Pushing aside old habits

[allLiving]

Ever since I've been following this site's poker strategies I've been winning money and losing money. I haven't quite broken my debt, but I am fairly close and highly confident I can do it. I will give an example of my problem. Let's say I deposit $20 into a poker website. I play pretty smart, following FTR strategies and a mix of my own. I double, and sometimes triple my bank account, and that is where my old beginner holdem habits begin to kick in and I start playing second-place hands that lose me alot of money. After awhile of trying to play "god", I eventually lose most, or ALL of my money, adding to my poker debt which is hovering around -$30. Can anyone give me some helpful tips on how to play persistent poker? I know I can be very profitable once I can shake this setback. Anyone have any tips they share to help them stay strategically sound? Thanks

[johnnyawe]

cash out half of your money after doubling.

[ttanaka]

It becomes easier to play at a consistent level with time, practice, and experience.

I played at a brick and mortar yesterday, one seat for over 5 hours, and I wasn't getting any hands. After about 2 hours of not getting anything, I'm dealt AQs.

I'm playing a $100 no-limit ring game, the blinds are $2-$3, I raise pre-flop to $12. After waiting and waiting, I finally have a hand I can come in strong with.

Well, the player two spots to my left re-raises $18, to make the bet $30. I know he's a solid player and I lay my hand down. He gets one other caller.

A Queen, 2, 4 comes on the flop. He bets every round and goes all-in on the river with his opponent calling. He turns over QQ.

So the point here is that a year ago, I would have played my hand stupidly because of impatience. Waiting hours for a good hand, only to fold it after raising the pot is something I would not have been disciplined enough to do a year ago. But practice and experience has taught me.

So, with regards to your "bad habits", I would suggest shortening your sessions so you can maintain a higher level of focus during your play. If you are starting to lose patience, then your session should end.

If you are tired or distracted, you should stop. You cannot play at the top of your game after 8 hours at 4:00am.

If you take a bad beat or get steamed for any reason, you should quit - your patience and discipline will be diminished.

It may also help to remember that you do not need to win every time you take a seat, you have an entire lifetime of poker ahead of you, only play when you can play optimally.

You can also perhaps benefit from some money management, if you double up at a table, you can leave and sit back down somewhere with half the stack, so you do not have it all at risk.

Good luck, it sounds like you're very close to getting over the hump.

[Fnord]

Aye, stay right and tight and learn when to leave. In poker you gain via your opponent's mistakes (per S&M's fundamental theory.) If you can gain enough advantage to overcome the rake, you're a winner (key point here is that better than average doesn't cut it.) Many online low limit NL players suffer from calling disease, so trying to push marginal positions against them is often an excericise in futility. A few others will hang themselves given enough rope. I'm a consistantly profitable player and only now really focusing on the aggression factor in my play over other decisions.