Quote Originally Posted by jyms
My winrate is fine. At $100NL and under I can beat the game soundly. At $200NL I don't see anything hard about the game. It's the money. It's not a lot of money, it's just that I use the money. I like withdrawing, and buying things for my family. I may need to withhold the withdrawing for a bit until I get a handle on this. So here goes...
have you thought about sticking to 100nl for a lot longer? You can make real money at 100nl (enough to withdraw and buy cool stuff ), the downswings/tilt impacts - if they hit - are less material, and eventually you'll end up heavily rolled for 200nl anyway. And when you're playing heavily rolled, the risk of tilt seems less.

Something I've noticed over the last two months is counter-intuitive, but interesting. When I play well, I win. So I try to win more. I start thinking, "I can beat this game soundly, I'm good post-flop". Instead of continuing with the style that wins me money, I start to loosen up my game, look for more spots, try and play too many pots vs fish, iso more, 3/4 bet more, pay less attention to position, etc. And then I start to lose. Any chance you're falling into this same trap?

I'm glad that i've noticed this now, while I'm still comfortably rolled for the games I'm playing and I'm not relying on poker income.

Quote Originally Posted by jyms
Stop playing after 3 BI's lost in a night.
Stop playing after 1K hands if I am down or even.
Drop down if I have 2 multi BI losing sessions in a row, until I string together two multi BI sessions in a row.
Plan to take off some nights in the week.
Play less hands.

. I have had multi nights where I have played past 1am in a week, including this week, and have been really off my game. Not just at the tables but at work and home. I need to be fresh, fit and ready to play. Short, sweet and to the point with my game. Starts tonight. 1K hands, $100NL. That's all.
I think that rules like these are a good idea for you (based on the rest of your post) at the moment. Is it also worth thinking about why the listed things result in bad play and tilt? Spoon and others have posted loads on this stuff over the past year.

the second para is important. When poker starts to -vely affect the rest of life, something needs to be done. You know about training/coaching - think about all the things that sportspeople should do before a big event/game. Basically stuff to make sure they're in shape to 1) perform well & 2) prevent risk of injury
With poker, your mental and emotional state are your keys to performing well, and your awareness of bankroll and tilt management (e.g. the listed stop-loss stuff above) are your injury prevention.

Quote Originally Posted by jyms
Using just my iPoker cash I have $2630, down from $5500 on Thursday. That will be my starting roll. moneybookers, stars, FT and NoIQ cash doesn't count. It's fall back and incidentals money.
74 buyins in three months. Good luck, I hope you make it. Even more, I hope that you stick to everything listed above - and suffer no crazy-monkey-tilt issues! If that happens the $$ will inevitably follow.

Your post was interesting to me as I'm down a bunch on the tables this year, breakeven cos of rakeback/bonuses. Which is crap. Cos it means that the rakeback and bonuses aren't the free EXTRA money they should be....

hope that wasn't way too long-winded for ya
davenout