Not much poker

I've played about 4 live tournaments in the last 3 weeks and did not cash in any of them losing each time getting it all in with the best hand somewhat close to the money. I have lost set over set (when I had the set on the flop v overpair), overpair v underpair (where he spiked a set on the river), same hand v same hand all in preflop (where he made the flush) etc. A tale of woe and bad beat stories. Now 1 theory goes if I had build up a big chip stack earlier in the tourney I could have survived the all-ins - this is not really true as I did build big chip stacks but close to the money you have to gamble when you hit those big hands - just sucks that I lost all the flips.

Now each time I busted a tourney I went on the cash tables. Whereas previously my cash game has been inconsistent sometimes winning large amounts and sometimes losing large amounts the last few weeks have found consistency - I just lose. Again often with big hands - the last flip was all-in preflop 3 way with aces and one of the guys (a gambler) shows J-3 and kills me on a K23T3 board. I tried fighting back - playing tight in early position and looser in late position, trying to play connectors to bust a big pair etc. but was mostly card-dead and/or missing flops.

So I keep asking myself the question - how much is luck a part of this game. I cannot keep going to the casino and losing money. Maybe I'm just now a good enough player. I console myself saying that I got the money in good most times and lost a flip and eventually the percentages will kick in and I will win a bunch of flips when my hand holds up. Of course, maybe thats not true -I might be playing against better players who are always going to win my chips.

Is poker gambling. It sometimes hurts when friends ask how the "gambling is going" and I stress to them I am playing poker - a game of skill. But the last few weeks feel like I am gambling in a game of cards where skill can be easily overcome by luck.

Right now I am considering quitting poker as a full time role as I cannot make enough money playing small tournaments and cash games to make it more lucrative than the computer consulting I used to do. Even though there are people out there making 50k per month playing poker I cannot seem to crack that nut. I have some ideas on why not - I will save them for another post.