how bad were you before you got good?

i learned how to play the game in january this year, so its been 7 months since i started playing this game.

i practiced on free poker sites and phone apps and pretty much dominated with tight play. by dominated i mean i had a consistently positive "play chip" flow.

so i took it up a notch and made a $20 deposit on full tilt just to try it out. i lost the first deposit but doubled up another deposit by playing the rush poker. about a week later BAM full tilt is no more, along with my $40, which i dont care about. but i miss rush poker.

so now i play on cake network and i suck. ive lost 160 bucks so far with $20 deposits once a week. (not because im broke but because i dont wanna put too much into a game i obviously suck at, lol).

so down to the point, is it normal for me to be this bad after 7 months since learning the game? or does it sound like im taking too long to learn it?

please be honest, how long should the average person take or how much is lost before getting a positive flow? or should i just stop now?

here is my sharkscope graph from the beginning of my cake career :

Username Games Played Av. Profit Av. Stake Av. ROI Total Profit Form Ability /100 Network Filter
blikbleek 174-$1 $3 -22%-$167 -50Cake

sorry the graph didnt show and the stats look all messed up. if you click on my name it will link to my sharkscope

I wonder why you are doing so much worse at cake? You think its mental, because of the poker software looks different?
I am sometimes like that. Whenever i switched sites just because of the different look i think. But you will get use to cake and like it after awhile. You will adjust your mental game dont worry. Good luck to you.

i have had some of the same results you are talking about online. How is your game in live cash game or tournments? I don't think that you can look at one aspect of your game and say it sux. I'm a loser online but that is also why i don't play online that much. I seem to play better live casino or home games so thats where i play. I also had the same results on rush poker i took 10$ and turned it in to 150$ in a little over a week.. but some times i like to gamble when i'm on the comp and i donked it all away. Rush was pretty easy at the lowest stakes and it keeped you on your toes cuz there was always new cards to see no waiting. The problem with normal online games i have is i think they move to slow. yes you see more hands per hour but there isn't the stuff going on around your like at a live table. i lose focus when on line and not in a hand where as in a casino i'm always watching the other players for there reaction. Just my thoughts

I started when was 18 and it took me around 5 years to get to the point where i constantly win money. I play on and off, i'm pretty sure i could of done it in a year if i played every single day/ moment and had some professional help. But it's just me, some nub friends and the internet/ live playing poker for fun. I lost around a grand or even more at live play before i finally knew what i was doing. Looking back if i had some professional help, the learning process would be much easier, but it is a grind, poker's no joke, your not good until you understand every single move a pro makes and why they made those moves. Like phil ivey said "just put in the hours"- and don't lose more than you can afford, (which is one rule i fail to follow).

I use to think poker was 50/50 skill and luck but now it's looking like 90 skill/10 luck

I've actually never lost money playing poker since Day1 (first day I downloaded a site, FTP > first tourney I played in 900+ entrants & placed 2nd). Opened up a handful of other poker accounts on other pokersites & have never lost on any of them ever. I've always played with bankroll management though & have put in a TON of time learning the game.
(I did have prior experience playing poker before I played online though but not so much with NLHE, also the game came kinda naturally to me as I've always been a math geek to the extreme).

I think anyone can be a 'winning player' at low buyins as long as you're willing to put in some time (time on & away from the tables). Like anything, it takes committment, determination & perseverence to be able to excel.

Question for OP:
What have you done to improve your game away from the tables? (besides joining Cardschat that is... although that's a great start for sure).

I think this early in your poker life you shouldnt be focusing so much on statistics. After 7 months I was already a winning player. But that doesnt really mean much because I still wasnt a very good player. The thing you should be focusing on is studying by reading books and analyzing your play. People learn at different rates so if you are serious about being "good" then just keep learning and never think you are finished learning or improving.

What are you playing with a $20 deposit could have alot to do with it. $20 is not alot to take the variance of poker so you should be using strict BRM.
Good luck!

Online Poker wasnt a really a gauge of how good I am at poker. Online, I always lost money and was down alot. Ever since black friday I have been playing alot of live games and went to vegas and a couple other place. I made about 6k this month and it feels alot better than getting my ass kicked online. I think its because how much of my game focuses on tendencies and observations of my opponents and I get too distracted when im playing online. For me, black friday was actually a good thing but that doesnt account for all the other players that actually made money playing online. Try out different styles, different games, and see which one is best for you. I was a big omaha player online but now i rarely or never play it live. Take your time to learn the game as best you can, and even read a couple books. Harrington on Holdem is a great start

definately educate yourself and as mentioned don't worry much about stats at this point. harringtons book is great and there are threads on here to give you some ideas on what else to read. i can say that when i first started playing at all (it was live) i went on a hot run and thought i was the king. after about a year and one week in vegas i learned i was an apprentice.

In a nutshell, the above statement from Pooffy seems to be your problem, along with

- again, with good BRM you should be able to put your $160 in and make it work for you.

You question "How bad were you before you got good" is difficult to answer because it depends what you mean by `good` - Some days I play bad poker and I know I am so I stop myself...eventually. Other days I`m playing great.

One thing I have found is that unless the prize is decent I play bad. So for me, playing for an hour in a SNG for $1 to win $4.50 puts me off - I get bored.

i learned NLHE from watching WSOP and WPT final tables ... i learned a lot of good info from that, but i also developed some bad tendencies, since let's face it ... the final table is some crazy / desperate / bully / sick call poker

i had a bad habit of over-betting (betting full pot amt. ... going all-in on top pair, top kicker without being truly pot committed ... things like that, which made me vulnerable to losing more than i should when i ran into big hands)
one good thing is that i developed a good feel for short stack play ... i sometimes amaze myself at how often i pick just the right situation to move in ... it's a tricky combination of cards/opponent(s)/position and experience
i also learned quickly that you can't lose until you put that last chip in the pot ... i've come back from the dead many times ... if im going to bust, then im gonig to bust on my own terms
i should read harrington's books ... i feel i play a similar style and could probably polish my game by reading it ... im sure i'll find that there are many things that im missing now that could help my game ... but i also value that my game is not a totally by the book game ... i like that feel and experience and of course ... how my opponents are playing dictate how i play
another poster pointed out the fun / bored factor ... i didnt play poker for almost a year b/c i started to not be that much fun and when your bored u will lose ... but when i got back into it .. it was fun all over again ... then of course Black Friday, but im still managing to have fun ... i do hope to one day make some real $$$ ... it would probably come in a MTT .. those seem to suit my game best ... unfortunately, i dont have the bankroll to just MTT all the time ... so it's going to have to be micro SNG to build a bankroll and then maybe satellite into bigger tourney and then hit big and go from there

the game is changing so much that i do not believe it is possible to be good. You can only be sucessful.

i pretty much purely played rush poker and superturbos at fulltilt and did pretty well, then they shut down and i started playing at party poker and had the same problem. I think its just because i got so used to playing rush poker and therefore had less patience in sitngos at a regular pace. So i started playing 10 max superturbos on party poker where your chip stack is the same as a regular sitngo, the only difference is the blinds go up way faster and this makes it more for push/fold type poker so im enjoying it now and have been coming 2nd/1st in every 2-3 sngs i play now so i think its just me having to become more patient, bluffing less also which i foudn way easier at ft rush poker or rush tourneys no matter the stakes. Maybe u have just been unlucky lately or maybe u just need to adjust your game

oh if u like rush poker, pokertube.com has a new poker room called speed poker, they have 12 freerolls a day and cash games, if i were u i would check it out becus u dont need to make a deposit and the freeroll tourneys run hourly and take about 45 minutes to finish and payout between 10-50 euros. There are so many fish in these freerolls like people who will flatcall utg with 8/9s and then call an allin with it if someone goes over the top. All tables are 5man tables and its the same as rush poker, just worse software.

Screen Recording sessions really helped my Game early on,was unbelievable how bad I played, really put the time and effort studying, filling the leaks, then started running Deep in a ton of tournaments, Every move is critical in Poker.
Good Luck

OP,
dont think are you good or bad.
every poker player is at a different skill/knowledge level,
the more you study and practice the game (games)
the more your skills and knowledge will increase.
hence the 'better' you will get.
there is no set time to become a 'good' player.
it depends how much effort you put into it.
study Bankroll Management for a start.
good luck m8

like u i started on free pker msn often winning 8 outta 10 sngs thot hey i,m good this is easy 5 years later still no way near a good player tho dont lose much over the year which i guess is what most amteurs hope for

Those are very bad sources to learn where to play from. They cut out alot that you don't see.

i lose about 25 a month and been playing 2-3 years i think im about at a break even player but i read a ton of Articles and books and i can tell im getting better

i learn from that but not just that Articles and books aswell

Great Advice

I think Maths could be your problem bigdog.

How can u lose about 25 a month over 2-3 years, but be a break even player

I lost about €1k before I started winning consistently. Lifetime(1 year 3 months) I'm up about €4k. Turned around about 5 months in. Unfortunately for me, I came across poker when I had a lot of disposable income.

Should really be a lot more I guess, but I'm always afraid to move up.

Most improvement came from reading and appling that to games. This is a great forum to get everything you would or will need to improve. Only wish I could get more games with the members here, some of the best poker players I played with online is with this forum.

My first game was a $100 buy-in tournament. I went busto on hand #5 when I called a shove on the flop with my A/K when I failed to connect to the flop. He had pocket 8's FTW.

I deposited $12.50 on Pokerstarts, brought it up to nearly $60 over the weekend, then lost it all.
Then I deposited the remaining $12.50 on my gift card and it took a few weeks to lose (a gradual loss in the penny games).

Then I read poker books, bought PokerTracker (to keep me honest), deposited $50, and played smart poker in September and had turned it into $1,000 by January.

It's all about arming yourself with knowledge and having proper discipline.
really, having PokerTracker putting every losing session in red on my permanent record was the biggest motivator. I quit making those "well it only costs me ten cents to call" plays, that really add up over time.

Play the lowest cash games, tourneys and sngs available on cake poker. If you are losing you will obviously lose your money slower but also the lower stakes tend to have more novice players. I used to play on jetset poker, but they went out of business. I deposited $25 about 12 times throughout my career there and always lost it all. I was playing the $5.50 tournaments and now I realize that those tournaments were way too expensive for my bankroll. I now look back at some of my plays such as shoving with K10os utg with a decent stack and I realize that I had many leaks in my game. To work on my game I moved over to full tilt and pokerstars and started with a bankroll of $0 on both sites, and using discipline and bankroll management won money in various freerolls and worked it up to a bankroll. When I turned a $.93 cash into $22 in 1 sng ($.9 sat to 22 on FTP), I realized my game had significantly improved. I went on to turn $0 into a little less than $2,000 through discipline and proper bankroll management. Also, if you win your money through a freeroll and then lose it, you really haven't lost any of your own money.