Hey Gang,

I post here every so often, but I'm an avid lurker. I started playing poker my freshmen year in college and after graduating this past May I have started to take the game seriously and add it as part of my income. I play exclusively NL live games in poker clubs throughout NYC. I also frequent AC. I dabble online some times, but just to past time or when I don't feel like going out. All my records are from live play. Since July of '04 I have made $6,500 with an average winrate of $15/hr. This brought my bankroll up to about $10,000 so I decided about 2 weeks ago to jump into the $2/5 and $5/5 at my local club. Well, the first day went pretty well. I won over $800, but since then I have had 3 dissappointing sesssions where I've dropped about $2,500. Recap of the last 3 sessions: First session I start off with a bang up $600 the first 2 hours, then the next 6hrs I don't see two face cards except for a KJo that I mucked UTG. I ended up down losing my winnings and buy-in -$500. This session was more of a mental lap when I became frustrated at the end of my 8 hour episode in which I saw no cards for the last 6 hrs Second session, I was getting some cards, but couldn't connect with them-it was like road rage--I was getting CR left and right. At the end of that session I had about $200 of about $800 that I had bought in for. I look down at pocket 10s and after a preflop raise of $30 and a call I go all in trying to take the pot down. First caller calls with AK second caller also call with J10 (WTF?) he spikes a J on the flop and I'm done for the day--I should have just left. My last session, I get pocket Aces cracked by a set of 4s and my Kings ran into Aces. For a total loss of $1000. A few key things that I've learned: I need to work on my shorthanded play. Didn't do taht well when the game got down to 5. The higher the limits I play the more shorthanded games I will be involved in. Secondly, I need to know when to quit. I think not quitting cost me taht first -$500 lost and probably another 200 or so here and there. In sum, I need to mentally prepare myself, to quit if the game is not good. Anyways, I'm pretty bummed this past week due to my results. I'm going to try to play some tonight. I'll check out the 5/5 game, but I might just sit at the 1/2. Anyways, any advice would be greatly appreciated. I will continue to post on my progress on a daily basis if anybody is interested. I will also provide a graph and some notes from pokercharts. Good luck at the tables,

IDOG

Don't be afraid to go back down in limits if you are breaking even in the higher limit games or worse. It's all about the most bang for your buck...if you are making much more at the lower limits, hang out there for a while again and play the bigger game less until you are ready to play in the bigger games full time.

Howard Lederman told his sister Annie Duke, "If you lose 30 BB, quit." She said that's the best advice she ever got. This seems to go against the common thought of not quitting because you're down, but I think there's a lot of wisdom in the advice.

Good advice, too, on dropping back down. That should work. If it does, then you can examine why the difference. Perhaps you are feeling more pressure betting higher limits than you're used to playing? Playing scared? In time, you may get comfortable with the higher limits. It seems it's your play that's different, not your opponents.

I'm only saying this because it happens to me when I go up, even from .50/1 to 1/2 or from a $10 SNG to $20 then $30. They aren't that much better. I'm just not playing with the confidence I am used to playing with at the level I've been playing.