I may need advice!
 

I have money at various places around the net, but Bet365 is based in the UK i think, and if i deposit through my bank Debit card, it is pretty much an instant withdrawal....

So. i am bored of PokerChamps and Jetset so i think ill deposit $50 out of my bank and see what happens. Start with a few sit and gos $10 turbos mainly, get it up to $150, so being sensible, i cash out $75.

Then comes the cash games, for those of you that know me i play 1/2, so i did... and tripled my stack, $200, not bad. Cashed another $100.

Now comes the bad bit, and yes im already $125 up in less than 2 hours, but here we go.

I move up a limit to 3/6. I sat with $102. I was playing 6MAX by the way. About an hour into this fun, im there with about $240, played some good and bad hands, but in general done OK. Then the limits start getting up with me. I tighten up and am losing money on the Blinds, stealing isnt working, bluffs are being called and im losing my bet respect. Eventually i get down to $75 and leave and cash out for some extra money for the weekend.

QUESTION - Did i lose because i am not ready for this level? Or did i lose because i played tighter trying to protect my stack, rather than stay the same and keep going, or some other reason???

Please discuss, i need to know.

The cards went cold on you? The players figured out you were playing really loose and started playing you accordingly? Who knows, I think your sample size is waaay too small to draw any definitive conclusions. Sounds like you had a pretty good night to me.

It sounds as though you lost your stack trying to protect your winnings.

I normally pay little attention to how much I am up or down, just keep playing the same game you were playing when you were riding the streak to $240.

If you were winning great money in such a short time, it could also be that you were simply hitting some hot cards and they suddenly went cold.

I used to do the kind of thing you are talking about all the time and often wondered the same thing. Now that i acutally have money to play at these levels, i have realized that of course you will have some good and bad days, but really alot of it is about having the bankroll.
If you had the proper bankroll for this, you would not have tightened up to protect your winnings, and probably continued to play aggressivley and hopefully continue to win.

I found out if you play like your money are blinds in a tournament and continue to go up, after a certain amount of time, no matter how good you play, it will all come crashing down. Unless you actually have the roll for the levels your playing, but u do not.

You were way, way, way over your head with your bankroll. To play in a 3/6 game, it is generally accepted that you should have an $1800 banroll... 300 BB (big BETS) is the recommendation.

This has been posted on this board numerous time... take a look around and you will find loads of threads about bankroll management.

With poker comes much short term variance.

True, im back to my origional stakes, bloody fish swin here though, and yes in the long run i love the fish, but short term they are SO LUCKY!

not just your roll, but your sit down amount
 

I also think sitting down with only $102 in a 3/6 short game is a bad move. 25 big bets (the default at some sites) seems to be a decent number to sit down with - but often that is not enough (especially at a short-seated game). I know when i see a person sit down with a low-odd amount like you did, i peg him as weak (no offense). Of course, this is not a full-proof method - but its right more than wrong. At the very least, you are not going to get respect at the table from solid players (which you could use to your advantage - but that is a topic for another string). I LOVE seeing people sit down at the 5/10 tables with $100 or the $200 NL tables with like $60 or $80. Once they sit down, all that is left to do is to see if they are either playing with 'scared' money or 'wreckless' money. Its almost always one or the other.

People get hung up on 'bankroll'. Bankroll, to me, is relative. It sounds like you took money out of your 'real-life' money looking for a game. I think its okay to sit down at a 3/6 game even if you don't necessarily have $1800 sitting around for poker. But, you have to realize that you can easily blow it all in that sitting. I think your big mistake is that you sat with not enough money - and maybe with scared money.

For example - take a B & M player who plays say every Sunday. He goes to the nearby Casino with his $200 and plays 3/6 hold em. If he loses, he goes home and writes it off as entertainment value. If he wins - he goes home and buys himself or his wife something nice. He doesn't have a 'bankroll' in the sense that people on here always refer to it as. He doesn't have $1800 in a coffee can that he adds to and takes away from. But, he does sort of have the bankroll to support what he is doing. He is willing to absorb that $200 loss and live with it without losing sleep over it.

But i digress

When I see a player sit down with
(a) a lower than the norm buy-in ($3/6 being approx $150)
or
(b) an odd number ($102)
I will try and isolate this player a little more...
Chances are high that they are playing scared in option A, and playing with their entire bankroll in option B

if option (c) comes around where both criteria are met,...
I will absolutely attack this player. I have 9-4off? I have a chance to isolate this guy? 3 bets and reraises all the way.
They turn into folding machines more times than not.... at least in my experience anyways...

As for having a bankroll of $1800 for $3/6....
That much is true, HOWEVER, since you are depositing to and from your bank-account, I would say it is safe to assume that you DO indeed have this much....
It is not necessary to actually HAVE $1800 in an online account to be properly bankrolled, but in fact it is only necessary to have ACCESS to $1800....

Precisely. You need to be ok with (in this case) dropping $150 and knowing you can still reload for $1350 more. If dropping that $150 means your poker career is over, then you are WAY over your head playing 3/6.

i may be a bit of a jerk
 

But i LOVE going after people like option 2 knowing that its their entire bankroll. That is pretty mean-spirited in me, and the fact that there is some 'online detatcment' from the actual person sitting there probably adds to that, but i love trying to bust those people.

LOL, no, i get paid in cash, my bank is just for bills and poker deposits and withdrawals. If i lost it i wasnt bothered, i was $100 up ish at that time anyway, so i was playing with profit, and it was all short term money, i just wanted to see if i could play at 3/6. Looking at the way i played, i would say yes, but i need the bankroll to do it. If i could afford it i would, but ill stick to 1/2 untill my bankroll building is done. It was at $900 from a $50 deposit, but i had to cash as i was laid off work injured for a month, and sick pay is crappy.

bump
 

IM bumping this for rook this is a very good thread and think it might help.

Again, please post links to old threads, if you want to show them to someone. I see no good in bumping random stuff and cluttering up the main page of the forum with outdated threads.

I deleted your post in the one that was 13 months old, effectively un-bumping it.