[Closed] Huge Downswing

Hi. Start playing cash games. I started with SSS which slowly lost money, then Sng's which were profitable at a 0.5$ buy-in (loose maniacs), but less profitable at 1$ because the players were super-super tight ( going from 10 blinds to nothing without ever going all in) but I still made some money. Fortunately, I tried BSS which in my opinion is really what poker is about. I never had a losing session in 2 weeks and managed to double my account. And not because I am doing anything fancy, but because I am playing the lowest stakes possible and my opponents have no clue how to play good poker ( all in with 100 blinds without a raise pre-flop or in an unraised pot, all in with underpair on the flop, with 2 overcards, top pair crap kicker, all in on the turn with flush or straight draw, things like this).
It is almost common for me to make about 5$ in an hour - an hour and a half of 4-tabling. Also, I hunt tables with the biggest average pot.
Give it a try. It's probably a good ideea to play a single table for a while.

This doesn't look like a downswing to me. You are playing at Full Tilt where the 6$ SNGs are turbos and you cannot be good at turbos without decent ICM knowledge. And you say you only get 87% on ICM trainer and that's probably only on the basic setting, too..
Plus your bankroll management is really bad if you're playing 2$ SNGs with only 20$.

It's too bad you let it go this far but I think you can still turn in around if you study a lot and only play little. It looks like you have a lot of catching up to do but I think you might be able to avoid goind busto if you like 2 table the 1$ SNGs and watch the game very closely and just try really hard..

Good luck,
Lubor

andreibalint, I was going to start playing cash games once I built up a decent BR. I'll look into that, though.

LuborC, what do you suggest would be the best way to improve my game? What should I be getting on ICM to play profitably? I've moved down to $1 games now.

play matrix games, and if you want to move up again just get know that it's gonna take a looooong time

what is matrix games?
maybe DoN"s would be a good idea ♠_cool:

it is rite that you have got upswing,
and about your downswing, maybe it is bad play - not down swing

If you still enjoy playing SNGs then I would suggest you play 1$ ones. Reread the articles first. I'm sure you will find a few leaks just by doing that. Then start practicing with the ICM trainer. ON the basic setting it is very well possible to get 100% pretty often, 95% is already an ok result but anything less is pretty bad. That should improve your game enough for you to be able to start winning some money.
As AndySK said it's gonna take a long time for you to recover now that you lost all but a fraction of your bankroll. If you don't hit a downswing it should be possible even with less than 20 BIs, though..

EDIT: PM me if you want some more advice..

hmm .. with 20$ i advise you to play microlimits cash game ... coz 1$ has stupid 25% rake ... .. buyild up to ~100$ and then start to play 2$ sng ...

1$ sng tight players? lol ...
i played up to 26$ sngs and i can say you there is still lot of bad players

Originally posted by LuborC
...And you say you only get 87% on ICM trainer and that's probably only on the basic setting, too..

What advanced settings would you suggest? I am breakeven for about 1.5k games and I think that my biggest leak is poor ICM knowledge tho I get about 95% on average on a basic setting.

mayoctt ... you should master every posible options ...
when i was playing turbos ... every time i started to play trained this variants

6 players... blinds 300 eg
4 players blinds 400-500 eg
3 players blinds 400-500 eg
2 players blind 600 eg

and than you can train for examle

6 p.... blind + one player all in
4 .... +one player all in
...

or
6................... you are big stack
4......... your are big stack
....

good training is also

you are in BB and SB push ... when you should call

and many others.. coz there is huge diference between every step and if you want to be very best you shoul master it

Like Miskokvo said every situation you can encounter is important.
If you only ever trained on the default setting then I would suggest you try bubble (4 players left) first as the ranges in this stage differ the most from the standard ranges..
Also good is heads up (you should be more interested in your pushing ranges here becuase people push tighter than nash in HU so you need to also call them tighter..) but that is worth much more if you're playing turbos because in standard SNGs you sometimes don't even get to push or fold in the HU..

Also watch your opponents calling ranges a note down when you see unusuall (way different than your own) pushes and calls. After you have an idea about how tight or loose people are calling you can use the equilator to figure out what hands you can add or remove from your own ranges. Or you can buy the SNG Wizard which is more user friendly (for this purpose anyway) than equilator..

I agree, ICM trainer helps alot, but in my little experience and from what Ive been told from coaches and video tutorials, playing and looking at the villains ranges is much more valuable, experience will make you adjust your range to the stake your playing. Ive been playing low buy ins and have noticed that ppl in general are much more loose than what the ICM trainer suggests, so it doesnt apply 100%. My recommendation is to go to the coachings and play as much as you can, throwing some ICM trainings in between if you like them but I personally dont do them much and have been quite effective at the tables.

In your case, with 20$ you should play tournaments of which you have 50 or more buy ins, so in ftp that would be a low buy in matrix... I suggest you grind the 1.25$ matrix tournaments so you reduce your variance and obtain the experience Im telling you about, obviously read all the articles and reread them so they stay in your mind

Well, GL at the tables!