Big influence in whether you can make a living out of poker or not, is where you live.
I can imagine that Americans/British/Germans/similar would have to play much higher stakes (and have trouble beating them) unlike, let's say, Chinese who can make a living out of playing micros.
I don't know where you live, but I guess you can always go abroad and live like a king playing small stakes 
I like playing poker but I'm too lazy to work hard on my game, consequently I will never be a good player. So I grind the micros and win cheeseburgers. If my bottom feeder status really bothered me I'd either stop playing or start being less lazy.
The key to succes is not beating your opponent, it's conquering yourself. It always has been.
If you think you suck at everything you don't. It's impossible cause you're very good at making yourself worse than you actually are left with 2 options
1: you're going to think you're life is miserable and you suck at everything. This will lead to you leading a miserable and crappy life.
2: Do something about it. You can find something you're good at and start thinking positive. As long as you've got the dedication to work on yourself you'll make your own life better
I'm barely beating the micro's. I currently suck at poker. Does that mean i'm gonna quit? Hell no, i'm just getting started and i'm sure that if i keep working on it i'll play my way out of the micro's.
Besides, if you're not a huge losing player, you still have a hobby that's less expensive than playing games like WoW.
Besides, if you're not a huge losing player, you still have a hobby that's less expensive than playing games like WoW.
This is of course very true. No-one thinks someone who spends $60 a month on their hobby as wasting time, but a poker players who makes $60 a month is wasting their time? That doesn't make sense.
On the more serious note.
10 years ago poker industry stood on clueless players or degenerate gamblers who were easy prey for standard TAG players. Today, vast majority of those people are gone. Most fish have understood that at online poker rooms there is a horde of hungry sharks waiting. So they either quit or try to work on their game a bit. Thats where the new breed of fish come in. They read strategy and they study videous but many of them lack the ability to reach decent stakes and play profitably there.
So they write forum posts about it - "I'm trying hard but nothing works out, should I quit etc". Then the sharks come in and tell them, on smoothing voice: "Cheer up, buddy, it's just a downswing and maybe you have some leaks that can be fixed. With enough work you can beat it! Just study hard, get a coach (that's another new emerged industry to clean up todays fish) and youll make it."
The fish listens and he do as told. Sometimes he succeeds and starts making profit. So he makes a merry post about it. The sharks are happy: there you go, we told you can make it. Now move up!
I guess you can all see where I'm going.
The reality is - Peter's principle is there and it's very real. If you can find your comfort zone and make profit - great. But if you just keep trying to reach the heights your mental aptitude can't handle, you end up feeding sharks for a while, emotionally burning out and quitting - broke and miserable.
I agree that OP might have some issues with low self esteem and depression, but there's some truth in his post - most of the people won't make it. I expect most of the mods and coaches here disagree with me, for obvious reasons of course.
You do make some points fuzzyfish, and I can only speak for myself when replying to this.
There's probably some kind of truth to what you write about "sharks" encouraging players to keep working on their game, but I think that's far from true for everyone. I sure know that's not the case with me. The thing is, I too started out as a "fish". Most (if not all?) of the "sharks" did.
When it comes to me, I have no interest in trying to get people to plug a few leaks and move up. When I worked on my game, I had many friends and better players help and encourage me. None because they wanted me to move up to their stakes and steal my money, but because they wanted to help me improve my game and enjoy the game that was my hobby and passion.
Now that I'm at a point where I can help and guide others on their paths to move up the stakes, I feel I want to give back to others the help that was given to me. Even though I can only speak for myself in this matter, I can't think of any Pokerstrategy staff that would try to help someone just because they want people to move up to their stakes. Just not the way things work around here 
You want to help them ........... for a small fee of course ♦
hehehe little humour thrown in. Just kidding. 
I feel your very narrow minded, nothing is ever going to get given to you, you have to make things happen.
How bad do you want it?
Originally posted by martiangoblin
I appreciate all the peptalk... but i still suck.Amazing how nothing changes.
How far off am I if I say that you don't even want to change, you just enjoy being in this limbo of misery?
Originally posted by xJCzZ
How bad do you want it?
apparently not bad enough... despite trying for years to move up the stakes.
maybe, subconsciously, i dont want to be sucessful. maybe i want to fail.
lets play word association martin ........... I will say a word and you say a emotion you feel in reponse to it or a word that comes into your mind in response to my word. either way is fine.
First word martian
Laughter
I am bad player, but i like this game. I know that higher limits i loose money(been there, done that).So i play microstakes and i do it a lot. Its abaut 6 years now, am a semipro and won abaut 20k total+ lots of new frends, experience, live games, forum reunions and staff.
Originally posted by reggie123
I am bad player, but i like this game. I know that higher limits i loose money(been there, done that).So i play microstakes and i do it a lot. Its abaut 6 years now, am a semipro and won abaut 20k total+ lots of new frends, experience, live games, forum reunions and staff.
That would be a dream come true. Amazing how even people who think they are bad players can acheive that kind of success with poker.
I guess i didnt realize how much i really suck.
Originally posted by martiangoblin
Originally posted by HollyMichelle
Yes, not everyone is going to be a winner. This is obvious. Same applies to everything though. There can't be 20 winners in the English Premier League for example.Thats exactly the point i was trying to make. In a zero sum game there are winners and loosers, and how many of us have realized that we are loosers?
And no amount of work will turn a born looser into a winner.
you are wrong, and then wrong again.
first of all - poker is not a zero sum game; it is a negative sum game.
you not only need to beat the other players, you need to beat the rake.
if two players of equal skill sat down with the same bankroll, they would pass the money back & forth until the house had raked it all up.
so, it stands to reason that poker is actually populated by a LOT of losers, and some winners.
there are a few things to learn from this frightening truth:
1) you should look to play with people of LESSER skill when possible.
there is very little upside in playing w/ players of equal skill,
and even less in playing against players of greater skill.
so, what then if as the old saying goes, you can't find the fish at the table because it's you?
a) find a new table
b) move down in stakes until you find worse players
c) improve your game
it is worth noting that if you are playing at the lowest stakes and STILL can't find anyone to beat that choice "c" becomes your only option unless you honestly prefer the previously unmentioned
d) keep losing
choice "c" (improve your game) brings me to the 2nd place where you were wrong in your post.
And no amount of work will turn a born looser into a winner.
this is simply untrue, unless you define being a "winner" as winning major tournaments or playing at the nosebleeds.
I WILL agree that no amount of work is going to make any "average joe" a player that can contend w/ Galfond at PLO, or challenge Phil Ivey at any form of poker.
if that is a definition of being a "winner", than all but a small handful are doomed to be "losers".
but under a reasonable definition of "being a winner" like just actually winning money, then even a "born loser" CAN be a winner providing
a) he has not already lost so much money that breaking even is pretty much impossible
b) he is willing to actually work at it.
By "working at it" I mean reading the articles, watching the videos and APPLYING the information.
it is not enough to read the beginner strategy and think "yeah, I should play tighter".
you need to ACTUALLY play tighter.
anyone can take that strategy and apply it at the lowest stakes and win.
and why is that true?
because even in the much tougher world of online poker in 2012, there are STILL plenty of loose passive fish donating their money at .01/.02 and .02/.04
and, because the stakes are so low, there are relatively few serious good players at this level, because most of the successful ones are just passing through on their way to 10NL, 25NL, 50NL and beyond.
now, if you think 2NL and 4NL are "beneath" you, then your ego would seem to be way in front of your (losing) game.
you need to go back to the bottom and honestly work on your game.
not do the same old crap and hope to get lucky and then decide you are unlucky when that fails.
play the lowest stakes on your site and use the beginners strategy.
concentrate on playing good hands, IN POSITION.
play it "by the book" and give it a chance to work.
if you are not willing to do that, then you ARE a "loser" because you won't even try to win.
you joined a site that is full of excellent articles & advice,
PLEASE put this resource to use.
fwiw, I thave 13,600+ hands on Carbon at .02/.04 since I joined.
I've played for almost 100 hours.
I am currently up $49.21 (~9bb/100 hands).
that's less than $0.50 per hour.
you might look at that and say that it's "not worth it".
here's how I look at it:
right now I am getting paid 50 cents an hour to work on my game.
the funny thing is, even with this "success" my game needs a LOT of work.
overall I am
VPIP 14%
PRF 8%
3B 1.4%
I'd like to be looser on the VPIP and higher on the PFR say maybe 17/14 overall.
I obviously need to work a LOT on my 3 betting which, precentage-wise looks a lot like AA & KK.
I need to work on the two biggest skills in poker:
1) increasing the size (not the number!)of the pots I win
and
2) decreasing the size of the pots that I lose.
for instance - why do I pay off sets with my big pocket pairs, but almost never stack anyone when I flop a set?
and so much more.
for what it's worth, I rarely win when I play poker live ($1/$2 NL or 200NL if you prefer) at casinos.
I think there are (at least) 2 reasons for this
1) my live game is not as good as my online game. having $200 on the table is a LOT different than having $4 on the table.
2) it is impossible to play the number of hands live that I can play online.
I could sit at the casino for 5 hours and not play 200 hands, so it is much harder to build up the comfort level.
and because the stakes are so much larger and I am not a live winner (yet), gaining that experience is more expensive.
I've probably wandered well off topic.
back to the point - you being a "born loser".
you need to set reasonable goals and then WORK to achieve them.
if you refuse to put in the effort to learn how to be a winner, then you ARE a loser.
not because you were born that way, but because you are squandering the fantastic resources at your disposal.
I did set goals when i started.
Is 2BB/100 at NL10 over 100K hands an unrealistic goal?
Apparently so, because it never happened.
What got you here won't get you there - perhaps you should've changed approach a couple of times during your poker career. I could write a long post and try to help you but there's already been so many wise replies in this thread. I am afraid that my effort would be for nothing, since you don't seem to accept any advice, but rather keep whining instead of taking action and doing something differently. If you applied at least half of the advice, you would have already been on the right track.
I also agree that you should visit someone who could help you with your depression and anger management, or at least pick up a book on self-development.
-SF
