Downswing caused by me......

[feltman]

I have been playing 2/5 NL at an AC B&M on a weekly basis for approximately the past 18 months. Somewhere around 12-30 hours per week on average. I have recently mixed in some 5/10 NL sessions. Before this I played home games but never Holdem and never consistently for 20+ years.

First 12 months I had wild swings from session to session and learned my donkey lessons the hard way. Read Sklansky, McKenna, Caro, Harrington and several others. Started reading message boards also like here. I lost approximately $6,000 during this time.

At this point I was tetering on quiting, but I decided to be honest with myself and analyzed my game and tried to identify my worst leaks. There were many, most were basic yet they were major hemmorages.

The past 6 months since the correction have been promising. I have made app. $19,000 during this period. Mainly losing to bad beats, still bad play in there but farther and fewer between. Learning never stops in this game it seams.

Then I ran into my last two sessions. I ran into, what seemed to me, too many sets to go against my big pairs. I would bet what seemed like good flops only to be smooth called or reraised. And when I would hit a set, I would be against a flush or straight.

My problem is not with the severe variance I was experiencing, I had experienced bad cards and bad sessions before, but my bad play when in these situations when I knew better. During a typical session these situations usually stand out to me and I can back off. During these two sessions I couldn't believe it was happening as much as it was, but I was believing my opponents less and less as it went on. I tried switching seats, tables and games.

So I quit late saturday and have been recontructing each one of the hands since. I lost $4,300 between the two sessions.

My lessons learned are: If the play is obvious from your opponent respect it, fold if your beat, and live to play another hand. There is no way these were bluffs and I knew it, some just from the player I was up against. No matter how many times it is happening to you during a session, there are bets, plays and players you have to respect.

My question to everyone here is: How does one A: identify that they are not playing there best during a particular session? and B: How do you extract yourself from the situation before it gets too costly?

I didn't realize my bad play until my drive home and started thinking through the hands.

[Jamougha]

Experience.