Although I don't want to knock the course which obviously works for some people, I think I need to report honestly on my own experience.
I have been doing the course for exactly one month (I started with $25 in Hollywood Poker & $40 in
Party Poker). For the first 3 weeks my bankroll diminished gradually in both accounts, but not by any significant amount..at the same rate of loss I could've probably continued playing for another month or two, without having to deposit any more money. Meanwhile, I was happy just accumulating experience through playing and trying to adjust my game to the tables.
Then this happened: a few nights ago I lost half my bankroll in Hollywood Poker in the space of about 15 minutes (the curse of the Pocket Aces!). I joined another table with my remaining $8.60, had a miserable time with my dealt hands, hit no flops at all, finally get dealt a decent starting hand (Pocket Jacks, after waiting for 1 hour) end up going all-in on the turn (because I couldn't shake the other player off) and get beat by a pair of Queens on the river.
I decided not to deposit any more into Hollywood Poker as I never really felt comfortable with the interface anyway ..all a bit cramped and confusing to follow.
Then two nights ago, playing in
Party Poker, exactly the same thing happened when I was dealt pocket Aces about 15 minutes into the game. As usual, everyone folded after my (very) small raise of x2 BB, the only taker being the game's Calling Station (who was in front of me) whose stack was going up and down like a yo-yo according to the luck of the draw (he called just about every raise made by anyone during the game, but never raised himself). I lost the remaining 75% of my stack to his full house of nines made on the river.
Trying to be philosophical, I joined another table with $10, thinking that my luck would change eventually. Over the next 90 minutes I was dealt rags and then some, trying to make the most of few marginal hands that came my way but consistently beaten at the showdown. Then the pocket aces came again..aaaargh!! Again I lost my remaining stack to a full house made on the river! Its not that I'm incapable of folding pocket aces, but with the irrational and unpredicatable betting patterns you get from players on these low stakes tables (who just check, check, check even if they hit trips on the flop) what can you do? So again, I found myself kissing goodbye to $10.00.
Now, it must be said that my playing style does deviate somewhat from the core PP strategy (which is something I discussed with the PP in the earlier thread). I don't follow the starting chart because back in the beginning when I did this I found that I lost chips quite quickly for a variety of reasons. Instead i prefer to play the type of hands you might expect to see played on a shorthand table, so i get a lot more action, steal a lot of pots after the flop with marginal or non-existent hands, and create a stronger table image. Playing like this, I am able to recoup chips I lose with decent starting hands that are overtaken on the board and have to be folded, or that I lose at the showdown. Of course, this also ups my ability to improve hands with the cards on the board.The other day, I managed to win 8 hands in a row, taking down the pot after the flop or turn with nothing, and risking very little, so I guess I must be doing something right? By contrast, the problem I seem to have is with good starting hands, ie: the ones that I should play strongly according to the starting chart. With these I either win a pot of nothing or lose a pile. It is just too random, and i seem to have tried evey possible variation in betting strategy to overcome this, but to no avail.
Okay, so i know that I've been suffering a bad streak lately, but these sort of losses at 05/.10 tables are quite significant aren't they? Doubting myself, I thought that maybe this had been an inevitable outcome of my personalised strategy all along, but that just hadn't manifested itself until now. So I decided to try again, but stick rigidly to the PP starting chart strategy. But it soon became apparent that I was losing chips at the same rate as I would normally, but without the counterbalancing effect of frequently winning small pots with marginal hands, and the stronger table image.
Oh, and now my heart sinks whenever I dealt pocket aces...I think i am going to be folding them very early from now on!!