Time for a break...

[Talking Poker]

For the tl;dr crowd - I've been running shitty lately, so I'm taking a break.

For everyone else:

I've been running bad lately... really, really, really bad. I've run bad before, but this is just ridiculous. It's weird - I go through periods where I'm breaking even or nothing much is happening, and then WHAM - I start missing every flop and taking sick beats over and over and so on. It's like they just pile up on me. That's not so bad when you have sessions where the deck is hitting you in the face and you can't lose, but when you are either losing a ton or winning a little, it gets ugly fast.

I've run so bad this month that I'm actually a loser for the year now - at one point, I was up about $13k. I understand that this is 80% variance and 20% me playing badly (I have to take SOME responsibility here) and that I'm not down tons of money or anything, but that's still pretty hard to stomach.

Tonight was just ridiculous. At one point, I felt myself not even care any more. I was definitely on tilt. Not super huge mega tilt or anything, but I wasn't play well. You know when you just KNOW that you are going to miss every hand or "find a way to lose with this one" and sure enough, there it is? You know how it feels when they fold everytime you bet and have a hand and check raise you every time you don't, and when you finally do get it all in as a big favorite and then - oh, right, of course, there's your miracle.

Anyway, I finally just stopped. I turned off the negativity and the tilt that often goes with it. And I kept playing. I won back about $2k of the $5k I had dropped (it was a pretty gross night), and then quit. The funny thing is, had I not lost just that ONE big two outer (QQ vs 77 all in on a 6 high (no straight draw) flop), I would have finished almost even for the day.

Anyway, it's time for me to take a break from poker for a while.... not a long break, and not one where I have to put up a bounty on my head or anything like that. I'm just not going to play for a while - at least a week, and maybe the rest of the month. Well, I'll play one more day for Iron Man purposes (gotta keep my status), but that might be it. And when I come back, I'm not sure where I'll start playing... same games/stakes/sites? I dunno. Maybe I'll play some HU donkaments like sjay. TBD. But I'll worry about that later.

I know this was a long, rambling post - sorry about that. But sometimes it helps to write this shit down, so shit write I will.

[Nikita]

GL TP, hopefully when you come back you kick some ass.

[Zybomb]

I've been having an awful MArch as well (well actually a horrible 4 out of my last 5 sessions) ....combination of running bad (missing every flop), getting sucked on, and then going on Tilt and playing bad.

My last 5 sessions have gone

-2350
-1080
+1200
-700
- 1600



So I feel you...

The most frustrating thing is that there r ppl with 1000+ dollars on the table just DYING to give it away (calling $500 all in on the flop after a 3 bet preflop with Ace 4 on a AQ8 board with 2 diamonds) (betting 800 into a 200 dollar pot with QJ on a AKx flop) etc yet I can never seem to get into a situation to benefit.

I do however get 86 on a 8s6s2d board and find myself up against 88 when all the money gets in on the flop

I also do manage to get all the money in on the flop with KK on a Q42 rainbow board and have 2 other players also get all the money in (with AQ and KQ respectively)... needless to say the ace comes on the turn

[Reel Deal]

I feel ya too TP. Last night for me was set running into rivered str8, boat losing to quads, KK losing to A8o (after I 3-bet preflop), every CB gets called and every second barrel was getting reraised (and one very badly misplayed hand w/99 v. KK). As opposed to taking a break though I've decided to forego cash games (maybe for a long time) and stick to 6-max SnGs where I seem to find consistent success and a lot less variance. Will also try some satties to some of the big Sunday tourneys.

Anyway, enjoy the break (good timing with March Madness going on).

[melioris]

Although I think I know what you are going through, enough men are feeling you in this thread so I will only commiserate. It is shit when you are running badly and time away is sometimes exactly the right thing to do.

I have been playing more over the past few months than ever before and days that I don’t run, I play like shit. So maybe find a good activity that clears your mind and makes you sweat and rough yourself up some (this space is a place holder for RD sex joke). Maybe this only works for me, but it does most definitely improves my game to exercise first. Seems like ain’t getting it done.

It will turn around.

[bunny]

(If you can call it that)...I limit myself to 1 or 2 tournaments, per day or 2, that is it.

I am not in the same money brackets as you are, but I know what it feels like.
Reason why I have not deposited into my newly opened FT account.

Other night, I sent sharkscope email to block my stats on their site. Upsetting to see the $ amount rising.


Bonne chance.

[Boobie Lover]

If it makes you feel better, .

[2Tone]

Time off never hurts. Here's hoping the break does you good, and you come back with vengeance.

[Talking Poker]

Don't be hating on the Trolls. It's not their fault. See, we've been working on the porch (I should post pics - it's impressive), and I put a bunch of lights on top of the pinball machine, so I'd make myself put the lights up before playing again, and, well, you get the picture.

[Talking Poker]

Hmmmm.... I'm not sure if this makes me feel better or worse. Obviously the games aren't any harder if you are continuing to kill them. You and I need t oget on AIM or Skype or something sometime and you critique my play. Yes, I'm running bad, but I think I must have a leak somewhere too.

BTW - you suck donkey balls at $.02 NL.

[Talking Poker]

That's the plan - thanks.

[de-coder]

I have a suggestion - when things start going bad for me, this is what I do (not just with poker either).

You have to review your history. When things start going bad we tend tend to change - sometimes in small ways that we don't even notice. With poker you have a big advantage with this PT thing.

Crawl back into the PT history to a time when you felt like you were playing really well. What you want to do is find situations similar to the ones giving you trouble today - see what you did differently back then.

Also, take an objective approach to analyzing your sessions - you have all the data... Treat it like you would if you were to study an opponent, look for weakness and strength. If you were going to play yourself to win what would you do? how would you play? what would you look for? Do that for the good and the bad times and compare the differences.

Luck is a funny thing. When we feel unlucky, we'll be unlucky - when you decide to play again make sure you're feeling good, it counts for something. Also, there was a thread here about the anti-poker legislation and many people were on the side of the argument that says poker is not a game of chance, but a game of skill - I believe that to be true. Luck can be a factor in the short term, but over the long haul, skill will ultimately prevail.

If you're running bad for a long time, something is probably wrong. If you need help fixing it I'm sure you'll have numerous volunteers amongst the crowd - I'm one.

[JDMcNugent7]

im gonna quit for awhile too.

[Zybomb]

elaboration...

[JDMcNugent7]

i have been playin horrible lately and doing barely better than breaking even the last 2 months.
i know i could still make alot of $ at this if i had time to concentrate or took it seriously again, but I'm just going to focus on college for awhile, and I'll get back into poker when I have more time.
I cashed out everything.

[Reel Deal]

Wow.

[MAYHEM45]

I thought you died.

[lightfungus]

Where are you playing again?

[Zybomb]

Several different "rooms" around my area

[Talking Poker]

So, I decided to test the waters tonight and played about 300 hands (mostly 2/4). Naturally, that cost me around $2300. It's actually just ridiculous. If anyone could have railed me tonight, they wouldn't even believe what they were seeing.

I was 0 for 3 with good ol' QQ, costing me almost $700 right there. One of them I played badly (I knew he had AA but didn't let it go), one I had to fold after getting check raise all in on an AT3 rainbow flop, and the other I ran into 88 - naturally, he made quads.

I had 13 hands where I lost a net of $100 or more and THREE where I won $100 or more. On one of those at the end of my session, I was ridiculously lucky enough to double up with a straight flush against an Ace high flush. I have no idea how that happened, as that's the only hand I can think of all night where I was "lucky." My dominated hands were crushed, my overpairs ran into sets, and my FINALLY flopped top set lost to a 2 outer to make a bigger set. Just sick, I tell you.

I know this sounds like a poor me rant, and maybe it is. But I'm seriously so sick of poker right now that I'm tempted to cash out every last dollar I have online and be done with it. This is the most frustrated I have ever been in my poker career.

Oh, and it's not just bad luck either. I'm npt playing terribly or anything, but I'm capable of playing much better than I am. And the piles and piles of beats are really making me start to question everything about my game. I seriously feel lost at the tables.

So, back to my break. I'm done for March. If I play in April, I'm going to have to play something new - limit, HU SNGs, MTTs, I don't even know what... but I'm done with 6 max cash games for a while.

[lightfungus]

After a similar experience of frustration with cash games, I found that MTT's renewed my love for poker. Just my experience though.

[Boobie Lover]

I played some $60 turbo SNGs recently. It reminded why I hate tournament poker. Long live cash games!

[kkirk1329]

im currently on a week break too, not that that means much to you guys but just to prove to the madre that i dont have a problem lol

[herschelw]

I find that learning how to run bad is one of the huge keys to being a long term winning poker players. It's the players who run bad and can keep it together nearly 90% of the time or more that can be big winners over the long term. I have found for me that changing the type of poker I am playing makes a huge difference. I was up 6k for Jan, 6k for Feb and then started march down 10k(All rough estimates). I switched from mtt's to sng's for a few days and then came back to playing more mtt's this past sunday and since have a 3k win on ftp and a WSOP ME seat(won on stars) in the bag for this week. I play mostly mtt's and playing mtt's full time means you have to expect that you will lose much more than you win and that you may have one to two month stretches of very bad runs. When I start to run horribly I switch to sng's or 5/10 stud cash games for a day or two and then switch back to mtt's. I also try playing more on sites that have very weak players(i.e.... bodog). I do switch to a very TAG game on those sites because that is what works there. To sum that all up I feel that most of the time during extended bad streaks 30% or more may be our fault and most of the time for players who were previously consistent winners all it takes it a change of scenery to get back to your winning ways. Just my thoughts. Take it or leave it.

[herschelw]

The $60 one table sng's on stars are some of the toughest sng's around right now. Definitly a good number of pros or semipros in almost every one that goes off. Try the two table $60 sng's. Full of fish.