Why do I play like this?

[EzBoyZ]

This is so weird and I have no answers. I play low to medium level tournaments at PS and I tend to think I am a winning player. My stats at Sharkscope show me that I am at 10 times my initial buy in at PS. But the problem is for every 5-10 winning tournaments (over days) I have, I have an inevitable losing streak for more than 5 tournaments. The money I make when I win tournaments is enough to have a lot buffer for my losses but this is taking lot of real estate in my mind. I constantly think, why I play bad after winning few tournaments. Its definitely not the cards. I am getting good cards now and then but still make these very bad plays. I know what I am doing and it worries me this happens every damn time. What is this ? can any one help ?

Now after these losing sessions, I go back play my best poker and then win tournaments. I play with the right balance of tightness and aggression and that exact balance is missing later I feel. The timing is wrong, the hand selection is wrong, the betting patterns are wrong, the betting amounts are wrong…I feel like I lost it..

But I have always come out of this and did extremely well. But again that slacking is just around the corner… any answers?

[meisce]

I have no actual solution, but can tell you what works for me.

I have a history of doing the exact same thing. I put some of it down to variance, and the rest down to bad play, mainly brought on by overconfidence and a lack of respect for my opponents ( "he can't have the nuts" )...

As with you, my wins more than make up for my losses, but I do go on a run of losses and then runs of wins. After a run of wins I'll bust out of a tournament due to bad judgement on my part usually. This will lead on to a couple more bad plays, frustration kicking in that people are no longer handing me chips. I wouldn't quite call it Tilt - one or two poor decisions in a SnG are enough to do the damage. This is why I'll lose a few in a row.

I'll then put away the laptop in disgust for a day or two, read a book or a few articles on the forum and get the urge to play back. I'll immediately win a couple, and all is right with the world. I'll have been giving these SnGs my full attention.

Later I'll be back to playing while watching tv, back to my old mindset that poker owes me a living, and I can beat these guys with my eyes closed. The cycle will begin again shortly, either sparked by a bad beat or just a bad play ( "How could he call that bluff?!!").

Ego is my problem, and I'm fully aware of it. After a couple of losses I'll read my histories and come to 2plus2 to get my mojo back, and realise I still have a lot to learn.

Basically, I enjoy playing when I'm winning but I only win when I'm enjoying playing. Playing immediately after a couple of consecutive losses without taking some time out to think about what happened will lead to bad habits and further losses. Worse still, you won't enjoy it.

[omaha]

Q for easy boy. How many tourneys have you played, and what sort are they? ie sng, 45, 27 or 180 man tourneys?

There is a huge variance, particularly in what i play- the $6 mtts.

I kinda think that these are prolly full of fish, and i keep seeing really stupid plays, which ultimately provides enough dead money for an above average player to get ahead.

5 or 10 tourneys not cashing out is no big deal if you are playing a 4/180, particularly when you are happy to push small edges in order to get deep, with the inherant risk of busting out earlier.

I cant really comment about sng variance, since i have played close to zero of them!