Part of this post is to vent, and also to see if this is typical of someone who is learning the game.

A couple months ago I got serious about learning to play Hold 'Em (limit in particular). This occured after I lost my initial 50 bucks at Party Poker, got the $20 "come back to us!" bonus, and managed to win a $10 SnG and break the 50 dollar mark so that I could withdrawal. After some floundering on some other poker sites and embarrassing losses, I decided to play on and stay at PokerStars. I liked the interface and they offered microlimits, since my bankroll was around $80 at that point, which includes having withdrawn $50 to purchase PokerTracker.

I read Small Stakes Hold 'Em twice through before I began playing again. I also read through Theory of Poker. I played for a while on the 0.05/0.10 tables, and after I got some experience, I decided to move to the 0.25/0.50 tables, since the profits from the 0.05/0.10 limit tables were non-existant.

Between a couple of SnG's that I won and a couple weeks worth of limit ring play, my bankroll had increased to about $170.

I had been playing two tables at a time up until this point. Foolishly, I thought I could handle three. I lost about $35 this way. I decided to cut it out with the three tables and move back down to two. But, for some reason, I kept losing. I would have maybe one day of good sessions, but many more days of bad ones. I've re-evaluated my game through Poker Tracker, re-read some of SSH, and tried to fix my leaks, yet my bankroll has continued to plumet. Over the course of October, I've managed to lose the $90 I won in limit 0.25/0.50, and I'm back where I began. I'm nearing my 8,000th hand soon.

I'm rather discouraged now, and I know I still have a lot to learn about the game. What really sucks is that there have been days where I'm playing fine one hour in at a table, and then a string of bad cards reduces my winnings, and then suddenly I'm under my buyin at any given table. This seems to happen without fail, after an hour has passed. I don't get fatigued, and I continue to pay attention to what I'm doing, so I don't understand if its just a coincidence or some other problem.

Loosing $90 at the 0.25/0.50 microlimit just feels too big, like that should indicate something is really wrong.

Any advice for what I should do? I want to re-read SSH a third time. Should I drop down to the 0.05/0.10 tables again and build my bank roll slowly? I'm starting to post my hands in the limit forum, so hopefully that will help some too.

I would probably feel better if I knew if this was a typical case, since most of these types of stories involve playing no limit instead of limit.