Hey,

Like the title said, bad day... heres what happened:
Came accross this guy who was playing anything with a raise.. reraising and so on with total crap.. totally confused me (i think thats loose agressive?) I dont know if the creep was just lucky but he was winning like hell... or it could be i just didnt understand his "style", you be the judge... also criticisms on how i played hands are MORE than welcome as i am sure i was not playing with my head in th right place.... which is better than sayign it was shoved up my own....
Totally disgusted with myself.

It started with this (Notice i double re-raised here):
$0.25/$0.5 No Limit Holdem
8 players

Stacks:
UTG ($50.00)
UTG+1 ($33.25)
MP1 ($10.25)
MP2 ($6.75)
Hero ($63.20)
SB ($49.50)
BB ($64.65)

Pre-flop: ($0.75, 8 players) Hero is BTN [Kc]
5 folds, ... raises to $2.5, Hero raises to $4.5, 2 folds, ... raises to $6.5, Hero raises to $8.5, ... calls $2

Flop: [Th][Td] ($12.25, 1 players)
... checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($12.25, 1 players)
... bets $19, Hero calls $19

River: ($31.25, 1 players)
... goes all-in $87.3, Hero goes all-in $35.7

Final Pot: $127.15
... shows: [4h]
Hero shows: [Kc]

-----------------

Immd after I played this with another guy:
$0.25/$0.5 No Limit Holdem
8 players


Stacks:
UTG ($51.95)
Hero ($48.50)
MP2 ($63.90)
CO ($62.20)
BTN ($5.65)
SB ($50.00)
BB ($8.20)

Pre-flop: ($0.75, 8 players) Hero is MP1 [7c]
m raises to $1.5, 1 fold, ... calls $1.5, Hero calls $1.5, 2 folds, BTN calls $1.5, 2 folds

Flop: [7s][4h] ($6.75, 3 players)
m bets $4, ... calls $4, Hero raises to $8, 1 fold, m goes all-in $17, 1 fold, Hero calls $9

Turn: ($44.75, 1 players)

River: ($44.75, 1 players)

Final Pot: $44.75
m shows: [As]
Hero shows: [7c]


----------------
Then this beauty came... which i guess is my fault as i should have raised at the flop...

$0.25/$0.5 No Limit Holdem
8 players

Stacks:
UTG ($53.25)
UTG+1 ($13.60)
MP1 ($51.80)
MP2 ($41.75)
BTN ($221.15)
Hero ($52.05)
BB ($45.75)

Pre-flop: ($0.75, 8 players) Hero is SB [Ah]
6 folds, ... raises to $2, Hero calls $1.75, BB calls $1.5

Flop: [4h][Jd] ($6, 2 players)
Hero checks, BB checks, ... checks

Turn: ($6, 2 players)
Hero bets $4.5, 1 fold, ... raises to $16, Hero calls $11.5

River: ($22, 1 players)
Hero checks, ... goes all-in $203.15, Hero goes all-in $34.05

Final Pot: $106.10
BTN shows: [Jh]
Hero shows: [Ah]

The above hand makes me sick... but at this point I was steaming... esp with this guy who has consistently been beating me with crap hands (there were other small hands that i have not posted as didnt want to make this a super big post)

Before the above hand, this is what tipped me over:
$0.25/$0.5 No Limit Holdem
9 players

Stacks:
UTG ($80.25)
UTG+1 ($14.75)
MP1 ($97.70)
MP2 ($58.70)
MP3 ($49.50)
CO ($66.70)
BTN ($57.65)
SB ($50.20)
Hero ($58.00)

Pre-flop: ($0.75, 9 players) Hero is BB [Kc]
UTG calls $0.5, 5 folds, BTN raises to $2.5, 1 fold, Hero calls $2, UTG folds

Flop: [6s][Kd] ($5.75, 2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $4.2, Hero raises to $8.4, BTN calls $4.2

Turn: ($22.55, 2 players)
Hero bets $17, BTN goes all-in $46.75, Hero calls $29.75

River: ($116.05, 2 players)

Final Pot: $116.05
BTN shows: [Qd]
Hero shows: [Kc]

BTN wins $113.05 ( won +$55.4 )
Hero lost -$57.65
UTG lost -$0.50

Request for advise:
How should you play such a loose agressive player? i tried baiting him when i had a full house on the river and checked... he just checked back and i didnt make much
Should you only play really good hands(AA,KK,QQ)? and throw everything else like AQo etc?
He was coming in on raises like 8 -10 times the BB with crap... no matter what flops he was betting again half to 3/4 pot size (except for scare hands... eg 3 hearts on the flop or AKK) how to play these guys?

And finally, am feeling really low now... in your honest opinion... do i really suck so bad at poker that i should just quit? i feel like if these guys could give me such a beating i must be a horrorable player but just didnt know it. or do you think i just had a bad luck run?

Thanks in advance.
R

seems to be coolers except for Hand 3. I probably lead unless i have a read that he CB's like 100% of the time.

Also stop with the minraising. It's ok some times, but just gets you into odd situations like in hand1. I like the min raise in hand 2, but that is just the definition of cooler there. Hand 1, you should definitely have made it like $20 to go with that last raise.

Hands 2 and 4 you got most of the money in as a pretty good favorite. Nothing wrong with that.

Ah! Thanks!

Well, my BR was just 150... but then i put in 600 to try to get the 20% bonus that was offered at PStars... so now its just over 850, not sure if i will be cashing out the cash i put in to get the bonus which wold leave me with around 250

How good/bad is that?

Hey guys,

>> Others play as their main source of income.
Would love to come to this stage... but even I am not such a big donk to think I am anywhere close to this.

I think this is what describes me as close as possible:
"Other people are looking to learn the game as best as possible and keep moving up through levels and generate some steady $. "

I think of this as learning to play a new music instrument.. the beginning is going to be really hard, but as you get better... you actually get music out of the instrument. What i have lost to poker I think of as the purchase of the instrument... I want to get better, i want to move up levels, i want to actually play the game. I have no interest in just coming online and throwing away my money every month and refilling, i want to know the finer points of the game.
Thats the reason I am here asking questions, reading on others, downloading poker instructional vids.
...and the reason I am asking all of you for advise.

Well if you are looking to dedicate some time and $ to the game one of the first things I would suggest is invest in some kind of tracking software. Either PokerTracker, or HoldEm Manager they're both good just a few different bells and whistles. Check the software forum and their sites, etc. and go from there. They're extremely useful in analyzing your game and looking for leaks.

Then determine how much $ you want to use as your starting point. If you're going to cash out the $ you deposited on Stars after the bonus and you're left with say 300-ish I'd play the NL10 tables. Play, post hands, etc. When you get to 10K hands post your stats on the forum. It'll give a starting point as to your play, from there rack up another 15K hands and see where your results are after 25K hands.

This is of course all assuming that you feel NL is the game for you. You've mentioned some LHE and PL and some people are better at certain styles than others. While the rules are the same they are really completely different games. There is an instructor at a poker coaching site who played almost only LHE and made 2.1 mil last year playing it. There's $ to be made in any form of poker it's just what game(s) you prefer. NL just happens to be the most popular and has the most games to choose from.

Playing NL50 with 200-300 is a recipe to go bust. Spend some time in the BR management section and also do some homework on tracking software and check that section of the forum too. Ask questions as needed and enjoy.

To post your stats you'll need a photobucket account.

Open PT hit the "print screen" button on your PC. Open up MS Paint hit "CTRL V". Do any editing necessary. (All we really need is the stats in the "general" section and your position stats.) So you'll have to repeat the process twice.

Save the image to your PC, upload it to photobucket, then copy and paste the box that has the last line in it under the picture it'll have [img] at the beginning & end of it.