I'm banging my head against a wall here trying to figure out why I can't get ahead playing good poker in these low limit cash games (I'm talking about the $0.5/$0.10 - $0.10/$0.25 range).

What will happen is I'll build good momentum, but then eventually someone will sit down who plays every pot hyper aggressively. I'm talking about the kind of person who is playing every 9 out of 10 hands. Now one of two things will happen with this person; 1) I completely dominate them with a string of good cards, or 2) They'll out draw me so many times that I feel sitting and waiting for premium starting hands is my best course of action.

Now if Scenario 1 happens, that's awesome, but it's only a matter of time until I play someone else who's hyper aggressive and Scenario 2 plays out.

When that happens it seems I can never get a starting hand that connects properly, or if it does, I get out drawn for a huge pot. It's like I might win a few here and there, but eventually down the line I get into a huge pot with this person and get out drawn or handed a huge cooler.

And it's not like I'm sitting there waiting for Aces, I'm playing solid poker with the usual hands (pocket pairs, suited connectors, etc.), but these people have absolutely no respect for any raise short of an all in, either that or they're completely unaware of everything and just calling it down hoping they win.

Anyways, to be honest, I'm starting to get the impression that I should just quit playing online poker until I have enough money lying around to join in the bigger games. I have a feeling that the people playing the lower limits are just there to gamble, which is a problem because I'm not.

Am I right, or am I just having some horrible luck? Share your opinions and feel free to flame, I might be looking at this the wrong way.

Originally Posted by royce

What will happen is I'll build good momentum, but then eventually someone will sit down who plays every pot hyper aggressively. I'm talking about the kind of person who is playing every 9 out of 10 hands. Now one of two things will happen with this person; 1) I completely dominate them with a string of good cards, or 2) They'll out draw me so many times that I feel sitting and waiting for premium starting hands is my best course of action.

I can tell right now that this is mostly a bankroll managament problem, it shouldnt matter if these guy stack you. If you're sitting at a table and you lose a buy in and it cripples you, then you're not managing your money good. Do you really think that those kind of guys dont exist in the higher games? Those people are everywhere, every limit.

Originally Posted by WotaWaster

I just want to really clarify this. Nobody is ever unable to beat NL5 because they "play too tricky" or because their opponents are too bad. They lose because play badly plain and simple.

All you have to do in poker is put your opponent on a range of hands based on information available and play your hand optimally against that range.

If they call you down with bottom pair they may have played badly, but if you put them on a weak hand and were bluffing trying to represent a scare card and they are the type of player who will call with bottom pair then you played the hand incorrectly also. Not trickily or cleverly, incorrectly.

Rant over.

The thing is I'm not getting beat by bluffing these people. I may lose a pot to them by bluffing, which is fine by me, but it's not what's doing me under. I'm getting into situations with them where my top two pair is beaten when their set is hit on the river, or something else stupid happens. It puts me on big tilt because I get into the losing mind frame. I'll ask myself tilt questions like, "I've sat here for 5 minutes waiting for a good starting hand and this time I hit two pair and they donkeyed into a set on the river with bottom pair. What can I do to win?" I don't under play my hands either, I put in strong raises that keep the other normal people at the table from trying this crap, but it seems the maniac donkeys always luck out on me.

I wouldn't be crying about this if it hasn't happened to me for a week straight. I guess it's just a downswing, but it's enough to make me wait awhile before playing poker again.