hi - new guy playing at 2nl..

[mega0319]

this is kinda long but i'd appreciate ur input on it. thx.

i'm fairly new at poker. i started playing a bit more serious about 6 months ago. a couple of my friends made alot of money from MTTs so istarted watching them play and learned a bit from them. I deposited 25 bucks on PS and started playing the small sngs. I got my bankroll upto 200 something bucks bucks then lost alot of it playing the $12 MTTs like an idiot then my BR was upto 70 bucks, after transferring money, losing money and so on. I went to Atlantic City about 1 month ago for my 21st bday. I played the 1/2 NL and was doing ok. I played the tables without knowing much at all about cash games. I applied tourney strategies i picked up to it. I did well at first i got my 120 dollars upto 300 something. then i lost it all to a beat. my aces over 7s ran into quad 7s, and i lost it all. From there I went on tilt playing like a madman not listening to my friends about NOT playing. I lost another 300 so overall i lost around 600. It stung a bit.
Anyways when I got back I started talking alot to my one friend who plays cash game pretty much for a living and he plays at the 100nl level so I started to learn about cash game from him but right now im trying to beat 2nl. At first i was doing great. I read all the threads about 2nls and how to beat microstakes and everything. I followed it strictly. I got my BR upto about 118 and now its down to 80. I don't wanna move upto 5nl until i know i can beat 2nl and I've seen people post their HM graphs of beating 2nl so I know it could be done, but now i find myself in a never ending streak of coolers. I can't even remember the last time my AA won me anything in a big pot. I'm winning the small pots but I can't seem to win the big ones. Something always goes terrible wrong when I'm the favorite OR my KK runs into AA, my QQ runs into KK. Now, when it's the other way around, and i have AA, the KK will somehow turn into a set and I'll lose huuge. This wasn't really happening in the beginning. I feel like I'm playing wrong but I can't spot where the problem is because even though I'm learning not to marry my pocket pairs, I'm still running into problems. I feel like I know more about cash games now that I've been playing 2nl for almost 2 weeks at around 18k hands. Even with this knowledge I'm losing. And yes i know about FPS and I'm not playing fancy at all. Playing strictly ABC and still losing money. The past 4-5 days have been a nightmare. I try to start fresh everytime I play and then I run into another cooler. WHAT DO I DO?!

[Sup3rM4N]

First, Welcome to FTR.

Your post seems more like it belongs on the tilt forum than the beginners forum (a bit whiney) but we're all here to learn. I would avoid playing 1/2 live games or anything of that sort of stakes until you are more comfortable playing cash games and have a better understanding.

It seems like you have a good understanding of bankroll management now and came to realize that you have so much more to learn. That is the first step on becoming a winning player!

Coolers do happen and so do suckouts. Its a regular part of poker so you must learn to accept it and can not do anything about it. From your post, it seems you are mostly blaming those for your losses. I am sure you have many other leaks in your game that you are bleeding away $$ to but are unaware of it. Those things you CAN control and should actively try to improve on, so that you can outweigh the suckouts n coolers and remain a winning player.

I suggest you read hand histories posted around the BC (Beginner's Circle) and other forums as well as start posting your own hands and ask for advice.

FTR can be a great resource if you manage it use it properly. Stick around here long enough, listen to the regs, and you will certainly turn into a winning player!

Good luck on your poker journey.

[acgibson]

read...read...and read some more..then when your done... read it one more time. Nah but seriously like superman said your blaming them for your mistakes. Tournament strategies dont work well in cash games as you can get up and walk away with your money and the blinds never go up. How often do you see the flop? 20-30-40 %?? that was one of my problems in the begining, and AA will get beat!! no matter how you play it..sometimes thats how the cards fall..ive also learned to slowplay my JJ-KK a LITTLE..not check/call but smaller raises so i can see the flop at least before commiting. ive lost with AA a dozen times atleast..but ive won double that with it as well..so theres ups and downs as you know maybe take a couple days off or only play shot sessions to reduce tilting because thats what it sounds like to me. You also wont find a "step-by-step" article on how to beat 2NL you have to read and interpret all the info you can to make your own game to beat it.. ok im done rambling...

[Outlaw]

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 82.398% 82.16% 00.24% 1406850 4048.50 { AcAd }
Hand 1: 17.602% 17.37% 00.24% 297357 4048.50 { 3s2s }

So on average 18/100 times you are really pissed off and you forget the other 82 times you won. And some months you get pissed off 30/100 times and some months its only 10/100 times. That's variance.

Any questions?

[linaker]

Bad beats are a sign that you are playing well. By definition, you got your money in with the best hand, which is the aim in poker. Whilst having your aces cracked by 52s is very annoying, over the long term you are going to crush a player who calls a raise with 52s, hits a 2 on the flop, then calls to the river, where he hits a 5.

[Micro2Macro]

paragraphs

[bjsaust]

Sometimes its ok to fold big hands postflop unimproved