Inability to win

[nineinchal]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't think you understand... when I say nothing goes right I mean getting outdrawn no matter how big of a favorite I am for 8 hours ++ while 10-12 tabling. I understand negative variance and positive variance... but it seems I am the victim of never-ending negative variance. Im constantly getting beat by people who obviously have no clue how to play (limping 95 sooooted UTG, A4 OS UTG, etc). Its just so frustrating knowing that you're losing to complete idiots.

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It happens. It will happen a lot more.

[e_phemeral]

I have similar experiences over the last several months. It's as if I have to play my absolute best poker and get a little lucky just to be essentially break even or turn slight profit. But then I get coolered or sucked out and its "bye bye profit," now I'm losing. And I am a total tilt monkey. I just cannot control it. It doesn't matter if I get coolered or sucked out by a moron, the result is the same - after enough of it, I start spewing.

I absolutely hate online cash games and have come to the conclusion that I simply do not have the personality necessary to win at them consistently. It is such a grind. I think that there are too many good/decent players out there these days. Everyone is fighting to stack the fish. In the process, you end up in hands with good/decent players, who don't pay you off and who sometimes outplay you. Eventually, you get cooled in some sick fashion by one of the good players or the fish sucks out on you. It is so much harder to win these days. You have to spend 90% of your time worrying about losing your stack, instead of trying to stack the fish. It's absolutely not fun.

For these reasons, I have concluded that it is better to spend my time playing tournaments online, rather than cash games. Sure, theoretically the variance is higher and you are still competing against good/decent players. But the risk/reward is so much better. I'd rather get lucky in a tournament and score a huge cash (in comparison to the buyin), then grind a cash game for a small ROI. F*ck it. I am done with online cash games. Hello online MTTs.

One question: I've been playing mostly on Absolute for the last couple of months. Anyone else fed up with Absolute? Are there other sites that are more fishy? I went to Absolute for the rakeback but I'm coming to the conclusion that it's not worth it if I have to play at tables where 80% of the other players are as good or better than me. I need horrible players. WHERE ARE THEY?

[GoodOL]

Craggoo....let me assure you that you are not alone. IMO, you are experiencing what stops many players from succeeding. It is so maddening (try experiencing it for a year or more) that it takes complete, almost inhuman, indifference to overcome. I think these runs cause some to go into a permanent, subtle tilt...you have to just say "oh well" and keep playing better than your opponents.

As a sanity check, you might want to keep track of EVERY showdown (I'm thinking in terms off all-ins preflop in SnGs)...and do a statistical analysis to see if it is really that bad. Our emotions can cloud what is really happening.

[GoodOL]

[ QUOTE ]
One question: I've been playing mostly on Absolute for the last couple of months. Anyone else fed up with Absolute? Are there other sites that are more fishy? I went to Absolute for the rakeback but I'm coming to the conclusion that it's not worth it if I have to play at tables where 80% of the other players are as good or better than me. I need horrible players. WHERE ARE THEY?

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Absolute has a lot of propositional players getting 100% rakeback. Most of these players are not fish and some of them are very good.

[Stake Monster]

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It seems that the last month + im going through a stretch where I'll have a day where everything goes right. I win my flips, my good hands hold up in the 70/30 or better situations. Basically, everything is rolling along smoothly. This happens for one day and ONE day only then i proceed to get sucked out on or run into coolers non-stop for the next 2-3 days afterwards. Has anyone else experienced something like this recently? I don't consider taking time off to be an option... time off doesn't change the fact of constantly running into coolers.

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I'm in that period right now, and it IS maddening. All I can say is that keep putting your money in as a favorite and you will win in the long run, even if that long run kills you first. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[e_phemeral]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
One question: I've been playing mostly on Absolute for the last couple of months. Anyone else fed up with Absolute? Are there other sites that are more fishy? I went to Absolute for the rakeback but I'm coming to the conclusion that it's not worth it if I have to play at tables where 80% of the other players are as good or better than me. I need horrible players. WHERE ARE THEY?

[/ QUOTE ]

Absolute has a lot of propositional players getting 100% rakeback. Most of these players are not fish and some of them are very good.

[/ QUOTE ]

This may be stupid question, but what does the site gain by having "proposition players" who get 100% rakeback? I have basically decided that I wont be playing at Absolute anymore because the games are too tough. Tough enough to even make the rakeback that I was getting not worth it. It seems to me that sites that want to stay in business should be trying to make themselves attractive to new players/fish. Stocking the pond with sharks and giving the sharks incentive to be even more tight and more aggressive by giving them 100% rakeback does not sound like sound business planning to me. What am I missing?

[Split Suit]

im in this lull ATM also. it seems that for every 1 day i get to run well, i get slammed with 3-4 days of pure ass slamming. I aggreee that a break isnt the best idea for out runnin variance...but u dont take a break for that reason, u take a break to let ur head cool down.

I actually started to notice a change in my play after i dropped my 7th BI yesterday. This is when i knew it was time to take a break (the change of play wasnt bad...but it wasnt sumtin i was comfortable with. i was playyin a lil too weak/tight). Just remember, if u are better than the opposition, u will win in the LR. just sucks that the LR cant come soon enuff sometimes.

grind it out...it has to stop eventually (right?)

also, when one game gets rly bad (like 506 on FTP), then go play PLO/8 or something. or go play 506 on another site...just keep moving and playyin...and stay off the tilt

[Shizzle12345]

i had this last week, played alot and basicly break even. I sit at a table because of one special fish and he keeps sucking out on me.

[Ocho]

It’s called variance. If you’re only experiencing swings every 3 days or so, you’re either 1) playing a very stable game, or 2) not noticing the larger swings.

These swings you are describing happen on a much larger scale. Regular players can go not only days, but weeks, or even months on a bad swing.

Some players deal with variance by keeping precise logs of every session, some use lucky socks, and some turn to the bottle. Everyone has something to get them through the low-variance periods. The best poker players are those that find healthy ways to manage the swings.

[DWarrior]

Here's food for thought: perhaps you are not as good as you think you are?