Starting From the Bottom

I have been playing off a free bonus of £5 for about a month now. I find that I am able to make consistent wins but each time I end up losing all my winnings to hero calls/ambitious bluffs. I was wondering if anyone has any advice in disciplining myself from making plays like that.

Thanks in advance.

And if it wasnt obvious from the size of my bank roll i'm playing at micro stakes.

As a general rule of thumb for me, in micro stakes, I almost never bluff. They will call anything at that level. Only time I bluff at that level is when I have been at a table with the same person for a long while and have noticed they play very tight. I will do a small bluff.

The second thing I do.... I try very hard to not over value top pair and top pocket pairs. Just remember, no matter what you bet preflop or even an all in push will get called. I tend to stick to a 5 X BB with top pair. Be willing and able to fold them. I have had to teach myself that the chips in the pot are not mine. Once they are bet they are gone!

You must resist the urge to call that donk that has pushed all in over and over with a marginal hand.

I feel your pain though. I have had the same experience. I play tight aggressive. Stack goes up up up and then BAM some donk pushes with a 4 7 unsuited to my AA and somehow gets a full house. Down goes my bankroll. Good luck!

I feel ya

First thing, if you are getting caught in your bluffs by hero calls that tells me that your not making your story believable enough. Obviously a bluff is you telling a story that you have a better hand, if it doesn't make sense you will get called by good players no matter what stakes you are playing. I pick people off like that all the time.

As far as getting drawn out or sucked out by some donkey, that's just going to happen. All you can do to prevent that is not get your chips in the middle unless you KNOW you have the best hand. As the person before me said, ust play tight aggro and you will notice a difference.

Well, to bluff is to sides - good, you can win pots, with nothing and bad - you can lose pretty big part of stack if player calls or raises.
I try to hold back from buffing. Maybe sometimes I do it if I had very large stack.
And before you bluff you should whatch how play your opponent.