Stability: how to learn to stay in profit?📈

Sos1l · Nov 29, 2025

In the last few times, I’ve been trying to play as disciplined as possible.

I’ve learned to fold QQ, JJ, TT, KK, AK with hiting to board when I see obvious signs of strength.
I’ve learned to respect TAG/NIT players’ lines.
I’ve become more cautious playing overpairs on wet boards.
I stopped “falling in love” with premium hands.

And still… there’s no stability.

For 3–4 days I go on a good upswing, and then one or two hands wipe out all my profit.
Sometimes I end up at breakeven, sometimes even in the red.

And the strangest thing — I seem to enter battles correctly.

I choose loose-aggressive players, those who open too wide, three-bet trash, play chaotically.
I patiently wait for spots where I have a strong hand and positional advantage…
But post-flop it still often turns into chaos.

Examples from the last few days:

QQ → fold on an A-K-x board

JJ → fold on a Q-high board after two barrels

KK → fold after a check-raise from a nit

AK → miss the flop → fold

~70% of the time I fold correctly, read the signals, avoid traps.
I almost never play ego spots.
I rarely bluff without a reason.

But still, it feels like I’m taking “three steps forward — four steps back.”

---

And I think my biggest problem is table selection.

Sometimes I sit at tables where I know I shouldn’t play:
there’s little money, no weak players, the dynamics are tough…

But I still stay because:

> "It’s more interesting to play where you’re not the strongest.
But unfortunately, it’s also more painful."

---

And this leads to instability.
And to situations where all the profit from several days can disappear in one unlucky evening.

---

Questions for experienced players:

👉 How did you find stability in the long run?
👉 How much does table selection affect winrate?
👉 How do you know when it’s better not to sit at a table?
👉 And if you’ve already sat — how do you find the strength to stand up and leave?
👉 How do you stop losing all accumulated profit in one bad day?

hardongear · Nov 29, 2025

20+ year rec/hobby profitable player at 2nl-50nl full-ring and longer blind level(10+ min) MTT's....

1) Stability. I play full-ring cash during the week and play MTT's on the weekend. I usually never do terrible at both in the same week. Mostly what a bit more playing cash tables then I use for MTT buy-ins weekly so my bankroll is always slowly growing. On weeks when lose playign cash I do well in MTT's and make some of it back maybe all of it.

2) Table/game selection is one of the main keys to being a winning player short and long term. Without good table/game selection you'll never be a winning player long term. My game selection of full-ring and longer blind MTT's also offers less variance then any other games you can play and allows me to play a so what similar style at both cash and MTT's(when deep stacked in MTT's).

3) Idk. I take all comers at stakes I play because I'm one of the better players and I enjoy being challenged. being challenged is why I play not for the money. The bit of side money I make is just a bonus to me.

4) I never have the time to grind for hours when it comes to cash. I only have limited amount of time during the week and well #3 above also helps answer this one.

5) Well #3 and #4 help answer this one. If I had this problem I'd set a stop/loss when it comes to buy-ins. I have a stop/loss but rarely reach consider the limited time I have to play and my style of play. Some days just won't be your day.

Bonus question/advice:
6) When it comes to being a winning player it's about bankroll management, mental toughness/tilt control, discipline, game selection and patience. Get decent and master these things. There why most players fail.

Hope some of that helps man. I'm likely a bit different then most players as I play full-ring cash and MTT's. Most players pick either cash or MTT's, don't play both and play 6 max if they play cash. Full-ring is softer then 6 max the volume just sucks when compared. But I don't mind because that helps smooth out variance and creates stability.

Btw those were all great questions. Keep working poker is tough especially online.

Cheers!!!

Sos1l · Nov 30, 2025

Yeah bro, you have a lot of years in the game. I really enjoy talking to experienced players 👏👏👏
Thanks for everything.

Patience is my favorite quality. Have I mastered it perfectly? Of course not, but with experience I’ll keep improving it, because I actually like waiting. I’m a tight player too, and I know that at many tables the ability to wait is the most important thing.

Discipline — a big part of it is the ability to wait, and also to stick to the strategy you chose.

Bankroll management — not playing where your bankroll can’t handle the variance, ending the session when you’re tired.
I’m not perfect here either, but better than yesterday.

Mental toughness — I’m not great, but not terrible. Sometimes I get upset after a bad beat with AA, especially when I actually hit the board.

Tilt — controlling boredom, frustration from bad beats and coolers, fatigue, anger, revenge, fear.
I can’t say I’m amazing at this, but I’m not terrible either.

But table selection — that’s my weak spot. I also love competing, learning from strong opponents, beating good players.
But that usually ends badly for profit, and I know I need to keep this under control.

The biggest mistake is not learning from your mistakes and letting them happen again.

Thanks again.

hardongear said:
20+ year rec/hobby profitable player at 2nl-50nl full-ring and longer blind level(10+ min) MTT's....

1) Stability. I play full-ring cash during the week and play MTT's on the weekend. I usually never do terrible at both in the same week. Mostly what a bit more playing cash tables then I use for MTT buy-ins weekly so my bankroll is always slowly growing. On weeks when lose playign cash I do well in MTT's and make some of it back maybe all of it.

2) Table/game selection is one of the main keys to being a winning player short and long term. Without good table/game selection you'll never be a winning player long term. My game selection of full-ring and longer blind MTT's also offers less variance then any other games you can play and allows me to play a so what similar style at both cash and MTT's(when deep stacked in MTT's).

3) Idk. I take all comers at stakes I play because I'm one of the better players and I enjoy being challenged. being challenged is why I play not for the money. The bit of side money I make is just a bonus to me.

4) I never have the time to grind for hours when it comes to cash. I only have limited amount of time during the week and well #3 above also helps answer this one.

5) Well #3 and #4 help answer this one. If I had this problem I'd set a stop/loss when it comes to buy-ins. I have a stop/loss but rarely reach consider the limited time I have to play and my style of play. Some days just won't be your day.

Bonus question/advice:
6) When it comes to being a winning player it's about bankroll management, mental toughness/tilt control, discipline, game selection and patience. Get decent and master these things. There why most players fail.

Hope some of that helps man. I'm likely a bit different then most players as I play full-ring cash and MTT's. Most players pick either cash or MTT's, don't play both and play 6 max if they play cash. Full-ring is softer then 6 max the volume just sucks when compared. But I don't mind because that helps smooth out variance and creates stability.

Btw those were all great questions. Keep working poker is tough especially online.

Cheers!!!

hardongear · Nov 30, 2025

Sounds like you're headed in the right direction as most never get even ok at all them things. Don't worry to much or be too hard on yourself no one is great or perfect at anything or any of them things we all could improve at them things even me. I'm good at them in part because I worked at hard at them before I even started playing poker, running and managing your own business requires you to be ok to decent at then and well experience helps greatly.

If game/table selection is your biggest weakness outta that list the good news is that's likely the easiest one to fix and get good at in my opinion. With that said there's nothing wrong with challenging yourself now and again.....just make sure it's now again. Part of my game selection is to pick games and MTT's that create the lowest amount of variance possible in poker. Which is why I never play any fast games, rarely play 6 max and rarely satellites. If I wanna play a bigger buy-in MTT which I do plenty of I play cash tables and make enough there for the buy-in.

Playing full-ring cash and longer 10+min blind level MTT's both take the most luck, and variance out of poker as possible and yet there's still plenty of variance and luck involved. It's amazing how terrible variance can be and how terrible mentality it is to deal with.

Anyways if game selection is your biggest weakness I'd say you're doing quite well as in my opinion that's the easiest one on my list to fix and improve. With that said it's ok to challenge yourself now and again and can actually be good for you game and improvement. At least in my opinion just have to make sure you not challenging yourself all the time. You really wanna be playing more games/tables that you know you have the advantage at and that your one of the best players sitting there.

Cheers!!!

Sos1l · Dec 1, 2025

hardongear said:
Sounds like you're headed in the right direction as most never get even ok at all them things. Don't worry to much or be too hard on yourself no one is great or perfect at anything or any of them things we all could improve at them things even me. I'm good at them in part because I worked at hard at them before I even started playing poker, running and managing your own business requires you to be ok to decent at then and well experience helps greatly.

If game/table selection is your biggest weakness outta that list the good news is that's likely the easiest one to fix and get good at in my opinion. With that said there's nothing wrong with challenging yourself now and again.....just make sure it's now again. Part of my game selection is to pick games and MTT's that create the lowest amount of variance possible in poker. Which is why I never play any fast games, rarely play 6 max and rarely satellites. If I wanna play a bigger buy-in MTT which I do plenty of I play cash tables and make enough there for the buy-in.

Playing full-ring cash and longer 10+min blind level MTT's both take the most luck, and variance out of poker as possible and yet there's still plenty of variance and luck involved. It's amazing how terrible variance can be and how terrible mentality it is to deal with.

Anyways if game selection is your biggest weakness I'd say you're doing quite well as in my opinion that's the easiest one on my list to fix and improve. With that said it's ok to challenge yourself now and again and can actually be good for you game and improvement. At least in my opinion just have to make sure you not challenging yourself all the time. You really wanna be playing more games/tables that you know you have the advantage at and that your one of the best players sitting there.

Cheers!!!

I have another problem.
Even though I understand that the main thing is to wait — and I know that this patience can bring more in one single moment than constantly entering pots and hoping for luck — when I finally wait, enter a 3-bet pot, and fall into a trap, and I’m forced to fold or play with huge risk… after a few situations like that, I start becoming more aggressive.
I begin entering pots more often than I should, bluffing players who won’t fold even a gutshot or their weakest card — and this leads to even bigger frustration.

Tilt is something you must fight constantly.
It’s destructive not to notice that you’re angry, frustrated, and seeking revenge.

I started meditating to detect inner processes (emotions and feelings) that are almost always behind the scenes and invisible to consciousness.
You have to be incredibly strong internally to avoid falling into emotional traps.
But even then, constantly controlling yourself is extremely difficult.
There’s always a limit — and once I cross it, I lose control.

Poker is a very powerful game, and you must be just as strong on the inside if you want to climb upward.

My table selection is below level 1.
I don’t really know how to table-select.
Sometimes there isn’t even an opportunity to select — either all tables are full, or everything is empty, so I just play wherever there’s at least a seat available or at least some people to play with.

I even think you need to “select the rooms” (poker sites) too.
There are rooms where I simply cannot achieve anything long-term (Vbet).
I think I won’t play there anymore.

Can you explain to me in detail what criteria I should use to select tables?

hardongear · Dec 2, 2025

I really can't help with table selection cause as I said I take all comers and just sit wherever and on Pokerstars they recently changed it and don't give us a choice. Pokerstars just automatically sits us now we can't see every table anymore like it us to be. Fwiw thou I would try selecting a table where the players all have a high VPIP and a table that plays big pots. But again that's just me, for the stakes I play and I'm in for the challenge not the money. I just happen to be one of the better players at the stakes I play.

As I've also said I select based on what cuts variance to a min and puts the game more towards skill over bingo and flips. Most players now days play 6 max and fast games and MTT's with 5-8 min blind levels. I play mostly only full-ring and 10+ min blind level MTT's. Less variance and less bingo/flips.

Cheers!!!

Sos1l · Dec 3, 2025

Got it 👍

Search

Stability: how to learn to stay in profit?📈

Sos1l

Rock Star

hardongear

Legend

Sos1l

Rock Star

hardongear

Legend

Sos1l

Rock Star

hardongear

Legend

Sos1l

Rock Star

About CardsChat

Our Community

Our Site

Follow us