Frustration...

[New Guy]

Dude your like a major league pitcher that got injured and needs to be assigned to aaa to rehab his game.No worries.Get some innings in and when your ready to move up youll be ready.Be humble!!!!

[Reel Deal]

I agree w/a lot of what Zy said... for you TP I think:

Tournaments > Cash Games

[Talking Poker]

I'm glad you posted this, because it made me go reread his post. 90% of that wasn't there the first time I read it (damn you, post editors!), so I wouldn't have seen it otherwise.

I used to feel way more comfortable in tourneys than in cash games, but I've sucked in (online) tourneys lately. Things go well and then the inevitable beat (or the occasional really bad read and bad play, like I made last night) nad *poof* it's over. I still think Cash Games (NL, especially) are where the money is at. Maybe it's just more difficult for me since I started at a limit cash and NL tourney player, as you said. I dunno.

This Vegas trip will be a nice break for me. I may play some HU online while I'm gone, but that's probably going to be it.

[bdawg31]

I feel your pain - times about a year. I do remember back when i used to be able to win, that when i had a tough time at the Hold Em grind - i would switch to other games as suggested - usually LO8 or whatever. And i could play those games at lower stakes because since they were new, i still enjoyed them.

I did manage to cash out a fair amount of money before my total melt down. I have mixed feelings about that.

The good - i got my basement refinished, i got to take my wife to australia, kids to bahamas, paid of some bills, and buy a bunch of odds and ends before i pissed it all away (even though i pissed a fair amount away).

The bad - i am basically online broke now. And I wonder if i had just kept my money online and kept grinding if i could have played out of it. But, i think i would need committed if i had lost all of that.

Moving down semi-long-term is tough to do, believe me. That is part of the problem I am having now.

So, some advice coming from someone who won for over 3 years and now cant beat a $25 PLO game or the $4 180 MTTs.

I would suggest a little of all the advice given. Cash some out and treat yourself - if you continue to meltdown - you will at least have that to show for it.

I also like the idea of trying a new game at a low level. Since its a new game, I think you wont mind the lower stakes. And adding a new game to your arsenal is always a good thing.

I like the live-game idea as well. Like Zy said - the game is different, and i believe live is now softer than online play (plus you have had a lot of live success in both tournies and cash). Even as i have been getting my ass handed to me night after night over the last year or so, i have done well playing chump-stakes live on my few AC trips.

[melioris]

I hear you TP, and I think my situation is relevant to yours. I wrote up a big long thing and was going to post a new thread, but I will paraphrase here instead.

A couple of days after this , something came up and the family needed some money. At the time it made sense to pull the money from my online bankroll, so I pulled everything out (mid 4 figures). I thought about rebuilding with May's RB payment, and dicked around with that idea for a couple of days. But the joy was gone (which made it an easy decision to pull the BR in the first place), it was all about the money and that is when I knew it was time to move on. How? Well, for a lot of reasons. First, and most important, is time. Life is short and getting shorter everyday. There are a lot of things I want to do that I am not getting done right now. Each time I fire up windows and play poker, I am not doing those things. Then there is the fact I am not that good. Then there is the fact that my dayjobs (lab and kids) are taking up more and more time and I can't really let poker infringe on either. The list goes on and on….

Poker has been good for me and I have learned a lot about myself and human nature through online poker, but if I think about it, most of the things in my life that bring me happiness are not currently limited by money. So why should I spend my time pursuing money (poker) when the only correlation that money (and the pursuit of it) may have with my happiness is negative? It doesn’t add up. So with the chump change I still have online I mess around with HU SNGs every now and again and since I am not playing with proper BR management I will burn through that and be done for a while.

As I get older it becomes more and more clear to me that I am incredibly lucky to be able to, more or less, choose how I spend my time. Look around the world, not a lot of people came say that. So I try not to do anything that I do not truly enjoy. I still hack away at home games and such, and maybe we will need the money or I will re-discover my joy of online poker, but until then it isn't in me anymore.

[Talking Poker]

Wow.... This comes as kind of a shock to me. Believe me though, I hear ya. There have been times where I thought it would be great to average $10k a month playing online poker. But to be perfectly honest with you, if you don't enjoy doing that - or worse yet, if you are hating it - or worse yet, if you are hating it AND NOT DOING IT (as in, "losing") - it loses it's appeal very quickly.

I'm still very much undecided, but I think the timing of this Vegas trip is just right for me. I think things will be much more clear to me when I return.

One last thing though melioris - you are a much better poker player than you are giving yourself credit for. I think you are one of the most underrated players on this site, right up there with meanness. I say that based on a number of things, but primarily the posts you both have made in the Hand Discussion section. I can tell when someone "gets it" and when they don't... and you two (and others, but especially you two) both have the foundations needed to become very good players, if that's what you want.

GL to you. I hope you don't feel the need to leave us just because you are leaving online poker. Come on now - we don't take up that much of your time.

[melioris]

Don't worry, you can't rid of me that easy, just because I suck at poker and am not playing much doesn't mean I won't post like a fool around here. If that is good enough for RD it can't be that bad . I kid, I kid.

Thanks for your words TP. WSOP sounds great, kick some ass and work out in your head what you need to work out.

Also, I don't know what is going on in your personal life and I don't really what to pry, but if it is an issue, go out and get laid. Tends to provide clarity.

[Talking Poker]

Nah... personal life is fine. But thanks for the tip.

[Reel Deal]

Ass Face, we are happy to welcome you and your fancy Liberace lab coat to the Dark Side. BTW, what is this "get laid" you speak of?

[omahilo]

Ask boobie, he would know.

[melioris]

Clearly I was trying to sounds cool there.

I have read about it and can email you some pictures I found on the interweb that can explain better than words, although whenever I look at them I feel a little funny in my pants. A guy in the lab next door claims to have a girlfriend in the Niagara Falls area, but I am not sure if I believe him.