Poker's downswing

[ChrisKim47]

Anyone on this forum can relate to a downswing in poker. I myself am having a hard time coping with this one in particular. Twice have I invested into poker, and twice I have come up empty handed. My first endeavor was on bodog, where I invested 100$ and made it to 2k$ in a semester only to lose it by playing bad at the 2/3 NL tables, which was way above my roll.

Just recently I had told myself I wouldn't do that again, and here I am again at 0.00$. I had deposited 350$ to Ultimate Bet, grinded it at the .25/.50c tables and made it to 1400$ in about 2 weeks. I didn't move up as I told myself I would strictly adhere to my plan of moving up in this fashion.
.25/.50 - from 0-2k$
.50/1 - from 2k$-5k$
1/2 - 5k$-up

I never passed 2k$ needless to say, but how can one put up with people playing "So Donkey!"

I lost about half my roll on 4 sets in one day that got busted on flush draws.
I'm a pretty trappy kind of guy, but when I tell you I got my money in good, I expect you to believe me that I got my money in good. In some of those situations I even got my money in on the turn with 1 card to come, and yet the hero catches the flush on the river when its all in there. In honesty I did get stacked or doubled a 25$ stack a few meaning 6 times and no more on marginal hands such as AQ on a A board. They had aces up each time. But regardless I did not lose more than 4 buy ins doing this as my Ptracker indicated.

I am a tight player and my worst beats have been seeing my Kings get busted by King deuce hearts. My turned broadway with AK, getting runner runner flushed by A4h. Check raising AK on the turn when A2 two barreled on an Ace board only to catch a 3 outer deuce on river. Aces getting cracked 3 way all in by 68s and KK in a 250$ pot only to see 2 8's flop. Aces busted by Kings 3 times, and NEVER EVER the other way around. I have not once been stacked kings by aces on my UB account as I am pretty much past that point in my career.

I don't know what to do anymore. Should I quit poker for a while? What is this donkey stuff? I sat there on UB with 200$ left and a determined will to play good at the 25/50c game as I only had 4 buy ins and the lower limits just were too "different" for me to play on (note different means retarded). I have 56c and flop bottom two. Someone leads out, one calls, I raise 6x the bet from 4$-18$ or so just to take the pot down. This donkey goes allin for 4$ more in the hopes of pushing me off? He has DEUCE FOUR of hearts for a gutshot straight flush draw and hits on the river. I can't take it guys.

Tell me what to do. If there are any more initial deposit bonuses anywhere. rakeback deals. anything to help me out. books, whatever I'd like to continue this thread as I'm sure you all can give me a little wise advice.

My better poker friends have told me that I concentrate too much on the short run. And my other self proclaimed superstars grinding 25$ tables tell me I'm a variance machine. My other friends who hardly know what poker is tell me that 'I told you you should have cashed out a little'. But I have had no interest in cashing out a penny until i had reached the 5k$ mark where I could grind the 1/2$ NL tables for a steady income. As a steady side income is all I want to reach.

Thank you guys for putting up with my semi rant/post.
Good luck to you all.

Chris

[ChrisKim47]

To give you an idea of how I play, My PTracker indicated I am about 8-16% raise preflop so pretty tight.

I only raise UTG/EP with AK, AQs, 8s or better (6-max of course).
I do not raise AJ -A10 in MP only LP, I usually raise PP 7s and up unless I'm in EP with 77 to 99 and I just limp to call raise, and flop set or play the overpair post flop.
I only call in position with suited connectors 78s-KQs.
And usually never fold a pair to a one raise, but then again I have been known to fold 4s and lower to just one raise PF.

I never call out of position with KJs or Q10s, I will call with KQ or QJ depending on how much I respect that player. I never call a raise OOP with Ace-x suited, And I only call a raise in position with Ace-10 and up suited only.

I play so tight people play back at me very often and I usually take their stack. Just recently I had gotten stacked with Q8s on the button, where I limped on button, BB raises I call. 8 high flop, bets i raise, call. Bets turn, I raise more than half his stack, he thinks for 2 years goes all in for probably 6 more dollars. I call. He shows AJ high, and rivers a Jack on me.

Another hand to show you how tight I play:
I raise in MP with AQo, a guy immediate my left raises 2x from 2-4. I call. KQ flop. check check. Ace on the turn, i bet half pot, with Aces up, guy raises to 14. I fold. thinking he flopped either a set of qs or ks.

I play pretty tight and its been good to me.
But this downswing is just weird.

[Zybomb]

Good post...

~ It seems you want to get better at the game, and move along in limits accordingly. When doing this make sure to stick to a strict bankroll management of 20 Max Buy Ins minimum. If you are playing 6 max and feel that the variance is higher, then by all means wait until you have more.

~ Some tough beats you've posted... but thats all a part of the game. Remember this is still gambling and there is luck involved. The important thing is to be DECISION oriented, rather than RESULTS oriented. This means that every time you made a correct decision, you did good, even if you lost the pot. Every time you made an incorrect decision you did bad, even if you won the pot. To help yourself track this, it's great to use Sklansky $ (a term coined by David Sklansky which tracks the % that you are favored (or not) when the money goes in) For example, if you get all the money in preflop (lets say $100 for simple math) with AA and are called by TT, you should win roughly 4 out of 5 times. Thus you would win $400 and lose $100 for a net toal of $300. So each time you'd get all in with AA vs TT you'd win 300 Sklansky dollars, regardless if you lost or won real dollars. Theoretically at some point in time, your Sklansky dollars should equal your real dollars. Stay focused and don't let bad beats affect you, they are bound to happen (by math!)

~ This may be strange advice, but I'd actually recommend increasing your aggression a little. 6 max is about aggression and position more so than it is about the cards you are dealt. Remember UTG in 6 max is MP in a normal game... so you should be opening all hands you would open MP with. You should primary focus on playing the majority of your hands from the cut off or the button however... and you should have a wide raising range from these positions. I personally include everything from all pairs, Ax, KT+ and all suited connectors and one gappers, and sometimes expanding to unsuited connectors and suited 2 gappers as well... although you dont have to be this wide at first until you are more comfortable playing postflop. Try and avoid limping in in 6 max for the most part. Especially don't open limp... with hands that play well multi way, occasionally limp behind a limper, but even still get comfortable with raising to isolate the limper (weakness). NEVER open limp the button

This wide range of hands is all assuming the pot is not previously opened. If an opponent has entered the pot with a raise, you should generally tighten up a lot and fold mostly. Try to rarely call raises from either of the blinds... for the most part reraise or fold. In position you can call a bit more since you have an advantage postflop, but do not do so with trouble hands (AT etc) and still reraise a lot of the hands that you do feel like playing.

~ When you put up your aggression a lot you'll take down a lot more pots and not need cards to so (be comfortable making a CB a large % of the time that you raise preflop and receive of call. This CB should be roughly 2/3 the pot). These tons of little pots tend to add up.It'll also possibly set you up for a big pot when you do have a bomb (although it seems opponents are calling you down pretty light despite your super tight image... I dont quite know what to make of that. ) The main thing is most of the time people lose a big pot, it is because of cards (funny, thats what we all are hopin to get) Very rarely will you lose a big pot making a positional play or showing some aggression... it'll be when you have a strong hand and run into an even stronger one... or simply get sucked out on

Best of Luck...

[Talking Poker]

I know about running bad. BELIEVE ME, I KNOW. The last couple of months have been boyond ridiculous for me. Reading the beats you were describing, it was like I could feel the turn of every river card and I kow the "Yup, there it is - why wouldn't it be?" feeling you must be going through.

Enough dwelling on the negative though, let's move on to the positive. I'll keep this short and sweet:

1. If you want specific advice on how your PT numbers look, take a screen shot and post it. I don't understand, for example, how your PFR number can be 8-16%. That's a huge range. Is it 8, or is it 16? Also, it really depends on what your VPIP number is that ties into that. If that number is 40 (I'm sure it's not), we've got a big problem here. And I don't think you even said if you are playing full ring or 6 max. The point is, if you want comments on your play, post your numbers, or more importantly, sort through your PT and take a look at the biggest hands you have both WON and lost. If they were obvious bad beats (and you weren't trapping and asking for it), ignore them - but if you have any question at all about how you played them, post them - one at a time, in the Hand Discussion section.

Lastly, and most importantly: Move your money . A change of scenery is always good, a 100% deposit bonus is great, and 27% rakeback is the nuts. For someone playing your stakes, that will make up a HUGE amount of your total winnings. Trust me on this.

Then just grind, grind, grind, and hopefully the running good (or at least reasonably) will start happening again. I know I wait for it daily.