I started playing Poker seriously since this June starting in NL2 by depositing 50$. After playing for some months nearly 200k hands I had a very small winrate (1bb). One of the things that killed my winrate was how bad I played when I was tilting( like bad big calls.) I wanted to become a very big player so I started reading about GTO strategies. I knew that these things aren't applicable to Micros and in Micros you should play in an exploitable way but I was interested in GTO so I couldn't say no (books I've read were Poker's 1%, most parts of Applications of NL by Mattew Janda, I started analyzing hands as well the way it was in Poker's 1%, analyzed nearly 50 hands most ending at the Turn and in general I was searching for GTO in forums etc.). I thought that trying to study GTO strategies might do bad for the stakes I am playing but I said to myself I am not going to apply these things so why worry? When at NL5 and having some unsuccesful shots at NL10 I decided to stop viewing my each day's results because I didn't like losing and this made me tilt and so blowing the money I was making. I saw my results after more than a month, it was 65k hands. At that time I tilted very rarely so this thing worked. I was at -3.5bb or -4bb. This made me lose any confidence for my strategy. I've run some calculations at variance calculator and for a 4-5 bb winrate this is very difficult to happen. After this I continued playing for some more days and took a break, it's 5 days today since that day. The stress of this failure had become very big. I've had thoughts like "Hey you started at June and it's almost a year and you are still here. You are not a good player". My lack of confidence was reinforced by the fact that most of the money I made (I've reached at one point at 350$) were from tournaments. I was playing some times for fun some mtts and won 1 and also a sng. From these 2 tournaments most of my money had been made. At NL2 at a sample of nearly 200k hands I had winrate of 1bb and at NL5 after these last 65k hands have been added my winrate was negative(150k hands in total at NL5). My winrate especially in NL2 would be bigger if I was not tilting. In these 65k hands I am talking about the GTO I was studying become to influence me. I started cbetting less, trying to play optimally at cbet pots in the flop. Another thing was that I increased my 3betting percentage at the blinds, 3betting hands I've read at Janda's Applications of NL Holdem. Hands like K4s, K5s, J7s, this may killed my winrate since I may not played them well postflop. Also I 3barreled some times since it's correct in theory and regs ain't gonna call you with a bluff catcher, I've got though some calls with bluff catchers from some people lol. And since I noticed that when rasing postflop people fold too much, I took advantage of it. Anyway I have got very confused with Poker. I don't know what strategy to use for micros. I'd be very thankful if someone could give me some help and tell me what expoitative plays should I make in general, I know some things like cbetting a lot and I believe that not doing this was the main thing that killed my winrate in my last 65k hands and also I know other things we should apply at micros like not bluff catching at 3barrels or postflop raised pots etc. I am asking mostly for the small details. I could analyze my strategy more but since I've written a lot I leave it here. I'll post some hand examples I am not sure what strategy to use if anyone replys. Thanks.