Well I'm gonna try to make a short story. This is no whining thread, don't worry, I'm just questioning myself after such bad experiences.

I've put 25$ on PokerStars to play Sit N' Goes. At first I wasn't so good, and I went down to 10$ in my bankroll account. But then the day after that moment I made 50$ in one day (I did like 3 tourneys and I actually finished first in all them (or maybe second for one of them), and they were 27 or 45 man SNG with 1$ buy in or something). A small calculation made you realise I had 60$ now, but I managed to lose it all after playing ONLY in 0,50$, 1$, 2$. I've put again 10$ because I knew I had some potential but again, it failed hard.

And all this while playing by the fundamental and advanced rules and techniques of poker. I'm a very reasonable person and therefore, I play in a very reasonable way and I certainly did some very nice plays. But I swear, I consider pot odds, I can sometimes read the other players cards exactly like I thought (or close at least) and I bluff and well, apply every poker technique just nicely and at the best time. But I still, I tend to fail.

I play only premium hands with a nice little raise before the flop like we all know we should do and well, it just seems sometimes like there is absolutely nothing going on. I'm a very patient person I must say, but still, waiting for hours and hours of premium hands and getting almost nothing is beyond patience if you ask me. So after a while, I tend to play moderate stuff like K9s or more esoteric stuff like 87s since there is absolutely nothing going on. But still, I just keep failing. I mean, even with KK, I manage to lose, simply because someone has a pair of aces.

Now this makes me question very much about the nature of all this. I mean, sometimes the flop comes like 6-6-8 and I had like 6 and 8 and I'm just like "Damn, I had a full house, but hey, I couldn't play that hand because our logic tells us that I couldn't see it coming and 6-8 is indeed a thrash hand" and when I have like KQ with few people still playing and late position, I still manage to not win, since someone gets out a straight or a two pairs or trips. Heck, when I look back at people who wins a SNG I was playing in or I look at the leaderboard, most of the time it's the people who play moderate hands like 98s or even 56o and play very loosely.

But of course, all the poker tips and strategy there is online is very, very logical, so much that it's almost impossible to contradict it. Pot odds, everything makes it look like yes, it's all logical and yes, if you play following this, it will go all well. But my experience in respecting by the letter every single rule and failing so hard has made me think that maybe this is all wrong.

On one hand, for example, pot odds is a nice method to justify whether or not you should commit yourself to the pot, but at the same time, if I just have a nice chance to hit the nuts on the turn or river, and consequently I bet relatively to this, but still don't hit my nuts, what happens? Yes, I just lost a relatively moderate amount of my stack, but every single time that you try and follow the pot odds and every single time that it doesn't work, it just makes you lose a little something every time, and then finally you arrive to the point where you have not much left.

Overall, I would just like to see you guys discussing whether or not you actually follow all the poker rules by the letter and if it is actually a winning combination. I would like to know if any successful player here (may it be a low profit, I don't care) actually follows all this stuff, because right now I feel completely confused to the fact that it made me fail so miserably.

But another thing has come to my mind: could I be so infinitely unlucky? My premium hands never bring me to anything I swear, and my folded thrash hands would frequently made me win big.

Now guys, I need some feedback, maybe (even more advanced) tips, experiences, whatever. I want to go very deeply into poker (online poker too then) because I think it's a interesting hobby with interesting outcomes but then it's not so fun when nothing happens and when you tend to fail when you play like the pros tell you to.

(edit: right now I'm playing only at Play Money to "get more experience" (meh) but it continues. It's just like if I had a curse or something.

To me it sounds your pool of hands is way too small. You are really looking at this from a very short term perspective. Poker has many ups and downs, and they occur a lot more frequently and lot more exaggerated than most people expect.

I'll also take the bet that you have some holes to fill in your game. It sounds like you are fairly level headed, so you should be able learn at a quick pace. Your game probably isn't at the level where even 50 buyins will be enough to keep you alive during the learning curve. Try studying the game more often than you play...read some books, post some weird situations on the forums and see what people have to say.

Either way, you're off to a good start despite having busted your bankroll...very few players only deposit once or twice.