I do that but I can't follow through with it. I know in theory that if they are super aggro them raising my cbet doesn't mean the nuts but I can't bring myself to call with anything less than the nuts as whenever I do they seem to have, on that occasion got lucky. Its just confirmation bias I realise but it ends up putting me on tilt. I'm avoiding them basically at the minute as I'm not good enough to control my emotions and realise the EV edge their spaziness gives me. I end up being the passive exploitable fish.

One to work on.

The being an idiot vs the passive fishes is pure entitlement tilt. I understand the game better than them so I should win every pot especially if I get them to cold call a 3bet OOP with J8o when I have AA. That the flop comes J82r and he calls flop, and jams over my bet on the turn on a 3 having never once raised and only bet 10% of turns at all shouldn't get in the way. I haz bullets and I will take his stack.

That is not one to work on. Its just bad and I must stop doing it.

Uh oh, I've started playing speed on Paddy Power. I missed her. It knows I've missed her as well and is treating me very nicely.

Just starting out at NL5 as no traffic on NL10 and not ready to jump to NL20.

Nice one Paul!

Whats your ID on ipoker? Might see you around, if I haven't already

Its Aceofbaize. Who are you on there?

I guess he is making a list of everyones nickname from ipoker.

Yeah she can bumhunt me!

That sounded more suggestive than I intended.

Upswing didn't last long and I'm back to break even as always. Jon very kindly did a video for me on my old days on Stars Zoom from the start of this journey. I don't think its had the desired effect. I think I'm going to stop playing for a while.

Watching that video back was very eye-opening. The reaction of Jon to my bad play was striking and even if he tried to make a positive of it at then end it was clear I'm too weak to play this game. This was a dull video as I was, as ever, avoiding getting into any marginal spots as I will always make bigger mistakes than my opponent.

Maybe after some time off I'll want to play again. Its funny that I was excited as the video got started and commenting on the video for Jon but by the end was just depressed.

When was that review video made Paul? How many weeks, months since? Just curious,what made you decide to take a break from poker?

All the best..

10 weeks ago or so. Just taking a break because I'm not any good. It's the first time another player has watched me play and though Jon was nice about it it was obviously pretty poor. Sometimes tough realisations about your lack of ability give the thrill of a learning opportunity but this time it just made me despair.

I noticed it when I played today. My play was horrendous and I have no idea what to do if I'm not flopping huge. Mindset is gone completely so time to quit.

Hey buddy, sorry the review was a negative for you and not a positive overall. This however i think is down to your mindset currently, what i mean by this is in poker and anything in life shit things will happen....in this case losing but its how you react to it which matters. So you have seen what you do poorly now you have every learning tool imaginable at your disposal. I am not even just talking about PokerVIP just the entire world. You could google anything, find results and read up on it all then put it to use. But you have to want to do it to make it work.

When we staked players and they were losing we would drop them down stakes........so many people moaned at this because of how much they were losing and how hard it would be to win it back. What a shit attitude right? Why wouldn't they take the view of people are backing them, making correct decisions and pushing them in the right direction - so why not just grind harder, prove us wrong and get moved up again? It basically showed players with next to no experience on how poker works.

The problem with poker is that it involves money so people will get emotional but you have to compare it to say a leg break - people break their leg, they gotta go threw some pain, get it put in a cast and be disabled for a while, do some physio then eventually the leg is fine again. Short term pain = long term gain. You could even compare it to something like Maths - how can some people not do simple sums like 25 + 50 when others can do equations??? Simply because they spent more time learning and putting effort into it.

One thing i will say is poker is not for everyone - it really isnt so if you have no love for the game why play it? If it causes you stress why play it? If you lose money why play it? Find a reason then put all your efforts into achieving it. If you cannot find one get another hobby which you love.

I can make 1 video review for you per month and point you in any direction you need for other learning tools.

Keep your head up anyways ---------- its just a game of cards afterall

Great post Jon!

@theyallpaul, keep your head up mate, the most important thing is to enjoy life, we only have one. If you love cards, take a breake and start again from very basics like me. Start from the bottom and play it like a any other game where you level up according experience you gain and you will find the lost passion again.
Good luck!

Yeh just to touch on Mattusko said about leveling up: Really struck a cord with me:

You cant play a video game straight away and beat level 13....you may not even beat level 1. The only way your going to do it is to repeat a lot of steps, be unsuccessful but then finally figure out what it is you have to do to level up

Use these feelings to fuel your motivation and go into study mode for like 4 hours a day

I dont think it is good to study so long in one day unless you play another 16h per day.

When you have learned something new, you have to try it, if it fits your play, if you know how to use it properly etc.
It is unproductive to learn 2 hours how to defend BB and then another 2 hours How to 3bet from the BU and then try it together in one session. Everything will mix together and you end up making more mistakes than before.

I believe that 80% : 20% (play : study) is good percentage how to do it.

Don't you think?

I don't understand why you got so upset and dissapointed after Jon's review. You really didn't play as bad as you think, maybe you were a little bit to scared and nitty some times, but I guess that is because you didn't want to make a foul of yourself geting in marginal spots, knowing that everybody will see it on pokervip. Overall you played ok.

So, I sugest you take a little brake and get back at poker. Play it smart and just enjoy it.
Good luck!

Studying can mean going through your own session, watching other players play, reading books on poker etc.
Its not so much about 'learning new moves', because that's not where the complexity of the game is.

I think 80:20 is great in general, but if I find that my game is bad no matter what I do, I will take a break and just study for say one week. Then 'reboot' my play

I am xCrazyKerixx

Sorry to see that you are falling out with poker right now. Hope to see you getting back to it and regaining your confidence soon!

@Balonas - Yeahhh, I like to know who I am up against lol.

How's that motivation looking Paul? As other have said having leaks or thinking you are not as good as you thought is not a bad thing, it's poker! I used to play 100nl and I am sure if someone better than me watched me play they would pick my game apart and find tons of leaks. Perhaps you just played a bad session or you got in a tons of hard spots during the video, but you should see this as a way to plug some leaks and come back stronger.

Also you may not be the next Phil Ivey but if you enjoy playing poker, what's it matter if you win, lose or draw. Hope to see you back at the tables rejuvenated kid.

Its not great just now. I went back to Stars to play zoom and see if my first love would rejuvinate my enjoyment for the game. Not gone so well. I lost a chunk at an incredible rate. I'm going to keep going to clear the ulitmate bonus offer they have put up and then reflect and see if I want to continue.

I pulled out of Paddy Power and unsurprisingly got stung for $10 as their buy in and cash out rates are not the same. Cashed out £100 for the extra bits and bobs I've deposited over the weeks and months since joining here so am back to about $400 all on Stars which represents all my profit (all from bonuses and RB as I can't win on tables) so I'm free rolling now again.

If I am still around in a month or so then I will be going for learning again hell for leather. I think I'm terminally tilted though. We will see if I can turn it around with some mental game work but I think being so far down and not because I'm unlucky but because I suck is a heavy weight. When you are 1500bbs down and best case you can turn it around to be a 1bb/100 winner (which is unlikely given past history) then it will take me 150k hands to just get back to breakeven. For someone with my volume that is like a year. The prospect of playing perfect A game poker, never tilting and not getting unlucky for a whole year just to be breakeven on the tables on Stars again might be the biggest barrier. I'll keep you all posted.