Winning, but not making money

I'm a newbie, and I've noticed that I am beginning to win and/or stay around my buy in on limit Hold'em, but I'm not winning any money. I win hands mostly, but not winning $$. So I suspect I'm lacking in betting strategy. Any ideas on what I need to read up on to figure out what I'm doing wrong?

Originally Posted by Ariadne

I'm a newbie, and I've noticed that I am beginning to win and/or stay around my buy in on limit Hold'em, but I'm not winning any money. I win hands mostly, but not winning $$. So I suspect I'm lacking in betting strategy. Any ideas on what I need to read up on to figure out what I'm doing wrong?

Stop playing play money. Jk. :P

On a serious note, the threads in the Beginner's Digest (Newbie Circle of Death, Bankroll Management 101, etc.) are pretty helpful. Link: http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...ul-t36037.html

Welcome to FTR btw.

if you are winning big on your big hands, but still find that you are breaking even, then this is usually a sign that you are losing too many chips with weaker hands. Until you get more experience, try tightening up a bit. this should help a lot.

Read Fnord's "why you suck at limit" or what ever that thread is called. It's in the limit digest.

I agree with Pgil because I had the same problem. I wasn't able to lay down a weak hand and therefore overplayed them somtimes but I can assure you it will change with your experience

On a second note read everything in this forum...all the articles, look over the post...if your having trouble laying down weak hands then make a chart with each position and write down the hands you would open the pot with if it was folded to you, then write down what hands you would need to call a raise/limp in with from that position...then another column for the hands that you will raise with....Be sure to be very selective in early position...UTG and UTG+1...your only playing AA-10...and AK, then go about filling in the rest about limping in and all that good stuff...its kind of time consuming but its a very worthwild project that will tune up your PF game....GL

Thank you! Ya'll are incredibly kind. I'll tackle each suggestion in kind. I had already started Fnord's article, but I can't make much out of it due to the jargon. For instance what does this mean?: You ignore the size of the pot (including chasing with bad pot odds) ?

There is a post somwhere around the beginner form titled "What does (x) mean?" which is a good reference... try that too...

I still to this day suffer the same problem - I win a lot of small hands but not as many medium-large ones as I should. This is partly because I bet too big to "protect" strong hands in circumstances where I'd be better off betting smaller to keep draws and weaker kickers in the hand with me and hopefully get a bet or two off them further down the line.

I recently read a lot of good information in Harrington on Hold Em about this, you should be betting strong to protect weaker raising hands, isolating down to one caller which you can beat vs. betting bigger on bigger hands, since you already have them beat...

Or something like that...

I guess this is why I don't play limit!

Play tight and get as much chips in as possible.

Whoohoo! After reading everything in this post and researching the Beginnger's Digest I'm not actually making money! My biggest mistake so far has been ignoring position and how that affects how much money is in the pot. thank you!!!

It sounds like your very new to poker....like very new....So my suggestion would be not study everything at once but study each section...say working with position and pre-flop hands....study it..work on it a few days or until you feel you've got it down, then move to something else like ranging opponents and reading hands (this one takes awhile and has a lot to do with experiance, so this wouldnt be something id try to tackle right away)...really try to work and understand what your learning..dont just read and be a bot about it...fully understand the info and APPLY IT..and if you dont get it post it and someone around here will answer your question...

FYI: Learn RIGHT AWAY!!!
1) Using/calculating pot odds
2) the power of positiona and applying it correctly
3) Understanding implied odds and reading the board
4) Basic math info on hands like you have a 1 in 8 chance of hitting a set when you have two paired hole cards...info like that

Learn the above first and go from there..if you take the time to do that you should start making some $$$$$ soon...GL..Hope this at least gets you on the right track...

Originally Posted by rvrking22

On a second note read everything in this forum...all the articles, look over the post...if your having trouble laying down weak hands then make a chart with each position and write down the hands you would open the pot with if it was folded to you, then write down what hands you would need to call a raise/limp in with from that position...then another column for the hands that you will raise with....Be sure to be very selective in early position...UTG and UTG+1...your only playing AA-10...and AK, then go about filling in the rest about limping in and all that good stuff...its kind of time consuming but its a very worthwild project that will tune up your PF game....GL

Funny thing, I did pretty much the exact samething awhile back when I was new. Though this is a good tactic when ur starting off, it will ultimately hinder your progress. It's like your learning the multiplication table (ex. 5X5=25, you have it memorized) instead of actually learning to do the multiplication process.

Win the big ones lose the small ones. You may be winning big pots, but you may be losing to many medium sized ones and also not getting full value out of the big ones you do win.

Pot size manipulation

try to read something about bankroll

If you're not making money then you're not winning, sorry.

Win Money, not pots