More pain from your own poor play or bad beats?

[CptnObvius]

A few months ago I felt that I had a lot of holes in my game. I finally convinced myself to start respecting the great game of THNL and really assess what I was doing wrong and what I could do to correct it and become a consistent winner.

I read as many books, posts, threads as I could and tried to implement various recommended strategies. I was willing to lose a little to test out the various theories and indeed i did. Some of the plays I attempted got me into situations I was clearly not ready for and I was punished accordingly.

I did however, at the end of the experience, and despite feeling like I wanted to quit as I was completely emotionally drained, feel that my knowledge and skills were greatly advanced. After a short break and feeling refreshed I decided I would give it another go. Since that point I have played better than I ever had before and feel very confident that I am on the right path now despite not yet attaining the forever elusive perfection that haunts us all.

Recently however, despite my play being optimal in all but a small few situations which have not resulted in significant losses, my bankroll has been devastated.

My quandry is that I'm not quite sure how to feel about it. I am clearly playing well yet not munching on the fruit that good play should eventually bear.

When I play poorly I find it depressing as I basically have to admit that the people I am playing against are in fact, simply better players than me. This concept of ego getting in the way has been a problem for many I'm sure.

My question after all of this, is what hurts you more emotionally, losing $$$ through your own bad play or consistently losing $$$ when playing optimally?

[Humble Pie]

If indeed you're playing optimally (which I doubt) there's no reason to be upset. Varience is an intergral part of poker.

[tuckercat]

i think you have to seriously reconsider what exactly playing optimally means?? i think it's way to broad of a term to define because optimal play varies depending on opponents and game conditions. i think if you are playing well and take some bad beats, part of being a successful poker player is understanding that variance will rear it's ugly head, and moving on from that. as far as what causes more pain, it's definitely way more painful when i play well and get doom switched than when i just play poorly. it sucks when the fish hit 3 and 4 outers all day on you. but again, a massive part of online success if conquering the mental consequences of said situations. take the beat, suck it up and move on.

[sweeng8]

Varience is a sick part of the game. nothing worse than reading all the books, learning the theory, training your brain to do whats right, then giving money to donks who outdraw you time and time again. The correct answer i guess is that your own poor play should hurt more, as it is in your hands. getting sucked out you cant effect no matter how good you are.
This said, if you are learning from the people who are beating you then consider it a learning curve. there is nothing wrong in getting beat by better players, but there is something wrong in not learning from it.
Personally, i think bad beats hurt most if prolonged.My problem is that my learning curve has stopped, though im not making the step up. I regularly beat 1/2, but as I move higher i feel i dont have an edge anymore, but im stuck as regards what im not doing that I should be doing, or vice versa. If you are really sure you are playing well and getting unlucky then just keep playing well, but have a look at your hands and post them here. get other perspectives on how you may have played a hand

[Colima420]

Definitely my own bad play brings me more pain than bad beats do.

My bad play makes me feel pain even if I won in the specific session. I may walk out a winner, but I realize that I played terrible and I feel dissapointed.

On the other hand, if I play optimally and I lose because of bad beats, I walk away satisfied, knowing that I played it right and that variance was present.

Interesting post by the way.

Colima420

[mce86]

Definitely my own bad play. Beats come and go, but when I am messing up either because I'm losing, tired, or whatever..it hurts alot more!! Then, if you go on Monkey Tilt...oh, the next day when you are reviewing your plays..dear lord that hurts. Knowing it may take you two days, a week, or a month to recover the damage you did to yourself...the agony!

[CrazyLond]

I think bad beats hurt more. When I make mistakes, I can learn from them. It is a lot less frustrating when I know it was my own mistakes and that, with time, I will make less of them.

[Learning]

I'm on the "bad play" side of the fence.

I know that beats will happen, and the fact that I took a bad beat means I was playing well. This alone is reason to be at least neutral about a beat when it happens. I hate it when I make a bad call when I know I'm beat, bluff a calling station, or make poor plays in general.

Every time I finish a session I look through the hands I played and find anything I misplayed for >10bb. I add up all those small incidents and add it to my net for the day. That figure is the amount I would have won if I played optimally, which is my goal, and it helps me think about every action I make in every hand. $$$

[killphilNI]

Losing $$$ through bad play hurts a lot more, especially if I've been playing on tilt or tired or hungry or something.

Goos- I would highly recommend going through the hand histories of your big losing pots after a session. I usually don't feel too bad if I see that there's nothing I could have done about a particular hand, and if I have played badly it allows me to think about why I did it and how to improve.

[DMC0627]

I feel worse when I play badly than when I take a bad beat. The upside is that I do try to learn from my mistakes. So far, I have made quite a few. I guess this means I am learning quite a bit though? [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]