Someone please help

I've been playing online poker for 3 years. For the mort part I have experienced the normal ups and downs. In the first two years I have more than likely been profitable. But...things have changed. This is not a bad beat story, this is a I CAN'T WIN anything story. I have lost so much money in the last year it isn't even funny. I am getting smacked ALL THE TIME with two outers, 3 outers, four outers, runner runner gut shots, runner runner flushes...all of these things are happenning when I go all in with the best hand. Then there are the many times when I get dealt Kings or Queens on the short stack and push and get beat by garbage. I rarely if ever make a coin flip. This is happenning in EVERY single solitary game that I have played in in the last 3 months. EVERY ONE. Whether it is cash, sit and go, or multi table. I can't shake it. The bottom line is, am I wasting my time playing this game anymore? I really love it, but I must tell you that I am sick and tired of the things that are happenning to me. I don't deserve it. I expect bad beats on occassion, but when they are defying mathematical logic...I am beginning to wonder. Someone please let me know if this has happenned to any of you in the past and if you have over come it. I am so menatlly disgusted that I don't know what to do anymore.

Well I can't say that this has been happening to me for over a year, but there is one thing that happens to me alot more than most and that is:

When I have a dominating hand, I lose. AK vs. A7, loss. AJ vs. QJ on a J84 rainbow flop, lost to a runner runner straight. It's been so prevalent that my signature on another board is "Proving mathematical theorems wrong".

It's so bad at times that when people flip up their cards and they see that I'm leading and say "Oh nice hand", I tell them to wait until all the cards are down.

But it doesn't happen to me 100% of the time. All I can say is, keep making the right move. Yes it sucks to continually be ahead 88-12 when you get your money in and lose, but you are making the right decision. And that's the most important thing.

Why are you moving allin? against a good player, he is going to lay his hand down on a draw or with a weak kicker, 2nd pair etc. when facing a pot size bet. A bad player is going to call regardless of the size of bet.

The good news is that if you are suffering bad beats, that means you are atleast making your push with good hands and playing good poker.

I recomend slowing down. Make bets that give the other players bad pot odds with out risking your entire stack.

the move "all in" should be more delicate than most players play it. leaves you no room to feel out where you are in a hand. i definetly agree.

Personally, I'd take a breather for a week or two. I go through spurts where I'm just not playing well and bad beats make it 10x worse. Rather than continue handing my cash to people on PS, I'll back off for a bit. I think I'm getting to that point right now, in fact :-D

Whenever i feel i am being drawn out on too often just remember - the luck is not with you at the moment but it will return.

Then to contradict that line - luck does not exist, it is not an actual 'thing' that moves from person to person so in that case you should not let the opponent have the chance to 'suck-out'.

Just play simple pure, clear headed poker, all-in should be a last choice decision if you cannot tell what your opponent has. As he could have you beaten before you even decide what to do and so why give him/her even more chips for their pot??.

I had a spell of losing on the river so i tightened up (even more) on my starting hands and this is where Phil Helmuths top 10 hands are very helpful.

AA, KK, QQ, AK, AQ etc and remember - do not chase this can prove expensive and very frustrating.


IanT

The other thing to do if you're playing online is to use something like PokerTracker to analyse your hand histories... that way you'll have more opportunity to spot avoidable losses.

If in a tournament you only play premium hands, and always push all-in with them, then you'll generally be a short-stack compared to the looser, more aggressive players who have stolen a lot of pots and/or got lucky. When you end up against them, it will be your tournament on the line, and while you may win some, in the end the odds are that eventually you'll lose one of those hands no matter how far ahead you were, and then you're out. There's nothing unusual or unlucky about that.
In a cash game, it's rather different, as you can just rebuy and you want to see those great odds when you're playing. Long runs of bad luck happen, though, and the main antidote to it is to use a stats package to make sure your play isn't bad, just unlucky.

You did not indicate what level of poker you are playing. Micro tables sometimes have people make ridiculously large bets - foolish ones. If you are playing at a money level that attracts lots of fish and speculators, you are sure to get beat with garbage more frequestly than you would think.

I once ran into such a bad streak at one spot (one that had generated hundreds of dollars for me) that I quit playing it almost entirely. Find another poker room if your luck is bad at one or two.

Good luck, and hang in there.

Thank you all so much for your comments and support. In answer to some of your replies...

Most of my all in hands occur in Sit and Goes. They normally occur at a one on one level and more often than not they occur after a flop when I have a considerable lead..especially against a super aggressive "all in" type player. For example...I have a sunstantial lead going into 1 on 1....he raises big under the gun with A8...I reraise with AK knowing that he is capable of raising so big with such a hand...he goes all in...I have odds...I call...he catches an 8 or a river straight. Same scenario....I limp with A5....flop comes A96...I slow play knowing if he has bottom pair he's gonna push...He does...and he pushes...I call...he has 62 and catches another 6 on the turn. These are the things that are happenning at an excrutiatingly alarming level.

Secondly, I do not have the money to play anything but the smaller levels. Last year and the year before I did extremely well playing 1/2 no limit on party poker and poker stars. Several times I started with 100 bucks and within a week I was withdrawing 1000. I did not use this money to build a bank roll...I used it to take my wife to france and Rio. Sounds dumb, but I am in this to make a few dollars here and there. I have also done well at the pacific poker 5 handed NL sit and goes from 10 to 50 dollar buy ins (top 3 place). Twice last year I deposited 50 and withdrew over 600 in a two week span. It was a huge grind but well worth it.

Thirdly, the bad beats are occurring across the board in every room I try. Party, Pacific, Paradise, Poker Stars, Poker Room, Noble/Titan...you name the room, it's happenned. I am currently getting smacked at Pacific, which I have found in the past to be one of my favorite rooms.

Anyway, I'm gonna give it a go and play alot tighter here in the next few days and if this thing persists, I am going to go buy a few new playstation games and waste my time doing that for a while. The only reason I keep coming back is that something inside me says that a run this bad is due to be followed by a run that is as good if not better.

Here's my theory. Play the odds.

In the long run you will come out ahead. Lately I've been trying to work on my tourny game by playing in freerolls (and failing horribly I might add) and yesterday I watched a guy win 8 multi way all ins in a row. I got dealt KK and called his all-in (heads up), he had A-8 unsuited and the table ended up 2,3,4,5,J. Result: me out and him 9 straight all in wins. If I had to do it again, I'd play it the same way though.

Well, here is a small sample of what has been happenning to me. This is today on Pacific Poker 10 or 20 dollar 5 man sit and goes.

1.A10...raise 3 x's BB...called by K4...flop comes A 8 4...he goes all in...I call...4 on turn
2. 88 on BB...short stack moves all in w 94...costs me 120...he hits 9
3. A8 vs AK..1 on 1...he makes a straight on river
4. A4 vs 62...1 on 1...he calls small raise...flop comes A96 he pushes all in and catches 6 on turn.
5. A9 vs AJ limper...flop comes A96...I bet...he goes all in...I call...he hits river Jack
6. A6 to short stack 9/10...Im on BB...short stack moves...costs me 80 to call..flop comes A72...then 10...then 8
7. Im short stacked...Plunge with A5...get called by 72...he makes 2 pair
8. Im short stacked again...push with J9...called with 8/10...flop comes J 8 10

On top of that, I was in 7 coin flip situations....I won 1

Simply take a break for a week or two, read a good poker book to confirm your strategies and comback refreshed and confident. If you aren't confident at the table, you will lose, no matter the cards dealt.

Next, don't call all of these all-ins. Fold unless you have a set, tighten up and next time they go all-in, you will probably beat the loose aggressive player. I realize you have the odds post flop, but you have seen 1st hand that odds don't gaurentee wins.

fassted2 said:

Well, here is a small sample of what has been happenning to me. This is today on Pacific Poker 10 or 20 dollar 5 man sit and goes.

1.A10...raise 3 x's BB...called by K4...flop comes A 8 4...he goes all in...I call...4 on turn
2. 88 on BB...short stack moves all in w 94...costs me 120...he hits 9
3. A8 vs AK..1 on 1...he makes a straight on river
4. A4 vs 62...1 on 1...he calls small raise...flop comes A96 he pushes all in and catches 6 on turn.
5. A9 vs AJ limper...flop comes A96...I bet...he goes all in...I call...he hits river Jack
6. A6 to short stack 9/10...Im on BB...short stack moves...costs me 80 to call..flop comes A72...then 10...then 8
7. Im short stacked...Plunge with A5...get called by 72...he makes 2 pair
8. Im short stacked again...push with J9...called with 8/10...flop comes J 8 10

On top of that, I was in 7 coin flip situations....I won 1

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To be honest, the only hand I would have played here is #2 and only that one because of the situation. The common factor here in most of these is A rag, not a good hand.

yeah, you're playing Arag too often... I often fold A9 and lower from any position, limp with A-10/AJ from EP-MP and raise in an unraised pot from CO/Button, and Raise MP with AJ. AQ/AK raise from any position.

fassted2 said:

Well, here is a small sample of what has been happenning to me. This is today on Pacific Poker 10 or 20 dollar 5 man sit and goes.

1.A10...raise 3 x's BB...called by K4...flop comes A 8 4...he goes all in...I call...4 on turn
2. 88 on BB...short stack moves all in w 94...costs me 120...he hits 9
3. A8 vs AK..1 on 1...he makes a straight on river
4. A4 vs 62...1 on 1...he calls small raise...flop comes A96 he pushes all in and catches 6 on turn.
5. A9 vs AJ limper...flop comes A96...I bet...he goes all in...I call...he hits river Jack
6. A6 to short stack 9/10...Im on BB...short stack moves...costs me 80 to call..flop comes A72...then 10...then 8
7. Im short stacked...Plunge with A5...get called by 72...he makes 2 pair
8. Im short stacked again...push with J9...called with 8/10...flop comes J 8 10

On top of that, I was in 7 coin flip situations....I won 1

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I agree with Alon on this one. Your starting hand selection is not the greatest. Even if you hit top pair with these starting hands, you would be lucky to have top kicker. 8 times out of 10, you are beat before the flop. I would be much more selective when starting a hand. I typically will play any two face cards (AK,AQ,AJ,KQ,KJ,QJ). Aside from that, I won't play a face card with a numbered card unless it is a suited connector (K9 suited, etc.). This way, you can bet aggressive if you hit top pair, and there is also the possibility for a straight or a flush to hit on the board. Playing high suited connectors definately increases your chance at winning the pot (it's not a guaruntee, but gives you much better odds because of increased outs).

If I play pocket pairs, I will play 9's and up aggressively if I am not on the button, and I will either try to bluff at the pot to take it down on the flop if my pair isn't top or if I don't hit my set, or I will get out (depending on what my opponent does). If I am on the button, I will play 2's through 8's only if the blind has not been raised. This way I can get out cheap if I don't hit my set, or I can bet the hell out of the pot if my set does hit.

At any rate, your starting hand selection needs to improve if you hope to remain profitable. If it were me, I would take a couple of days off just to get off tilt, and then come back with the intent of improving my game, not increasing my bank rapidly.

Sooted Connectors....

AceZWylD said:

Aside from that, I won't play a face card with a numbered card unless it is a suited connector (K9 suited, etc.).

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Just so there is no confusion...connectors are two cards in numerical sequence with no gaps. So K9s is not a suited connector. KQs, 98s, 54s...ect. are all suited connectors. This makes a huge difference with chosing starting hands.

That would be a matter of perspective. IMO K9 is still a suited connector because I can hit a flush or straight with it. I wouldn't bet more than the BB with it preflop, but this hand still has a lot of potential with a lot of outs to make your hand.

I would tighten up my play and be very very slective in the starting hands I play...I can't really comment on the hands you did play becuase I don't know what position you were in when you played them ( ie: early , middle or late)