So ends my poker experiment
I started playing regularly in February, and by the middle of the year, I was playing 2x-3x a week in person, and also online. Most of the losses (about 2k) happened in the first 4 months. After that, I was a break even player and at one point was even getting close to making up all the losses from earlier in the year through careful, diligent play... But every single time I'd really get close to back to even, or have a good solid night, I'd have an unbelievable cooler like getting AK, flopping AKT, and then finding out I was going up against KK and get stacked. Or having KK, and flopping KT9, only to find out my opponent had QJ, and that my set was guaranteed to get THEM paid. I've flopped all the bad coolers you can think of - flopped that same nut straight, gotten beat by someone chasing a runner runner back door flush, etc...
I tried to be patient through all the coolers, and all the people I talked to about strategy or just about the game in general, kept saying "oh you just wait, If you're still able to keep your head above water with all those coolers, your heater will come and you'll really start making money," or "You've gotta play at least 10,000 hands and 500 hours, to account for variance) ,but eventually, losing all the profits you make consistently just gets to be no fun. I put in the time, as the screenshot shows, and I saw the hands, but still, could never start consistently finishing in the money.
I promised myself a $3000 bank roll was going to be my max, so after getting up about $365 yesterday (for the umpteenth time) after 3-4 hours of careful play, and hitting another (seemingly inevitable for me) horrible cooler, I lit my money on fire on purpose - I just started playing wildly, re-raising a $10 bet $70 pre flop with garbage, and funnily enough, somehow that got me paid in stupid heads up situations like having 44 in a heads up for $200... I actually could've left slightly up after that, but I basically said "Nope, I'm just an unlucky player so this is my farewell tour, fuck this game," and I continued to bet it all until it was totally gone. (I did stack one of the biggest assholes, twice - he is a bully in his gameplay in addition to just being a rude open racist at our local poker room, so frustrating the shit out of him on my way out felt great.)
I really love poker, I enjoyed playing it, but I was doing it to try and learn it as a side hustle to make decent money, and if I can't do that, there are far ways to spend my money, so, this is my love letter/giant middle finger in the air to the game that just seems to treat other players to more luck than me - if I'm a fish, so be it, if I'm unlucky, so be it - supposedly all these YouTubers say rhe vast majority of players (over 90%) will lose money and just exist for the top 10% to make money off them... don't really know if it's bad luck or poor skill, but either way, I'm clearly not going to win the way I want to, so I'm not going to donate to better players; one less losing player in the economy donating - g'bye and good luck to others.
If you're like me and you just can't seem to catch a break after 10,000 hands, do yourself a favor and spend your money on something else.
I started playing regularly in February, and by the middle of the year, I was playing 2x-3x a week in person, and also online. Most of the losses (about 2k) happened in the first 4 months. After that, I was a break even player and at one point was even getting close to making up all the losses from earlier in the year through careful, diligent play... But every single time I'd really get close to back to even, or have a good solid night, I'd have an unbelievable cooler like getting AK, flopping AKT, and then finding out I was going up against KK and get stacked. Or having KK, and flopping KT9, only to find out my opponent had QJ, and that my set was guaranteed to get THEM paid. I've flopped all the bad coolers you can think of - flopped that same nut straight, gotten beat by someone chasing a runner runner back door flush, etc...
I tried to be patient through all the coolers, and all the people I talked to about strategy or just about the game in general, kept saying "oh you just wait, If you're still able to keep your head above water with all those coolers, your heater will come and you'll really start making money," or "You've gotta play at least 10,000 hands and 500 hours, to account for variance) ,but eventually, losing all the profits you make consistently just gets to be no fun. I put in the time, as the screenshot shows, and I saw the hands, but still, could never start consistently finishing in the money.
I promised myself a $3000 bank roll was going to be my max, so after getting up about $365 yesterday (for the umpteenth time) after 3-4 hours of careful play, and hitting another (seemingly inevitable for me) horrible cooler, I lit my money on fire on purpose - I just started playing wildly, re-raising a $10 bet $70 pre flop with garbage, and funnily enough, somehow that got me paid in stupid heads up situations like having 44 in a heads up for $200... I actually could've left slightly up after that, but I basically said "Nope, I'm just an unlucky player so this is my farewell tour, fuck this game," and I continued to bet it all until it was totally gone. (I did stack one of the biggest assholes, twice - he is a bully in his gameplay in addition to just being a rude open racist at our local poker room, so frustrating the shit out of him on my way out felt great.)
I really love poker, I enjoyed playing it, but I was doing it to try and learn it as a side hustle to make decent money, and if I can't do that, there are far ways to spend my money, so, this is my love letter/giant middle finger in the air to the game that just seems to treat other players to more luck than me - if I'm a fish, so be it, if I'm unlucky, so be it - supposedly all these YouTubers say rhe vast majority of players (over 90%) will lose money and just exist for the top 10% to make money off them... don't really know if it's bad luck or poor skill, but either way, I'm clearly not going to win the way I want to, so I'm not going to donate to better players; one less losing player in the economy donating - g'bye and good luck to others.
If you're like me and you just can't seem to catch a break after 10,000 hands, do yourself a favor and spend your money on something else.