Quote Originally Posted by _KO_
My experience is similar and is frustrating the fuck out of me presently. I lost early before finding FTR, but then using simple rules took my bankroll from $100 to $1200 through the month of July. Then I REALLY started studying the game and have been alternately breaking even/losing my ass ever since. A few weeks ago I was at $1000. This week I dipped below $700. Hasn't mattered what I do. I tried low stakes limit and even though the game makes sense to me in theory, in practice I can't seem to make a profit. So I went back to NL only to see buy in after buy in disappear to bad beats, bad reads, or just plain getting my ass bluffed when holding nothing more than TPTK and scare cards on board.

To make matters worse, I've been unemployed for a couple of months, and though my BR is technically over $700, I only have $100+ of that online, and I need to dip into the rest to pay bills and get me through the month.

So, as of last night I decided my new BR is what I have online(basically $100). My new strategy is go way the fuck back to basics and safely rebuild my bankroll while trying to figure out where my game went. I'm now single tabling $5 SnG's and staying completely focused. I can crush that level, which I need just for the confidence, at present. Going to stick with the 5's til I hit 1k, then move on to the $10's until I hit 2k, and so on.

I'll probably throw in some bonus whoring playing TIGHT $25 NL here and there, but not until I'm over $500. I'll also begin to multi tabling the SnG's at target $$ intervals, but immediately go back to single table if it affects my game.


Believe me, I feel your pain. Best advice I can give to both of us is to lose the beginners luck giddiness and post luck wake up calls and realize this game takes time to learn. Also, I'm figuring out that books and education are great, but when it comes to poker, don't underestimate the power of instinct.

Last thought... I really recommend playing a level and style well within your bankroll and one you can figure out how to crush. One of the biggest problems with the downturns is what it does to your confidence, and a player playing scared makes -EV decisions more often than not. Get your confidence back, and you'll start to see the game again.

Good luck turning things around.
Thanks for the encouragement.

Yeah, I just moved down to the 0.10/0.20 tables, and I had all winning sessions today, so that helped my confidence a bit. Since my bankroll can support these levels, I'm going to stick around there for a while, rebuild my bankroll, and re-evaluate my game and try to determine where I went wrong. The people at the 0.10/0.20 tables at Pokerstars are also crazy super-loose (I couldn't believe the difference between these tables and the 0.25/0.50 tables), so building the money back may not be as difficult as I thought. My other problem may be that I'm playing on PokerStars, which is known as a slightly more difficult site to play at. After re-building my bankroll, I may move to another site to play the microlimits, since 0.25/0.50 PokerStars isn't as fishy.

Quote Originally Posted by chardrian
The easiest way to build your bankroll is to go way way over your bankroll for like half an hour. I.e. go to whatever table at which your bankroll is the absolute minimum buy-in. Then play super super tight. Because online poker is rigged and because no one at the higher limits has seen you play you are guaranteed to double, triple or quadruple up during that first half-hour. The key is to then leave the table while you are ahead and go back down to the lower limits where you can piss those winnigns off.
I know you're joking when it comes to terrible advice like this. I know online poker isn't rigged, and that I was playing outside my bankroll (probably my biggest fault). If I want to go bankrupt, then I should follow this advice, haha. Thanks, I needed the laugh.