Re: Stud variance :(
Although I suppose this entire thread ought to be in the BBV forum, I can understand why you would post it here inasmuch as it is only this relatively small community of stud players that is going to have any real sense of what you (and I and others) are going through when the inevitable massive stud variance downswing occurs.
I'm not going to pretend that I have any sure-fire solutions or profound advice that is going to reverse your slump. The suggestions that have already been provided by others in this thread all have merit. What I can offer you is some reassurance that you are not alone. Here is my testemonial.
In the wake of the UIGEA, I was forced to find a new poker site to play at. I previously had played predominantly at two Cryptologic sites for the previous 14 months and had been consistently successful at both, registering winning months 10 out of 14 at one of the sites and 12 out of 14 at the other. But with the UIGEA being enacted, I began playing at FullTilt Poker on October 10th. About 80% of my play since then has been in stud games either double-tabling 1/2, or single-tabling 3/6 or 5/10. For the 21 days in October I played, I won a little over $500. In Novemeber, I won a little over $600. In December, I won just under $1000. During the first 28 days of January, I won about $650. Then the marathon of bad-beats, suckouts, etc. by all of those fish, donkeys, maniacs and morons who I had been pummeling for four months began. Between January 29th and February 10th I lost about $800. Since then, I seem to have stopped hemorrhaging chips and have had a couple of small winning sessions.
My point is that even poker players who have a consistently winning track-record experience slumps. You can't avoid them. The hard part is minimizing them, i.e., being able to exercise enough self-control that you keep from losing even more. In other words, when things are going bad in a session figure out a way to be satisfied that you only lost half of a buy-in instead of losing two or three. Believe me, this is easier said than done, as I'm still trying to instill this amount of discipline in my own game.
Good luck with surviving your slump.
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