Joined: May '10
Location: United States
Age: 37 (M)
Posts: 59
I've been playing online poker off and on for 5 years now. I've always had a problem playing within my limits. I seem to always build up a great bank roll with hard word concentration and disciplined play. Then I seem to blow it in one foul swoop. Let me give the worst example ever: ~about a month ago on Absolute Poker I was given a $10 credit; this was a courtesy comp. True story, I managed to turn that 10 dollars into 650 dollars in 1 in a half days(probably 3-5 hours each day) just through sit and goes. At the end of day one I was around 250ish 270. That was the hard work. Than on day 2 I won a 50 dollar 6 handed and a 100 dollar heads up. So, I was somewhere in the 600's. Now, I'm feelin' pretty damn good. I just turned 10 in 650. Hell's ya. I'm the s**t. But wait, here comes my compulsive play. I came back an hour later and literally dropped to 140 in one hour; half cash half sit and go. I'm thinking, "holy s**t 650 can be 2000 etc." Need I say more. Then I said F uck it and pretty much blew the rest just cause I was pissed. I'm really trying to get better at not doing that stupid crap. That was the worst, it usually doesn't happen like that. But, you get the picture. How many people out there have problems with compulsive play?
Joined: May '10
Location: Philippines
Age: 43 (M)
Posts: 104
It seems like yo already have the fundamentals down. From your story, i think the issue is consistent play and proper mindsetting. You would just have have set goals and focus on that. I think some 90's philosophy wouldn't hurt in this case
Joined: Feb '09
Location: Belgium
Age: 34 (M)
Posts: 686
I had this problem at start, but now have learn that you better play in your limits. And you know when you say : "great i turned 10$ in 650$ in two days"... well you should more think like that :" i've made this cash, but well since i played really high sng's (i mean it was 10% or more of your bankroll, that's so crazy!!), so its not a big performance because anybody should be able to do this (for example, my bankroll is at 700 for now and i might make 2000 $ in one night by playing 200 $ sng's with a bit of luck). You should'nt be proud to raise a bankroll this way : what is a performance,imo, is to grind and to see that you can build a bankroll through a thousand of games : there you can say to yourself : "i'm damn good at this limit, i can be a good poker player. Lets try the next limit to see if i'm good, but well if it dont works, lets go back to the previous limit, keep on grinding and finished by beat the upper limit". I did my bankroll this way : starting with 50 bucks, grinding 2-3$ sng's to 150. Then i tried the upper limit (it was a mistake since my bankroll was to low for this 6$ limits) : i reached 320 then go back to 150 as fast. So there i started to play 2$ sng's again and reached 700 by being patient. I've now tried some bigger shots (some 10 bucks tournaments) but i see that it dont really works so ill go back to this damn 2$ limits and try to reach 1000$ before to try another limit, etc
So try to change your definition of a good poker player and the definition of a poker performance and you should be able to be more patient.
Joined: May '10
Location: Germany
Age: 41 (M)
Posts: 61
Oh boy, blow away 650. You need some discipline. Just stay on low limits and learn it. And when you think you learned enough then try your best at higher limits.
Most important thing to play winning poker is just discipline.
Joined: Apr '09
Location: Australia
Age: 40 (M)
Posts: 6483
Posted by youngbaboon: I've been playing online poker off and on for 5 years now. I've always had a problem playing within my limits. I seem to always build up a great bank roll with hard word concentration and disciplined play. Then I seem to blow it in one foul swoop. Let me give the worst example ever: ~about a month ago on Absolute Poker I was given a $10 credit; this was a courtesy comp. True story, I managed to turn that 10 dollars into 650 dollars in 1 in a half days(probably 3-5 hours each day) just through sit and goes. At the end of day one I was around 250ish 270. That was the hard work. Than on day 2 I won a 50 dollar 6 handed and a 100 dollar heads up. So, I was somewhere in the 600's. Now, I'm feelin' pretty damn good. I just turned 10 in 650. Hell's ya. I'm the s**t. But wait, here comes my compulsive play. I came back an hour later and literally dropped to 140 in one hour; half cash half sit and go. I'm thinking, "holy s**t 650 can be 2000 etc." Need I say more. Then I said F uck it and pretty much blew the rest just cause I was pissed. I'm really trying to get better at not doing that stupid crap. That was the worst, it usually doesn't happen like that. But, you get the picture. How many people out there have problems with compulsive play?
I do the same thing, I used to be a compulsive gambler.. tendancies are the same.. ALthough poker curbs my gambling habbit. I don't lost large amounts on poker.
However, I can also rapidly build BR's of $1K+ and go busto within a couple hours..
The answer lay somewhere in underlying factors and it has nothing to do with poker what-so-ever.
Joined: Sep '09
Location: France
Age: 43 (M)
Posts: 301
This is the answer, you dont have a good bankroll management, try to check out on the net, there are tons of good articles about Bankroll management, there's even one on Bankroll Mob i think
Joined: May '09
Location: India
Age: 37 (M)
Posts: 4873
i dont have compulsive gambling problem, but i play poker just for fun and not to earn money. so i dont play that much too. one of my friend had this similar problem, now he has a limit on how much he will deposit every month and if he wins he withdraws it often to his moneybookers account so theres less to lose in his poker account. it helped him, not sure about you.
Joined: Oct '09
Location: Spain
Age: 60 (M)
Posts: 2851
Posted by Tchungpo: I had this problem at start, but now have learn that you better play in your limits. And you know when you say : "great i turned 10$ in 650$ in two days"... well you should more think like that :" i've made this cash, but well since i played really high sng's (i mean it was 10% or more of your bankroll, that's so crazy!!), so its not a big performance because anybody should be able to do this (for example, my bankroll is at 700 for now and i might make 2000 $ in one night by playing 200 $ sng's with a bit of luck). You should'nt be proud to raise a bankroll this way : what is a performance,imo, is to grind and to see that you can build a bankroll through a thousand of games : there you can say to yourself : "i'm damn good at this limit, i can be a good poker player. Lets try the next limit to see if i'm good, but well if it dont works, lets go back to the previous limit, keep on grinding and finished by beat the upper limit". I did my bankroll this way : starting with 50 bucks, grinding 2-3$ sng's to 150. Then i tried the upper limit (it was a mistake since my bankroll was to low for this 6$ limits) : i reached 320 then go back to 150 as fast. So there i started to play 2$ sng's again and reached 700 by being patient. I've now tried some bigger shots (some 10 bucks tournaments) but i see that it dont really works so ill go back to this damn 2$ limits and try to reach 1000$ before to try another limit, etc
So try to change your definition of a good poker player and the definition of a poker performance and you should be able to be more patient.
Exactly what I do!! Perfect advice! I takes A LOT of discipline, believe me! And it gets frustrating at times, but you always have a bankroll. It might be growing very slowly, but at least i never have to put money into the game. Good luck!
Joined: Oct '09
Location: Lithuania
Age: 33 (F)
Posts: 1180
Posted by youngbaboon: I've been playing online poker off and on for 5 years now. I've always had a problem playing within my limits. I seem to always build up a great bank roll with hard word concentration and disciplined play. Then I seem to blow it in one foul swoop. Let me give the worst example ever: ~about a month ago on Absolute Poker I was given a $10 credit; this was a courtesy comp. True story, I managed to turn that 10 dollars into 650 dollars in 1 in a half days(probably 3-5 hours each day) just through sit and goes. At the end of day one I was around 250ish 270. That was the hard work. Than on day 2 I won a 50 dollar 6 handed and a 100 dollar heads up. So, I was somewhere in the 600's. Now, I'm feelin' pretty damn good. I just turned 10 in 650. Hell's ya. I'm the s**t. But wait, here comes my compulsive play. I came back an hour later and literally dropped to 140 in one hour; half cash half sit and go. I'm thinking, "holy s**t 650 can be 2000 etc." Need I say more. Then I said F uck it and pretty much blew the rest just cause I was pissed. I'm really trying to get better at not doing that stupid crap. That was the worst, it usually doesn't happen like that. But, you get the picture. How many people out there have problems with compulsive play?
The same and I I turned 5$ into 160~ and lost in 1 day ( not all 20$ left then )
Joined: May '08
Location: Sweden
Age: 55 (M)
Posts: 1362
Yeah, I have a same sort of problem, but perhapps not exactly. I grind away through the week, mostly cashgames, but also DoN:s, slowly, slowly amounting $.
And then comes the weekend. I drink like 5 beers, and all of a sudden get this urge to gamble, just a little bit.
And the whole weeks profit is gone. Not always, but too often.
