Taking a break

[MAYHEM45]

Had my worst night of poker ever last nite. 2 weeks ago, I was crushing 400NL and thinking I was God's gift to poker, ever since last week, I havent been able to put anything together, and I'm just punting my bankroll out the window. I've never gone a month without poker, but thats what I am gonna do now. Wish me luck.

[Akverno]

Gl, hopefully you come back fresh and ready to kick ass.

[GTDawg]

Granted, I don't know how bad you're running...but is cold turkey the way to go? I mean, take some time off...get in to some other hobbies that you may have been neglecting. Go outside and get some fresh air since summer is on its way.

Cut back on time playing, maybe even levels or something. I dunno how well just dropping it like a brick for a month would work.

Then again, if you come back and start crushing like JD did..well, then I think you guys may have found something.

[bunny]

Good Luck.

[Talking Poker]

I'm a fan of the month without poker thing. You know this. GL to you though.

Hopefully you'll stick around here in the mean time... Nothing wrong with "studying" during your hiatus. Do lots of reading...

[Zybomb]

I personally think you have to play through your cold streaks. I've been running cold as hell lately

I started off the year pretty bad, going -1550 in the hole after my first 4 sessions (all losers)

I then won 6 straight (1 nice win and the rest small ones) to get to +615

I then lost 4 in a row, but won 3 of the next 4, which left me at +235 in the middle of Feb.... wow I was doing so much better last year.

I then won 5 straight including a few big ones and 7 of the next 8 total, which got me up to +4250

Then came the real bad streak.

I lost 7 of the next 8 sessions (my one win was $1700 at least) leaving me all the way back down to +1195

I just recently won a huge session ($2120), won my next small (170) and then last night I played quite possibly the best poker of my life, but lost 600, a flush draw called all his chips on the flop and hit, another time I had JsTs and the flop came T high with 2 spades, Bet, raised, he moves in Im committed anyway no spade comes, and I was up against a set.. But I made 2 SICK calls on 'feel', and an incredible laydown which left the whole table gasping -- the bettor was nice enough to flash his cards and show me I made the right decision

Im at +2880 right now -- simply because I seem to be playing extremely streaky and everytime I start stringing together good sessions I get ice cold for a week. (this is not including online play, this is live play only)

To say so myself Im kind of disappointed in the first 1/4 of the year for myself and I am still grinding out of a cold streak right now (I've still lost 8 of my last 1 sessions, although 2 of the last 3 have been winners...hopefully I start a hot streak.

I think you just need to remain confident and grind out of the cold streaks...

[MAYHEM45]

Screenshot of last nite for Pshabi. Yes, thats *7* buyins.

EDIT: well its not working now, but you guys can do the math. Dropping that much in one night is not good for the psyche.

[johnp158]

Funny I should log in and read this. I just got done withdrawing all of my bankroll into neteller (not actually withdrawing; that wouldn't be too rational) because I have 1 1/2 months until I graduate college and have been playing too much lately. I lost 45 big bets in about 30 minutes last night when I could have been studying, and it was just frustrating. Nothing bankroll-threatening by any means, but I just don't see much reason to be playing poker right now when I'm taking the GRE (trying to make use of my B.S. in psychology ) in 2 weeks and just trying to enjoy my last weeks of college. I do plan on hitting it pretty hard when summer gets here and I don't have a job for the 2 months before I got study in Mexico for a while.

And to address Zybomb, I think I disagree with the comment about needing to play through your bad streaks. I'm not saying that you shouldn't, but if you personally just need a break, you definitely should take it. If you're becoming really frustrated by the game to the point where your play is affected, or to the point where your outside life is negatively affected, there's no reason not to take a break for a while.

I've found myself thinking about poker a lot lately when I should have been focusing on other things. I don't think I have a problem, as I took January off without poker even entering my mind. However, since I know I should be spending my time in other ways, I'm going to try to play very little or not at all in the next month. Cold turkey is probably easier than just a reduction for many people, including myself.

[Talking Poker]

7 buy ins.... that's imporessive.

Were you playing badly? Bad beats? Big second best hands? A combination of the three?

[bdawg31]

If i were to take off this long - there is no way i could visit this site, watch it on tv, etc. That would give me the itch to jump back in - i would read about someone on a hot streak, see stories of hand histories vs bad players, or find any of a dozen other reasons to talk myself into playing again.

If i am taking a weekend off, i can still watch it on tv, read this site, etc. But, i know if i were to take off a month or so - i would have to totally distance myself from it.

[Talking Poker]

Some people have more will power than that.

In all honesty, it sounds like you may be on the edge of that whole "gambling problem" category, based on what you just said.

[PShabi]

Damn!

The last thing I heard from you on AIM last night was, "Gotta love poker" and it was in a positive context.

I must've missed some heavy, debankrolling action. Most of us have been there and if we haven't, we'll visit some day soon.

Good luck man. But personally, I bet your playing by the weekend.