Help light the way?

Hello all. I am a nOOb around here and am looking to get involved in the forums here to move towards truly serious development of my poker game. I just posted in the "Introduce Yourself" thread, so I won't revisit all that here.

I have learned a lot over the past few months - reading dozens of articles here on FTR, watching training videos, and trying to hone my game in general. I like to think of myself as at least an average player, but among the studious FTR ranks that I am joining, that really may not be the case... I guess that's why I'm here!

In short, after years of playing live poker with friends, I decided to have a go at a little online poker on PokerStars. It was initially little more than a way for me to pass the time on a single quiet summer day... then a day turned into 3 and I was hooked. I blew through my first paltry $40 deposit in those 3 days, blowing it on cash games (never my forte) that I would soon learn were WELL beyond my meager bankroll! "Oh well - that was fun!" Problem is, I was hooked! I couldn't afford to bleed money like a fool, so this brought me to my 1st bit of FTR reading: a little piece on bankroll management.

I've been playing micro/low stakes SNG's since. After my years of experience in local home games, and my failures in the ring games, this was the most sensible place for me to start. I started with $1 to $1.50 SNG's and worked my way up (and deposited a little more cash) to start working on the $3 SNG's, where I've been for some time. Over the course of a few months my BR grew slowly, and at around 27-28 buy-ins for the $6 level I thought "yeah. I think I'm ready... let's give 'er a go"... of course, this is when my cold streak began.

It's certainly been a terrible run of cards. I can't count the number of 2-6 out rivers that have ruined me as of late. I'm doing my best to keep my cool - taking breaks, changing the scenery, etc., but to be fair, once I lost about 25% of my bankroll, it began affecting my decision making. I know I've made a few truly poor decisions here and there.

Thankfully after 7-8 consecutive losses at the $6 level I was disciplined and moved back down. "Oh well, Frank - just step back to the $3's, we'll stop the bleeding and try again later."

Yeah. Not so much. The bleeding has gone on... and on.

So the upside is that this soul-sucking bleed-out of my meager little bankroll is what brings me here to FTR as a new forum member... because I'm at somewhat of a loss as to where to go from here. If I lose 4 more buy-ins I'll be dropping back down to the $1.50's, and will be no closer to that cash at the WSOP that I've been working towards!


Anyhow, the point of my long-winded post is to seek your guidance. Many of you have been down this path, I'm sure. Any advice, insight, words of encouragement or nuggets of sage-like wisdom will be most welcome! Where would you suggest I go from here? I told myself I wouldn't keep depositing money into my PS account. I'm determined to claw my way back, but at $87 in the bankroll, the bleeding needs to stop.

Thanks for reading!

I understand the buzz of the S&G. I love them myself. I don't think you should be playing them yet though.

Sit and Goes is a totally different game to Cash. They are too competative and there is tons of stuff you dont know yet.

If you NEVER want to deposit on pokerstars again.

1) I suggest you play cash $0.01-$0.02 , we call that 2NL. It might seem like a mediocre steak .The Idea behind playing low stakes is ,you do your apprenticeship and learn the ropes until you can beat the game at these steaks.

2) There is shit loads you need to learn , the beginners circle community has winning players that have proven track records and are willing to guide people through and show them the light. Providing they are willing to learn.

3) If you take this path you should never need to deposit ever again.

4) Read through the hands that people have posted for advice in the beginners circle , ask youself, do you understand whet they are talking about and can you make sense of the replies?

5) lots of stuff.

Celtic - thanks for the reply!

I agree, I still have a lot to learn, but my problem is not that I'm "not ready" for SNG's style gaming.

I've logged about 360 SNG tournaments on PokerStars so far and am holding at a 35% ITM percentage... unfortunately that was 38% about 2 weeks ago. Anyhow, I've been playing live poker in home games with various groups of people since 2005 and have had some moderate success for my buy-in levels, both online and off: I've cashed in the top 10 in a few 90 man SNG's on PokerStars, finished 21st in an 840 man on there about 3 weeks ago (before the slide began) and placed 3rd in an 85 man tourney at my local brick n' mortar casino during the Labor Day weekend. I need to keep developing my game just like anyone, but I know how to play tournament poker and am most comfortable in the SNG and MTT format. Cash games (at least for now) are not where I want to focus my development.

I may just be on a run-of-the-mill cold streak - one that has just happened to have vaporized 65% of my bankroll. I've been analyzing my own hand histories to try and plug any holes in my game. I now know that when I was on a bit of a heater a month or so ago that I subconsciously began opening up my starting hand range. This undoubtedly contributed to the start of this avalanche. I've seen some soul sucking bad beats lately - a string of 'em that would boil the blood of the coolest of characters - but to be fair, some of them involved hands that I shouldn't have been in on in the 1st place due to my table position, chip stack, or stage of the tournament.

Anyhow, like I said, I'm still reading and still analyzing my hand histories. I'm just looking for any other pointers you all may be able to offer. How have you come out of your cold streaks? I've had others before, but never this bad. I'm thinking of dropping in level and switching to double-or-nothings for the short term (I normally play 6-max SNG's). I just need to get a few cashes under my belt again and get the "I know I can win at these games" feeling back.

Thanks for anything else you all can add.

When running bad at any form of poker, you have to make sure you're not on osme sort of sublte perma tilt where you're making really bad decisions one after another. And by this I don't mean the huge calls or bluffs that cause you to bust from sng's or lose big pot.s. What I'm referring to and what I feel is fairly likely the case in your situation right now is that you are simply playing wrose than usual due to the negative reaction to a downswing. This is totally normal and most players aren't born with much tolercance to subtle tilt. So you're likely just taking bad lines in small pots and are less focussed on making what's objectively the best play right now than you were while you were running well.

So the solution to getting through rough patches of variacne and making sure you're playing your best is to tighten up a bit, play very ABC and don't get too out of line unless you're generally, logcially sure it's a good spot to. Post hands here in our sng forum for other sng players to critique and swallow your ego and think carefully about every piece of advice you're given. Being successful at poker is all about developing a skilled critical thought process and the quickest way to accelrate this is to post hands and study concepts. Examine small pots; hands where you weren't sure whethr to c bet or not, stuff like that. If you patch up your small leaks you'll soon find that getting sucked out on inpre-flop all ins a few tiomes doesn't matter nearly so much.

Stay enthusiastic and positive. Good luck.

Carroters - this is pretty much exactly what I was looking for. Thank you.

Any solid recommendations on postings/articles around here regarding the fine tuning of push/fold mechanics late in a SNG or MTT? I also need to improve my bubble play in general. Again, a huge amount of this mess as of late is a life-sucking cold run of cards, but I've been finishing 1-2 places out of the money too damn often lately not to be realistic and take ownership of the problem too.

Any links to FTR articles (or otherwise) that have helped you guys in these areas of your game would be great.

Poker Tournament Video - Turbo SnG 2-Table by BjsAust Micro Stakes $3+$0.40

I started with this video and watched it many times when I started out playing SnG's.

You get used to that strange accent after a while

Great stuff - watching it now. Thank you guys

You've already found us, but if you're primarily playing SNGs then come post in the SNG forum. There are a bunch of articles that you'll find useful in the SNG Tactics Guide.

OK,
Just because you cashed in a few decent sized tournaments and have a 35% ITM, means nothing. If you play only single table SNG's, you have the bankroll to continue but if you mix in MTT's and 3+table SNG's, you need to consider that your wins will come much less frequent. In addition, a 35% ITM at MTT's = major losses (first ITM usually gets the buyin back and not much more) unless you are getting alot of final tables (not 3 as mentioned).
The problem is that you are being results based and that is why cash games are important to the development of poker players. You will become numb to bad beats and concentrate on discipline and proper strategy.
9 or 10 player SNG's are fun and you can build a good bankroll with a good strategy but if you run bad, you need to accept that your game has leaks like we all have and post individual hands or even entire SNG hands in the SNG forum for feedback.
The general advice that you get here is going to give you little information that will help your game. Make sure to post your HH and get specific info.
Good Luck.

Originally Posted by paratrooper99

OK,
Just because you cashed in a few decent sized tournaments and have a 35% ITM, means nothing. If you play only single table SNG's, you have the bankroll to continue but if you mix in MTT's and 3+table SNG's, you need to consider that your wins will come much less frequent. In addition, a 35% ITM at MTT's = major losses (first ITM usually gets the buyin back and not much more) unless you are getting alot of final tables (not 3 as mentioned).
The problem is that you are being results based and that is why cash games are important to the development of poker players. You will become numb to bad beats and concentrate on discipline and proper strategy.
9 or 10 player SNG's are fun and you can build a good bankroll with a good strategy but if you run bad, you need to accept that your game has leaks like we all have and post individual hands or even entire SNG hands in the SNG forum for feedback.
The general advice that you get here is going to give you little information that will help your game. Make sure to post your HH and get specific info.
Good Luck.

Someone had to say it, ty para.