is you here)
WPP = Words per post

Originally Posted by AFchung

dont ever call an overbet shove. you need at least the second nuts or some wickedly strong hand

This This This This This, a million times, This. Unless he's just a total spewtard.

This can easily lead to a 6-7BB/100 upswing. I can't tell you how many times I've called the overbet shove with TPTK or two pair, only to end up crying in my beer.

And yes hands like K4, A2, etc are hands you can generally raise when in LP. Taking into account the villains in the blinds and left to act is relatively important though in making the most +ev play. If the villains are tight then you can raise a shitload of hands. In some cases you can raise ATC (any two cards) and it be profitable because they are folding sooo often. If they are looser and aggressive then you are likely going to be playing more pots postflop and want to have a hand with some potential.

OK once again thanks to everyone that has provided good advice and pointed me to posts/articles/etc to read. I have had a huge swing in the positive direction now. Got a nice live lesson from someone at a table a couple days ago and combined with everything from here I have had a rather remarkable climb back up in my bankroll. I have to say it's amazing the power of the c-bet! Absolutely amazing. I figure either hit or miss almost 80% of the time a c-bet causes my opponent(s) to simply fold on the spot. If they stick around I fire another shot and usually that does the trick. If i get reraised then I fold or check down. And I finally really am understanding pot odds too. So my bets are almost always half the pot, though i'll make it bigger if more aggression is needed on a draw board. I know I have a long way to go still, but things are definitely clicking in my brain now and I have confidence...perhaps the most important thing when playing this game. In a 1 hour session last night my stack went from 2 to 11.50 at a frickin 2cent table!!! I was completely blown away and I have you guys to thank for that so keep up the awesome job in educating everyone...Much gratitude!