Bad play/bad luck?

[Gorby]

Hello everyone!

I've been reading this forum for a while but this is my first post. Started playing limit hold'em about a year ago but recently I found FTR and realized that No Limit is the game for me. Been playing a couple of hours almost everyday the last month and have been pretty successful overall. But last night I lost a lot of money, took a break and continued today when I lost my entire bankroll. Really want to hear what you guys think about this, if I play like a maniac, too small bankroll or was just extremely unlucky. Further down are some hand examples, these are just some of them but typical for the last two days. It's just so unlikely that these happened over and over again on two consecutive days.

I play at $25 max buy-in (No Limit) at Party Poker. My bankroll was about $400 when I started playing last night and now it's all gone. Ok, here goes the hand examples. Really want some input on this because I'm about to give up on poker right now. If this happen often I don't see how I can make money in the long run.



I have $22.15 and get dealt As Qc
UTG has $23.85
UTG calls BB ($0.5), i'm directly after him and I raise $2 everyone else folds. UTG makes it $3. I call.

Flop [ Qs, 5d, Qh ]

UTG bets $8. I just call.

Turn [ Ac ]

UTG checks. I bet $5. UTG is all in ($12.35). I call ($5.65)

I realize that he might hold AA since he just limped in and reraised me pre-flop. But I can't fold here? Should I have reraised him on the flop?
Of course he held AA and took down the pot.
************************************************** ***

I have $14.9 and get dealt Ts Tc in middle position.
I raise $3. Opponent after me calls. Everyone else folds.

Flop [ Td, Jh, Kc ]

I check, He bets $6. I move all-in ($11.9) He calls.

He holds AQ and take down the pot.
************************************************** ***

These are just two examples of what the last two days have brought. And of course I had LOTS of bad beats where I got outdrawn on the river. No matter how much I bet and try to force them out. But that's a different story. I know it's the fish that chases draws that make you earn the money in the long run but I just can't believe how much bad luck you can have at once. I won a total of 4 pots the last two days. The rest of the hands I were involved in were like the ones above or got outdrawn. Do I need a bankroll of $10000 or what? Really need some encouraging thoughts, because right now I hate poker

[dalecooper]

The hand where you lost to aces: most every person on this forum would lose a ton of money on that hand, guaranteed. The other bad beat is pretty bad luck, but not outside the realm of probability by any means. Things like that happen fairly often. It's hard not to lose money on those hands, but it's possible.

NL is a game of swings. Sometimes huge ones. It might only take a few extraordinary bad beats a day to drain off most of your bankroll. The challenge is not to go on tilt and widen the drain. As always, I'm curious if during this horrible run, you maybe overbet with some weak hands, went all in with draws, etc. - all the things you probably don't do when you're not enduring a terrible losing streak.

[Sed]

I think the best thing to do when you get on a loosing streak is to take a step back, evaluate your play and not let the streak propagate itself. As soupie would say.... don't scratch those worms

- sed

[Penneywize]

Sorry man. The hand where you lost to AA is reminiscent of the opening chapter of Rounders where the main character loses something like 30k with A9, hitting 9s full of As, losing to As full of 9s. That kind of cinematic stuff does happen in real life I guess.

I completely agree with sed, take a step back and learn more about your style of play and try and figure out what went wrong. 400$ is pretty lousy to lose but it could be a lot worse. If you read the main page of this site, Tyson (i think it was him) claims to have lost over 700$ just learning the game before he was able to play consistently and make a profit.

If it makes you feel any better, my first deposit at paradise was 50$ and I lost it rather quickly. I bought in again and dropped all the way down to 2$, so I had no choice but to start playing penny poker at the 2$ NL tables. I've stuck to a system and tried to stay disciplined and I've already won my way back up past my 2nd deposit and I'm working on the original 50.

I'm sure you could do the same.