Somebody Help Me!

It's been a long time since I've posted here and in that time i've found quite a bit of poker success, or at least enough poker success to consider myself a successful poker player.


I started playing poker online 7 years ago and like most people I wasn't very good. As time progressed I started to become a profitable online poker player. I've never really won the money I feel I could win, as I've never really given myself the chance. I tend to deposit a small amount of money, build it up to a decent amount of money and cash it all out to buy some kind of toy, or go on some kind of vacation. After cashing out I usually take a break from poker and come back a little rusty only to rinse wash and repeat.

A year and a half ago I deposited 40 dollar into absolute poker and turned into just under 5k. I cashed that money out and decided that I was going to give it my best shot playing live. I traveled around the country going to various casinos it's safe to say that I've been to almost all of them. After spending an ungoldy amount of money on gas/hotels/food and various other things I arravived home with slightly more money than I had left with. I considered this to be a success.

During a brief stop in a location that doesn't have a casino handy I met a girl and we are now together. She is one of those real person types, with a real person job (one that pays more than I would make playing poker) so her following me is out of the question. Beside I can always just jump back into the world of online poker, I've always liked online tournaments more than real life tournaments anyhow.

Unfortunatly it hasn't been that easy. The problem isn't with my game play, or at least not entirely. There are many real life skills that can make the difference between a winning session and a lossing session, that I can no longer rely on. Another problem I've run into that never really happened to me in real life play is TILT. I'm not sure why I don't tilt in real life, it may be because I see fewer hands, it may be because I'd be embarrassed if I were caught tilting in public, and it may be because I don't lose in bizzare ways in real life like I do online.

I find real life play to be far more entertaining, I love actually handling cards and chips, and I really love being able to instantly cash out. Not being able to jump around to various tables or to play more than one table at a time is also something that has really helped me become a profitable live player. I am having a hard time controling myself online. I am playing out of my limits, I'm making BAD calls that I know are bad before I even make them but for some reason I am making them anyway.

Thankfuly i've been playing for small stakes and havn't really hurt myself financialy. I'm down around $250 dollars in the past 30 days and with each deposit i've brought myself into the positives only to lose it while foolishly playing outside of my limits.

Has anyone here ever had the same problems with online play? Is there hope for me to transition back from a live player to an online player? Any advice or recomendations? I don't care if it's drink more orange juice, become a buddist monk, or to wear my underwear insideout, I'm open to anything.


Thank you.