how do i not get bored playing low stakes

I'm a pretty good player...."i think".I've been playing online for a few years now.When i started playing on full tillt i bought in for 100 worked it up to 10k,by the way full tilt name is nighthunter000 poker stars is JOEBOB69.I worked it up by grinding then steped up probaly to fast for my own good.I cashed out about 7k with the intentions of grinding back up playing .50-1 an so on but i couldn't take the money serously.I lost about 500 or so doing this thinking i could run the table over playing bad etc.Moved back up to 2-4 with about 6 100bi took it serously played good an the main part didn't get that unlucky so build back up then cashed out again leaving my with a short stack for the limits i wanted to play. Well same o same tried the low limits lost because of bad play moved up won a little then some bad luck crushed by 1 2 3 outers. Witch i knew was going to happen because it don't take much bad luck to kill ya when u playing 5-15bi.I know i shouldn't be playing over my head, should be playing 25-50 100bi,but i just can't seem to win at the low limits i say just play good an it will work out but then i lose focus an lose an jump up again.Just wondering has anybody else had this problem an maybe some suggestions on how i can get over this hole in my play\bankroll management.

thank you

WELL, you are actually doing pritty good. If you cashed out that much
money you have to be playing good. What i recommend you to do though
is to keep a good part of that money in your full tilt bankroll... The bigger
ur bankroll is, the bigger stacks you can play. Since your a good player
already, you have no need going back to those small bankrolls and playing
those small stacks. Just keep most of your money there and youll be able to play both bigger stakes and win more money.

There's a perfectly good BR management article in the strategy section of the site.

If I remember correctly you should cash out half before moving up a level. So I would guess that you're cashing out too much, and yeah I envy your problem.

Boy, I certainly wished I had your dilema! Here is the problem I see: you are playing foolishly because the stakes aren't keeping your attention, so simply play for higher stakes. Not too high, but high enough to seem worthwhile.

try not to think of the big pots you were playing at the high limits and just be happy when you double your buy in at the ring tables or make it into the money in tourneys. try to keep in my mind a profit no matter how big or small is better than losing money. sure you might not be getting the big pots to brag to friends about but try to remember small profit is better than no profit. you obviously have game to get to where you were at, just concentrate at turning a profit instead of the huge pots you loved raking and you'll get back to where you were.

The obvious answer is to redeposit your money.

When I tilt I simply avoid playing. Once I have a desire to play, and play well, I can usually keep my head in the game even at the tiniest of stakes.

Ok, I'm looking a little more detailed at your info (PokerTableRatings). -4.6bb/100 on pokerstars over 3.1k hands, but only two tables played in the last 30 days (a 6-max and a HU game, played at different times in the AM last night). Only 17 hands at the 6-max game, then you jump to HU for 58 hands? Looks to me like you played 6-max on a whim, then when you won some cash you went to heads up game to double up, but it didn't work out.

It looks like you're just playing "on a whim" poker. If you are getting bored, try multi-tabling. It'll keep you busier, which helps fend off boredom.

your mostly right penguin exept redeposit seeing how only way i have now is all access visa since my bank card quit due to laws.An all they have is $100 at a time whicth is why i much need to refocus on small limits.Because i cashed out too much thendidn't play good over brm,i took a few too many bad beats then my online account was zip.An i find out all i can put in is $100 so i got to grind again some how.The reason for few hands is been working out of town an now i have two kids so not much time these days.But i'll try muti tabling , thanks for the advice everyone. If anyone has more please post it.

you can go to https://www.netspend.com/ and get an all access card mailed to you. i had one sent to me and was using it to deposit pokerstars until about 6 months ago. instead of having to buy a new card everytime you can load the same one to use. good luck

I think you can deposit up to something like $600 with Western Union.

But since the bankroll issue isn't instantly resolvable, I guess just multi-table to keep your spewiness in check.

wow, obviously your no amateur.

personally i wouldn't be playin the micro or low stakes with a bankroll like that. at the micro and low stakes tables the most you can buy in for is like 25 maybe 50 bucks.

you need the medium tables man where you can sit down with a good $200 buy in. just sit and wait for your chance man. dont get impatitient and start playing every hand that has a card above 10 in it. playing like this will cost you over 10k ha

I think the best answer is what everyone should do when they sit at any table at any stake.

DON'T THINK ABOUT THE MONEY!

It is just chips at a table keeping score until you cash out. When you think about the money and think, "Oh I just lost my rent check on that pot" you won't play as good as you can. Same is true for devaluing the money you are playing with. Just play the game and don't think of the cash.

jordanbillie said:

I think the best answer is what everyone should do when they sit at any table at any stake.

DON'T THINK ABOUT THE MONEY!

It is just chips at a table keeping score until you cash out. When you think about the money and think, "Oh I just lost my rent check on that pot" you won't play as good as you can. Same is true for devaluing the money you are playing with. Just play the game and don't think of the cash.

Click to expand...

I don't think that's his problem though. I think it's that the level of play changes. If the game stayed the same it would be easy to just put money out of his head and play. Unfortunately it doesn't. He had to grind his way to cashing out $7k. So with so much of his roll out of his account he's stuck, and it feels like a kind of purgatory. I just know that even at microstakes there's a pretty big difference between the penny and nickel/dime games, and so on and so forth.

just remember how good it felt to stick to the plan when you grinded up before and do it

jordan your right on the part about me thinking about the money an even if i have a good sesion i don't even feel that good about it.Instead of amount of bb per hour an so on,which i know i should.But i think dj hit the nail on the head about the game changeing so so much at small stakes u can throw bluffing out the window it just ant happening.So i sit in bordem waiting on a good hand when it don't come i try to pick up a pot with a 3 bet pre then big bet on the flop an get snaped called by k9 with mid pair on the flop.If i start muti tableing maybe this would help the need to bluff because of pure boredem,because i know it isn't going to work anyhow.Just never realy mutitable before because when i played higher stakes i focused so much on how every one played an felt i played so much better when i did this.But i need to change something about my game since the low limits game change there self thank yall.

corretion not dj i meant n.d. sorry

i like to play in a tourny wen im playin cash poker,helps keep mi mind conentrated wen no cards are fallin mi way on the cash tab,helps me stop playin bad hands wen im bored

sounds like me I get bored and fustrated playing only sit and gos wanna make some quick money so I will play the cash games always to really good at first but I always end up getting my ass handed to me. time to be patient and stick to the sit and gos I usually place playing those

I was thinking. If the problem's really boredom more than anything, you should multi-table in kind of a tier. Sit at an empty table + a table with maybe 3 players + one FR but short handed, maybe 6 players. As the tables fill close them and open new ones. Just cycle through. At a busy site it should be easy enough to play that way, surely late night US time when it gets quiet but not totally dead.

Tournaments are really a different strategy and at microstakes the play's way worse than ring games. So you could play your good positional ring game, but it's pretty useless in a cheap tourney. Sng's are easy though, but I still like the ring games best, even though I do well enough in tournaments, and am still learning the discipline required to get out while the gettin's good.

I'm pretty sure that the reason why the OP's preferring ring games is that your odds of "cashing" at a ring table are way better than any kind of tournament. On top of that you can take your money and run if you don't like the table or suspect collusion. Can't do that in SNG's. Once in tournaments you're stuck at the table. The only good thing about them is that everybody starts with the same number of chips and you can really let out heaps of aggression. When you really wanna exercise your brain ring games are the only way to go.

i can see what u mean playing the same limits does get very boring but it seem like when i go up stakes just like you i start tilting ok i havent made what you've made but have had couple of grand on me bankroll but always seem to hit a bad spell but all in all i havent deposited that much so i havent reli got much 2 lose.

i think reli its best 2 stay on the same limit unless its a reli low limit becasue you seem to make more over time unless you invest more into your bankroll and start playing with the big boys if you think that you can do it and belive in yourself myself i need to make more effort and try and improve my game b4 i go up 2 higher limits

Oh and since you're trying to get used to playing way down low again, I figured I could help some...

This is going to sound crazy, but try and get in a game full of calling stations and/or suspected bots, both of which are prolific in microstakes NLHE for some reason. Sacrifice a buy-in for the information you'll gather, there's a good chance you'll win the buy-in back and then some once you spot the patterns and how to play around them. I know you like to focus on the game, and hate getting bored, but trust me you'll be fascinated. The patterns are still there, it only looks crazy, till you focus. Observation is still a good thing even at the bottom. If you left enough to cover long term play @ 2.5% or 3% of your BR so as not to go broke, you have plenty of money to get back in the swing of things.

That's another area where serious consideration has made me rethink applying Chris Ferguson's 5% all the time except for tournaments rule for BR management. When out of your element I think you should take even less. Maybe even as little as 1% if you have $100 to play with. Then once you've gathered enough info to play at the level and beat the level, you can take up to 5% so as not to go broke because of a long series of downswings.

Even though I never played at stakes as high as you, I still feel your pain. I cut my FR teeth on a no-min/no-max table where really good players gathered to show off their BRs. They smacked me down a couple of times and one even helped me to play better because I was trying to play FR using good tournament strategy. He showed me how to get paid for my winning hands and bluff with absolutely nothing. I'm still grateful. But except for rare occasions when surrounded by good players who are down on their luck, I almost never get to use anything he taught me except for the best thing. How to observe and take advantage.

Oh and I'm still trying the paroli buy-in thing. I just wanna see if it'll help with both downswings and upswings plus the break even times.

I had the same problem before too. You have to concentrate on playing good poker and not think about the money.

It helped for me to take a 30 day break.

If the level of play is the annoying part, maybe you could try watching some of the tables for a while before you sit. You might find a couple players that will challenge you enough to stay focused.

I usualy watch a table for at least 2 turns around to make sure there isnt a complete moron ruining the game I want to play. Ofcourse I only play micro at the moment, so I have to watch quite a few tables before I find one that has good play but I think I can win on.

Alright i quess sometime this week i will redeposit $200 on stars SIGH.I'm going to try somewhat basic brm. I'll play .05-.10 rng games an $5 sngs or less.Thats around 2.5% of my start,i'll try muti tableing prob no more than 2 untill i get the feel of it.I'll keep yall posted to see if i get bored an try to run the table over an donk it off or get pissed an try to play over my head again.

i completely agree with the first reply...the bigger your bankroll is , the better are your chances of winning more since it wont crumple you when you lose money..this is a flaw in my game too

simple, play higher stakes

Well i started it yesterday hope i stick with my plan.