How to cope?

I use to play for thousands of dollars at a time, sometimes there was hundreds of thousands on the table. Since then I spent 400,000 on Law School and expenses for pertaining to that. Now I have no money and I'm playing in freerolls and have a bank roll of less than 100.

Anytime I win a hand I keep thinking that should of been for 50K not .50 cents.

Is there anyway to put into perspective or any tips to be able to stay focused when playing for small stakes.

I know alot of you guys are going through the same thing, any tips on how to cope with it.

$400,000 on law school? What school did you go to? That appears rather high. My medical school cost $220,000. You paid almost double.

You played with hundreds of thousands on the table? This also appears to be a little far fetched.

Anyways, I have experienced what you have. At one time I had to cash in a lot of my bankroll to pay for rent and groceries. At first playing for relatively small stakes is hard because it is not offering the same adrenaline rush and it is hard to take seriously. But, for me the thrill comes back and is an accomplishment to rebuild your bankroll to what it was. It just takes a little bit of time.

100's of thousands at a time?
Is this Gus Hansen?

ok all jokes aside.

You need to appreciate life for what it is before you can learn to accept and appreciate poker again.

Write 6 awful things about this world that dont effect you.
Write 6 amazing things you are greatful for.

Take a moment to picture how lucky you are to have experienced life in this generation we live in a fantastic country with everything you could dream, tv, warm homes, warm food, endlesss opportunity good Health, protection for health and well being.

Like imagine having to go through life 1000 years ago what would you have to look forward too? Imagine not even being here! each one of us is a 1 in a million offspring

All money aside just appreciate how lucky you are...
And in reality money isnt that great anyway, I mean you can geta nicer car go out at at your disposal? but really that doesnt define you as a person if anything over indulging in money leaves you feeling alone and empty with no true friends or understanding your soul purpose for
being here

All things are indeed relative.


Staying focused is, for many, a learned behavior. If you're having trouble staying focused than this may be a good time to enforce this behavior.
Many say discipline (a learned behavior) is an important part of a players game to be successful, staying focused is part of that discipline. Take this time to make yourself be a better player by reinforcing the helpful learned behaviors.

This low level stuff can be viewed as an exercise in discipline.

you can make those 100 dollars into 100000 or even more if you have a proper bankroll managment, try not to risk much of your bankroll in a single tournament and keep in mind it wont be easy for you to reach your goal of playing for thousand of dollards, because you need lots of money in order to do so. Stay focused in your game and try to start building your bankroll, time will tell whether you are a winning player, or a losing player, and how much discipline you hve to keep your bankroll safe.

loomis311 said:

You played with hundreds of thousands on the table? This also appears to be a little far fetched.

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I'm sure he means total on the table between all players, which I could easily see if player a decent enough stake live. I'm sure 5kNL could easily see this kind of money on the table. I play 200NL, well not lately but did, in a pub where I have seen easily 2x5digit amounts of cash on the table at times when the game has the right players and has been running for 6+ hours.

Honestly however If I were playing in such high stakes to have 6 figure amounts of money on the table and had the br for it I think I wouldn't have bothered with school but instead spent more time at those tables

Well, first I want to say that I believe you. Second, you must learn to become humble. I had something similar happen to me. Although, I've never had anywhere close to 400,000 in my life. I used to have thousands of dollars, but now I only got a few dollars to my name.

What's recently helped rejuvenate me is that I've stopped playing poker with the sole purpose of making money. Now, I play with the intent to get Better at poker. For me, making this simple change of perspective had a big effect. Because whether you lose or win at a game, you can always get better as a end result. Before, I said you must become humble. You must not play poker just to make money. Become a student of the game. Humble yourself before it. Go with the ebbs and flows. In time, perhaps, you can slowly build yourself back up. But it takes time, and patience.

Thanks so much for the input, I really appreciate it. Some really good stuff here.

And no it's not BS, it would be so great if it was. I ended up in the hospital for months as a result of something that happened while at Law School, so it tacked on an extra 100,000 dollar bill.

And as for the money on the table, it's not uncommon for people to have at least 15K to 20K on a high no limit table, that multiplied by 10 can easily reach up to 6 figures.


Once again thanks for all the advice, I'm going to try and put into practice and see if it helps.

Happy Holidays.

Assuming the original post wasnt BS. Then no I dont think you can go from pots topping 100k to playing less than $1 blinds. Just no way in my opinion to take it seriously and keep your attention for your best game.

only 1 solution work your way back up or dont let it bother you

i kinda think everyone would rather player higher

if you were spend $400,000 on law school i dont think freerolls are any choise for develop your skills....

Just try to remember keeping focused will get you up in stakes and then it could be for 50k

400k$ on law school?! Where are you studying man?
And I think the best recipe to cope with this is just to forget about the stakes you used to play and start from the beggining. Slowly grind it back to where you was. Actually that's the only reasonable option I see...OR stop playing at all if you don't have enough patience to do so (which would be absolutely understandable by the way).

Is this the plot for Rounders 2?

I'm curious as to if the OP started playing small stakes games and freerolls, or just decided to jump right into the nose-bleed high stakes game while he was learning the game.

sam1chips said:

I'm curious as to if the OP started playing small stakes games and freerolls, or just decided to jump right into the nose-bleed high stakes game while he was learning the game.

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On my 21st I birthday I played a pretty big tournament at the Borgata and won it. So I started out with a 20k bankroll.

It will take a lot of patience, concentration and dedication to play small stakes, chances are when you hit a brick wall you will immediately want to quit because you feel you will never catch up. The best think to do is look at the big picture and keep focusing on your goal, when you start to take a hit, step back relax and then go at it again, when you get the bankroll going it will start to payoff, just patience

I really appreciate the advice, I just started getting back into it. First tournament I was counting on flopped a flush after limping in on the small blind. Wouldn't you know it the turn put a four card flush out there. What can you do just the way the game is.

Not sure you will ever be able to do it, sorry to say that. But I think you'll never find that rush you're looking for at low stakes, that you got before. You will most likely lose it (bankroll) before getting there.

It's like a drug addict, always chasing that first "High". I know about this part being I'm a drug addict in recovery.

Anyway, I hope I'm wrong. Just my thoughts.

IS THIS POST FOR REAL?

Are you working? 400K you should be a lawyer.

chipstacker said:

I use to play for thousands of dollars at a time, sometimes there was hundreds of thousands on the table. Since then I spent 400,000 on Law School and expenses for pertaining to that. Now I have no money and I'm playing in freerolls and have a bank roll of less than 100.

Anytime I win a hand I keep thinking that should of been for 50K not .50 cents.

Is there anyway to put into perspective or any tips to be able to stay focused when playing for small stakes.

I know alot of you guys are going through the same thing, any tips on how to cope with it.

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Smoke lots of you know what curse the creator and become a good lawyer god knows we need a few good ones

There are some people who can adapt to playing both nosebleed and then micro stakes when they bust their roll. It takes a special person, although many times necessity/reality takes over and you do what you have to do. If you play poker long enough, many times you will see that starry eyed player who threw around money like it was nothing, now sitting in the smallest game available and/or constantly in the handout line looking for money to play.

Many the most famous guy used to playing the largest and smallest games available depending on his current luck.....

Archie Karas

Archie Karas is a gambler, high roller, poker player, and pool shark famous for the largest and longest documented winning streak in gambling history simply known as The Run when he turned $50 in December 1992 into more than $40 million by the beginning of 1995, only to lose it all later that year.