I'm tapping out... (vent/whineathon)

I'm 20 years old, in college and play poker for fun with money I can afford to lose without too much hurt ($5-$10 sngs) and I think I'm about ready to quit.
I have been up overall for my online poker "career" which has spanned just under a year, but not by anything significant. Maybe $200 total after 100s of hours of playing. OF course I had some fun (and some of the most incredible anger I've ever felt) but honestly winning at that kind of rate is not worth the time. Although I stated that I play for fun, I honestly put a lot of effort into my game and deep inside I have high hopes/expectations of doing something productive with poker, and being profitable.
I know better than to say online is rigged, but the the past month or so resulted in me being down only $25 overall, but this is after being up over $100 and then going into the red.

The past beats that have knocked me out of tournies are as follows (and this is off the top of my head):
ME vs. someone
AA vs. KK (duh)
A10 vs. K10
KJ vs. QJ
my ace high flush on the turn vs. rivered full house
my trip jacks all in on the flop vs. his rivered gutshot straight
and the list goes on...

All ego aside, i consider myself at least a "solid" player. I have the ability to win these low buy in SnGs for sure, and I know so because have won many of them (once I went on a run with 17 out of 30 ITM). But it seems like the number of times I bust out with the best hand preflop far outnumbers the amount of times I win a tournament.

I guess all in all, this is just a cry baby post. I don't know what I'm asking for, but I just wish I could stop WANTING to play poker. But I can't shake the hope of becoming a consistently successful player. I want to be good at this game and have something big to show for it SOO BADLY, but so far all i have to show for hours and hours of time is a few measel bucks. And it is so frustrating because I've held SOOOO much more money than that in profit, but it drains away much quicker than It comes in.

I wish I could just stop playing this game and not feel like I'm a quitter. Not feel like I gave up on something that I could have been real good at. And I don't want to feel like I quit because I just suck (which I won't accept because I'm up overall). I want to quit playing because the rewards have not correlated directly to the number of times I hold the best hand when the money goes in.
I wish I could quit and not WANT to play again... but the fact is that I always want to play. I love playing, the thrill of bluffing, or reading your opponents perfectly, the feeling of sucking out, or making a great call.
But the fact is that I only end up winning small. And I hate that. I put my money in on the best hand 90% of the time, yet only win 50% of the time.
I just wish I could quite playing, and then wake up and not care about playing again... just forget about poker.

by the way... WAH WAH WAH... I'm a big baby I know. But if you have something constructive to say then I'd like to hear it anyways. Thanks if you read though this whole thing.

Step up to the plate already and quit the bloody sitngos.

So utterly pointless.

If you really want to get better, play ring.

If you have a problem turning away from poker, make sure its controlled before you play ring games. Its pretty easy to go on tilt and keep rebuying, and you sound slightly tilt-prone.

Take a break, read a new poker book, read the poker forums, and then come back to poker with a refreshed outlook. It can only help.

NO SNGs are the shit. Keep playing the SNGs. I got decent playing SNGs.

Bad beats in SNGs happen. DOnt worry. LONG RUN POKER,. short term variance.

everyone feels like this sometimes, and i don't think you're alone. a bottom line is, most people aren't greatly successful poker players, that's just the way it works. A big majority of people will lose a tiny bit of money over time, a lot will win on a small scale, and a few will win big. If you like poker, and want to keep playing, (and you are not addicted, as in this time your are spending is not being taken away from important studying, etc.), then I'd say keep trying. Go buy a few books, try to see things you can improve, watch rippy and michael and see if you can learn anything from them, buy pokertracker, read more/post more hands on here. you can improve if you can keep your frustration under control, which admittedly is hard.

You say want to improve. What are you doing about it? You can either carry on as you are, and keep moaning or actively work on your game with a positive attitude (or you could quit the game and find something more satisfying to do).


Forget about the bad beats, we can all go on about our AA getting cracked or someone hitting a 1 outer. Winners don't bother with bad beat stories because they accept that's poker and just let it go.

So what are you going to do? I suggest you go through all your hand histories and spend time analyzing every hand where you lost any significant money. Just identify one big losing habit you have and work on that. Do you have enough aggression in your game, are you limping in with dubious hands out of position, getting too attached to TPTK, calling other people's all ins with less than the nuts etc. Just work on one bad habit. Then when you have that under control, find another bad habit and focus on that.

Ths will take time and so while you focus on the mechanics of getting a good game, don't worry about the outcome. Breakeven poker will be fine. You're learning your trade.

Originally Posted by DBL0SVN

Forget about the bad beats, we can all go on about our AA getting cracked or someone hitting a 1 outer. Winners don't bother with bad beat stories because they accept that's poker and just let it go.

Quoted for truth.

Bad beats are going to happen so you better get used to it. Once you do, you'll be a much better player. You *WANT* to be in the ring with AA vs. KK, or KJ vs. QJ. If you see these situations over and over you'll come out on top more often than not, and you should be happy with that.

You should be happy with these plays. The plays that you should be upset about are the plays where you KNOW you're beat but you still call anyway.

Your paying way too much attention to your cards. It seems that way through your opening post.

AT vs KT • KJ vs QJ ????

If you went all in with AT or KJ you almost deserved to get sucked out. Maybe it was necessary given your chip count and blind level, but I don't race with those starting hands if I can help it.

It's time you start thinking about the next level. Eventually you'll realize winning poker has less to do with what your holding, and more to do with what they are holding, and what the table thinks of you (your table image).

I heard one of the pros say this once....

Good players read other players. Great players read what other players are reading

It's so true. When you first start playing poker the advice is play tight, follow the positional starting hand charts. Stuff like that. It will only get you so far bro. There are millions of people playing poker. Do you think the ones winning all the money are just playing tight and catching cards? There's another level your not seeing.

These are the areas I've improved in recently. Maybe it will help you...

- Using the board
Use the board against your competition. Don't allow a 3 suited flop to scare you. Use the leverage of fear it generates to steal pots and chase better hands out before showdowns. Paired flops are delicious as well. This is one of the easiest boards to get reads on other hand strengths. I always assume no one has trips, and I'm usually right. Sometimes I represent them when isolated. When a flop of 9 2 9 pops up, basically what you have are like 3 people looking at each other and another guy with A2 suited thinking "Screw this". That's a pot you should be winning.

- Instincts
This is something that will come. Eventually you'll be able to smell a beat coming and cut the losses. I'm not talking about playing with fear. I'm talking about being right more often about a situation. Last night I saw a board of 7c 8s 8c 2d 3c. There was heavy betting throughout involving 3 players. Once the river put a third club on the board and NO ONE slowed down I knew someone had 77. I announced it, people were amazed, it wasn't that amazing.

- Molding
Mold your image to put people on tilt. take a look at Michael's posts in the high stakes section. You'll learn a lot about molding your image from him. I know I did. The thing you have to remember is that people are watching you. Use that to your advantage.

- Attacking Weakness
You probably already do some form of this. This conveniently goes along with molding your image. You attack weakness until you get a bad image with some people. Then you attack those peope with good hands. Basically what happens is if you represent a flopped ace every time, and then you actually have it, you can feel safe betting out and feel confident someone will look you up and pay it off. The mistake people make is they keep attacking weakness after their image goes sour, and they find themselves being slowplayed by a monster. Don't be that person. Let them catch on, and then switch gears.

Well just to elaborate on those a10, KJ beats... this is not just "ohh I have a face card IM ALL INN!!!!" Its when I have top pair on the flop and feel I'm ahead of my opponent based on read.
I think the reason I'm so frustrated is because I dont know what part of my game is holding me back.

I am a member on NSXT2's site, and watch his clips, so to say the very least, I am aware of factors in the game such as stack size, position, table image etc. And to be quite honest I take thest things into consideration just as much as I do my cards.

I might jsut take a couple of days off.... but I know I'm gonna play again. MAybe I'll just post a whole SnG hand history in the HH section for discussion or something.
Thanks anyways for the replies y'all.

One problem you're always going to have at low levels... people are playing poorly there. They are going to make bad plays. That's what allowed you to get ITM 17/30... but it's also what is going to give you a lot more bad beats than 'normal'. But recognize what that means is that you are getting your money in with the best of it and be happy.

Also I think you should be happy with your results so far, you've spend a year in poker college for free, not too shabby. I was scuffling like you for my first six months, the last 4-5 I've finally managed to run up a little BR and get out of the deposit 200, up 200, lose 370, re deposit cycle. If you're really only down because of bad beats, you'll get there soon, you can move up a level or two, and start feeling the pain of being outplayed instead of being outdrawn. You may wish for the latter!

Also I agree with the above on aggression - my BR finally started to grow when I quit camping big hands. Camping tends to lead to coin flips in my experience, and it's tough having to win 3-4 flips just to have a chance to win. Add in the bad plays you make sometimes and flat out bad luck (KK vs AA type stuff) and it's just hard to get on a run. Much better to be the aggresor, and if you end up with the big stack you can afford a bad beat or a flip loss. If not, you're out and on to a new tourney to find your big stack there. Either way, you're having more fun than fold fold fold fold fold QQ Sweet AI sucked out f_ck. See Rippy strat for more details!

You know, we all jump in and give folks three hundred reasons why they shouldn't quit, but it comes down to this: If you don't enjoy it, quit.

You've made a small profit while pursuing a hobby. How many people can say that. While others invest money in their hobbies, we sometimes profit. It sounds like you play at Low enough stakes that you can justify your costs as "entertainment costs"... so when it no longer entertains you, don't invest in it.

If you're still having fun, keep playing.

It's really that simple.

I think I know about how you feel. A week ago I was looking forward to my new life as a professional poker player. This week I was considering withdrawling my remaining bankroll.

I think you might be in the same state of "perma-tilt" as I am in. (I belive rilla was the one that made that up" When you are running good bad beats dont bother you, you are happy that you got in with the best whether you win or not. When I'm losing I get mad at bad beats and happy when I suck out regardless of how I played.

I think you should play some MTT's. You have enough experience to have a shot in them, and a big finish could rejuvinate your poker game. Perhaps try a some sattellites also, just so you are playing for bigger stakes.

last month was pure hell for me. i couldn't seem to win to save my life. i thought, how can i be such a fucking loser?? especially after building my bankroll up so much in the previous months. turns out it was a bad streak. once may began, i've been kicking ass left and right and made back three times what i lost in april. and there's still 2 more weeks to go before the month is over.

take a break if you want to, but if you have been winning consistently in the past and you don't think your game has changed that much, then have faith in the long term laws of probability and things will turn around for you too.

ChezJ