Giving up on $5 NL

My attempt at the no limit hold'em cash game has come to an unsuccessful end for now. I am unable to beat $5 NL. At this point over 3300 hands in I'm down over 5 buyins for a rate of -7.8 BB/100.

I'm kind of at a loss to explain it. There are certainly many bad players and it seems beatable but I can't beat it. It's probably a combination of running bad and playing bad. Whatever it is, I'm cutting my losses and quitting it.

I think I need a Harrington intervention for my NL cash game. When I started out in real money tournaments I didn't really have a clue and I was unsuccessful. After reading the Harrington tournament books I started winning at tournaments. Harrington has a cash game series of books coming out this year so I probably should read them carefully before returning to NL cash.

So that leaves me playing the 2 table $6.50 turbo sit n' go, where I've been running well. Also I've been playing sub $5 MTTs at around break even with some cashes. I did seem to get better tournament results while I was playing NL cash. So maybe it did help a bit there.

Sometimes a cash game is good for when I don't feel like playing in a tournament or for short sessions where there isn't quite enough time for a tourney. Plus a good cash game can be profitable and that's always good.

I just finished reading Theory of Poker and for some reason that makes me want to go back to limit hold'em. So I'm looking forward to returning to limit. Although I'm bankrolled for $0.50/$1 LHE, I'll start out at $0.25/$0.50 on my return after finishing ToP. I lost playing $0.50/$1 after running well at $0.25/$0.50 full ring so I'll start out at a level I've been successful at in the past. The tables still look pretty good there and if I can run a fraction as well as I did there in the past it will be good.

I may return to NL cash at some point in the future. It won't be $5 NL though. I'm bankrolled to play higher so if I return it will be $10 NL or higher.