PROBLEM!!!

I've been playin poker for about 2 years with an extensive group of friends and I started losing but once I got a grasp for the game i started winning. Won 180 in one night and continued to win 50 or more for a couple of weekends straight (which is incredible considering we play .25/.50 blinds and we buy in at about 15-20 dollars) I went up big but then recently I start losing alot. At first its because I started playing to reckless but then I realized my mistakes and played more disciplined and I still lost because I was catching cold cards and even when I catch good hands I always get rivered by those players that call everything. Is this just a string of bad luck that will sooner or later stop (either I start catching more hands or those call stations stop catching on me as much) or is there some way to change my play to atleast minimize losses until I do catch the nut or atleast a winning hand? I've already tried being conservative and disciplined and it seems impossible to protect my good hands without risking nearly everything good hand i get. HELP?!?!?!?!

Buy a copy of Theory of Poker. Read some articles. Sounds like your game needs more work than can be solved with one post.

Anyone want to help me out with some good articles/books to read to help my game?

http://www.flopturnriver.com/poker-books.html

http://www.winningonlinepoker.com/books.htm

I think this goes to something I spoke of in another post.

When someone starts playing poker, they have a little case of beginners luck. It's due to them not justifying anyting, chasing cards when they have a feeling. Others not expecting bad players to get good cards, and a lack of discipline translates into an unreadable play. I think beginners luck is a major factor in starting to play. I had it, and many people I play with had it.

Once you get more knowledge you start learning about pot odds, what beats what and how to bet. This makes you scared, among other things. YOu start folding good cards to good raises, and play second best hands when you feel something good (trying to call someone on what you think is a bluff)
This is the down part of poker, and probably where you are right now. You have to re-learn how to play poker the correct way.

The next step is when you can correctly read tells, and betting patterns. YOu can bet within the structure of what you should do and bet outside of it when you sense weakness.

As you can tell, I feel the natural progression of learning poker is good - bad - best.

All I can say is to keep at it. Get more hands in, more books read and stick around. I think this site is the best on the web to learn about holdem. You have great brains to pick here and a lot of great info.

if you want specifics, I'd say check out Doyle Brunson's Super System. almost any Skalansky book, and a great, short holdem book is Poker Holdem: Advances by Andy Nelson. Andy's book is specificaly about low stakes, no limit texas holdem. It's one of the few books that I feel deals specifically with the kind of poker I play, therefore it was the most helpful.

God have mercy on his bankroll if he buys Super System, then tries to play like that in his game (under 50BB stacks) or on Party Poker.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Fnord

God have mercy on his bankroll if he buys Super System, then tries to play like that in his game (under 50BB stacks) or on Party Poker.

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OK, so pay no attention to most of the holdem, or no limit holdem sections of Super System. It's very interesting, but I agree with Fnord, it's not theories to be used with low stakes poker.

However, the introduction (general poker) section has a lot of useful information. There is a good section in holdem on bluffing, reading others etc (Caro has a section at the beginning about reading) There's still a lot of good stuff in there.

Humph, I'm finding the 3 phases to be very true. When I first started I turned $50 into $300 right away. I was reading everything and watching even more! I couldn't get enough (still can't)

Then I found that my winnings started to go downhill, it was especially frustrating because I felt like a BETTER player than when I started.

While I've stopped the bleeding I have a long way to go to be a consistent winner.

Needless to say I was happy to read what I was already thinking about. It's nice to know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.