Advice needed from all you small stakes grinders (PLEASE).

[Oki-Oki]

Time off (atleast a week) then when you come back make sure that you really want to play. Dont just play because you are bored and nothing else to do. Realise that after a break you are prop not going to be playing great and its going to take between 5 and 10k hands to really get back into it. Atleast thats what ive always found.

[ValarMorghulis]

I just saw this post from lefort (from a BBV thread about HEK) and think it's true and could apply here.
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Nice post... but dude, you`ve been around long enough that you should know that variance is so huge. You obviously ran hot back in the day, then ran awfully for a while, and now are running well again. Dont get lost in the swings and tell yourself youre playing "your best", "much better", or "horribly". Ive never understood how players who have played so many hands can do this... I mean you generally apply the same knowledge every time you play. Unless you are on monkey tilt, you are generally always playing your "best".. if you make a "big call" where quite often you will be wrong, and you are right, you are "playing great".. but when you are wrong, you are "playing bad, on tilt, etc.." Just accept the fact that poker involves a ton of frequencies and short-term luck.. atleast thats how I see it..


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Variance is way bigger than people think/want to believe. When you're running well you think you are playing well and when you run badly you think you must be playing badly.

So, take your beats like a man, use bankroll management and keep evaluating your play. Downswings tend to focus the mind, you want to make sure very dollar spent is well spent. Was that cbet +EV?/Could I have gotten more value from that set? etc. If you do this, you should come out the other end a better player.

[bi11 frist]

i had a similar situation to this. the thing that helped me the most was watching the vids in the sticky here. they reminded me that solid ABC poker is the way to win at small stakes. now i watch a vid before every session and it REALLY helps me get in the right mindset.