On Running Bad - One Player's Perspective

[DonT77]

I haven’t posted in a while or even read the board lately because I’ve been running so badly lately that I had to basically quit the game for a while to save my sanity. One bad beat after another, couldn’t get in the money, then once in the money – I’d suffer a worse beat, or I’d lose top 2 pair to bottom set, etc. over and over again – you know what I’m talking about. After a while it got to the point where I KNEW when the cards were turned over ATF that I was going to lose to my opponent’s 2-out, 3-out, 4-out, or 5-out draw. IMO, when you KNOW you are going to lose, even if you are playing well, it is time for a break.

Every week or so I’d go back and play for a while to see if my luck had changed and it was as if the poker gods were saying “Get Out!” to me in a sort of demonic way. Opponents were either hitting long-shot draws or flopping monsters to my mini-monsters (e.g. set over set) in every key hand it seemed, until finally I couldn’t stand it anymore and had to take more time off. And yes, bad streaks can affect the quality of your play too. (Another observation - who feels like they have any good advice to share with the board when they are losing their a$$ every time they play? It is very hard to not let results affect your ego, your mood, or your self-image – even though we know that is what we must do.)

Eventually I got caught up on some of the poker reading that I had put aside as I tend to not study as much when I’m running well (who has time for studying when you’re running well?!). Then I reviewed some of my old reading notes and I found that I had forgotten a lot of what I wrote down months or years ago. And then a funny thing happened – I started to win the hands that I should win, and even coin-flips became a 50/50 proposition again. Then I won a 300-player MTT on UB where I never had to put my whole stack at risk until we were 3-handed at the FT. A week later after that I won an 800-player MTT on FullTilt where I won 3 coin-flips and won 5 times when I had my opponent dominated (70/30 or better). My confidence (and luck) came back and I felt like I was playing as well as ever again.

I know that running bad and how to deal with it has been discussed here a lot before, but up until recently I never had an extended bad streak that was long enough to really understand how I would deal with it (and some would say that a 2-3 month bad steak is nothing). I thought I’d share my thoughts & experience on this - in case it would help anybody else, and also because writing about this will hopefully help me to deal with my negative variances better in the future.

[Exitonly]

i just went through the same thing, December was my first down month (-3k) since i startted playing "seriously". I didn't react well, and started playing poorly, and now i'm just starting to play again after a few weeks off (with a few games tossed in the middle).

it's kind of amazing how much a bad attitude can affect your results. (and vice versa)

[JCCARL]

Congrts on winning the two tournaments recently...
When I run bad, I take it as a sign (like yourself it seems) that it's time to catch up on some reading.
When bad beats happen, just remind yourself that you got all your chips in with the best hand and as a huge favorite.
Regards,
Carl

[GT123]

I started playing MTT more regularely in mid OCT 2005, and had a great start. Then the bad streak came in mid DEC and still has not ended yet. I took a 2 day break and played an 180 man sit n go today and came in 14th after being crippled when my Aces lost to KQo all in before the flop when a K hit the turn and a Q on the river, I was 3rd in chips at the time. Despite the beat, I felt great about the way I played, and I know this is the nature of MTT tournaments. I am going to keep playing my best, and I know eventually this cold streak will end. I'm actually happy I was able to cash, although a small one.

[FGators]

I've been playing a lot more 20 and 30 dollar tournies lately and going out on the bubble. It frustrates me because I'm obviously at the skill level to play with most of the people from reading here and playing a ton of hands over the last few years. I just want to wait for my one big day when I finally crack through and win one of these. Your post gave me some initiative to keep fighting through. When I lose a hundred or more in a day it actually hits me, whereas I know it hits some of you guys to lose a couple thousand a day.

[nath]

I try to take a break when I notice these things happening because it affects my frame of mind and my play.
Usually the longer break I take the better I do when I return. Maybe I'm giving my luck a rest or something.
I took a couple days off and played again last night. I still got sucker-punched by luck.
I feel my game is good right now, is the worst part. Obviously it has leaks but I was making really good calls I normally wouldn't have the courage to, and I had tightened up my game, especially in early position.
I'm not really sure what to do about it. Take a break if it affects you mentally, because it's not worth it. My problem is that I have little else I can do with my time while I'm in recovery. I've been asking people to send me books, but until they get here
Of course, a serious player would never play poker just to pass the time, and I do my best as far as I can tell. Obviously it's not always my best. As usual, during a bad streak serious self-evaluation is required.

[DonT77]

Thanks for the reply Carl and others.

I know and I agree that is how we are 'supposed to think', but it is of little consolation when we've poured ourselves into a tourney for several hours, feel like we're playing pretty well and then lose all of our chips as a 4:1 favorite - especially if this cycle repeats itself over a period of time.

I know better than to be results oriented when it comes to poker, but it is hard to not let consistently losing get into your head. Aside from taking time off and/or playing smaller stakes I don't know how to deal with it. I'm glad that I'm not a full-time pro, because if I depended on poker for my sole income I don't know how I could force myself to play poker everyday during a losing streak. Sometimes you can play your way out of it, but most times it seems to only get worse and then you end up digging yourself a hole that is hard to get out of - and then it really plays with your head.

In short - it is tough to keep your head straight during long losing streaks, even though you know that is what you must do.

[nath]

[ QUOTE ]
I know and I agree that is how we are 'supposed to think', but it is of little consolation when we've poured ourselves into a tourney for several hours, feel like we're playing pretty well and then lose all of our chips as a 4:1 favorite - especially if this cycle repeats itself over a period of time.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's not the 4:1 suckouts that kill you psychologically, it's when they keep happening in big pots late in the tournament...

[DonT77]

so true