I started playing poker around 5-6 years ago. Back then I used to play 6 man turbo sng's. I started with 50 dollars I think and got up to 1k I guess before I cashed out and quit. 2 years ago I started up slowly again with 50 dollars. I got interested in playing heads up because I liked the whole 1 on 1 thing. There wasn't any HU cash games below 0.25/0.50 at fulltilt, so I wasn't rolled to play them. My plan therefore was to start with HU sngs. I started at the 2 dollar ones I believe, but didn't play too regularly. I started playing more and more regularly and after a while, when my roll allowed it, I moved up to the 5s, then the 10s, then the 20s, then the 33s, then then the 50s. At the 50s it starting getting somewhat tougher and there always was a long waiting line (people waiting for the fish). The money at stake when I played the 50s and 80s started to get a little to me as well. I mean, you can loose or win 2-300 pretty quickly, so you have to have a proper roll and a strong psyche to deal with it. Anyways, at this point my 50 dollars had increased to 3.5k and I was closer to playing the 100 dollar ones. At the stakes between 50-100 you will find that there are quite a lot that makes their living there and I was beginning to think whether I could as well. I spent more and more time playing and I watched a bunch of instructional videos, read a lot of books and posted on poker forums to keep improving my HU game. I also bought some one on one skype lessons with some guy that I had encountered a couple of times in the 50s from england that makes a nice living playing between the 50s and the 2-300s. Something terrible happened though...
The sickest downswing I've ever had was upon me. I don't want to go into details, but let me say that I lost more than half my roll (something that amounts to 35 buy ins at the 50s). I felt so terrible during that time and I started questioning myself more and more for every game I played whether I actually where a winning player. I mean, I had played so many games and moved up steadily from the 5s and had a long, solid winning sample. My dream of being able to do this for a living seemed to fade with every game. My psyche was a mess and I questioned my every decision which no doubt had a negative impact on my game. Last time I played regularly now is probably 3-4 months ago. My current roll is 1.6k I think, but I just have it there. I'm afraid to play and frankly I don't find it fun anymore. It is a tough game, and it keeps getting tougher everyday. Maybe I'll pick poker up again one day soon, but I think if I were to, I will only play the 20s and build up some confidence in my game again.. also, I need the practice as I'm probably somewhat rusty after all this time off.
sigh, poker. Ugh. I don't know if I would have the psyche to play it everyday for 6-8 hours and to be able to face big downswings without having sleepless nights or having it impact my life in a very negative way. I feel sick just thinking about poker as of now, but well well. Yes, I have played quite a lot of poker. If you plan to play it regularly and see how far you can take it you better learn that it requires MUCH work and that it is going to challenge your psyche. The days of making loads of easy money is gone. I missed out on it and so did you.
Have fun:P
Switching to PLO, or some other poker game, is perhaps something one could consider. It isn't as dried up and "solved" as most forms of holdem.
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