Getting very frustrated in the 20+2's

[BHold]

Over the last two weeks I have placed OOTM in 47 of my last 63 20$ STT's at party. I've been playing for about 2 months and through the 10's and 20's I built by bankroll from 100 up to 880. I like to think that I play very sound poker, I play by all of the guidelines outlined here and generally get my money in with the advantage a vast majority of the time.

However these last two weeks have destroyed me. It seems every tourney I enter I get a rediculous bad beat. I play relatively tight early but do play agressive with premium hands. My trouble is once the blinds start getting larger and I'm in all-in or fold mode I just seem to get beat horribly every time. Often times I have a better ace or a higher PP so I should win 70-80% of the time, but lately its been the opposite, winning 20-30% of the times. My coinflip situations are a lost cause as well, I'm beat on them what seems to be much more often than 50% of the time.

I've now lost more than half of my bankroll and I'm really wondering what is going on. It really feels as if the deck is stacked against me sometimes. No matter how well I play the fools at the table just outdraw me everytime. Have many of you guys experienced streaks like this where you lose the majority of your bank roll? It's gotten to the point where I call an all-in bet with AA sort of expecting to lose.

[parappa]

Yes, it happens. I've just gone through a 15 of 20 OOM streak. Aleo and perhaps Jurollo seem to be on a much longer ones.

You should review your hand histories to see if you're making any mistakes (getting drawn out on makes me tend to play weak/tight. When I start thinking about how many blinds I'll have to fold to get into the money I'm on tilt), but otherwise you just have to play your way out of it is mho.

Little mental tricks like concentrating on whether you played your cards well rather than whether you won might work, but get less useful imo as a bad run gets longer.

[Lori]

If you are not feeling confident in a game for _any reason_, you should move down.

Nobody needs to know about it, and you play better in a game where you are not under bankroll pressure.

Yes streaks happen, also good streaks happen.

You are still very new to the game, and although you say you play solid cards, and you might well be right, you are new enough that you might have had a very good run in the 10s (as well as a likely very bad one in the 20s).

Move back down, restart, and move up again when you won't mind losing 5 in a row.

Lori

[SixgunSam]

Take a few days off. Whenever I have a losing streak it affects my attitude, decision making and my aggression factor. In my time off I like to study poker by re-reading a book, combing this forum or something else constructive. I make myself wait until I am chomping at the bit to play again and then I wait another day. Usually, if I'm really excited about playing, I tend to do better. This works for me, maybe it will shake things up for you.

[Lori]

Sam speaks wise words.

Lori

[heyrocker]

Is it just me or is everyone running bad lately? There's a post here, there was Aleo's post and some followups to it, and I've been running just horribly for the last few weeks (although I know those of you I bad beat in the NA v Euro tourney will have trouble believing it.)

I have spent a LOT of time thinking about why I've been running poorly and have come up with the following:

1) For the past two or three months the Party $50s have been my lifeblood and they have become much more difficult recently. Anyone else noticing this?

2) I HAVE been getting a ridiculous number of bad beats, which does happen I know trends and downturns etc etc Also aside from this I'm finding lots of situations where I'm not getting bad beat but just unlucky. I feel like I've run into aces dozens of times in the last week.

3) After a couple weeks of thought and analysis I have finally come to the conclusion that the above has definitely been affecting my game in various ways. I am still working out what they are and trying to get at how to root them out. However there is no doubt that as my luck has turned worse I'm playing way worse than I did when I was running good. I am coming to realize that confidence is a HUGE factor in my tourney play. Right now I don't have any, so I'm trying to find ways to get it back and work around it. One of these is definitely taking some time off, but in that time off doing some reading, going back over the basics, getting into TOP and HPFAP again, maybe posting more, etc. I'm also just trying to shake things up by playing some different games, I've taken up 1/2 Limit Omaha HL ring games for fun. I'm dropping down in limit in the SNGs I do play. I definitely feel myself coming out of it mentally, which is great. Having done that I just have to ride the rollercoaster and try to hang on until things improve.

For anyone running bad and feeling crappy about it, step 3 is the important one. Taking some time off is good advice, especially if you're steaming which I certainly have been. But use this time off to think about your game and analyze some recent tourneys. Think about your play and what went wrong. This is what I believe is going to turn things around for me and should for others as well.

Here is something I've discovered about my play that I will share. I was seeing an inordinate amount of bad beats and bad luck. I started really looking at this and I began to realize that while a lot of them were just that - bad beats or bad luck - I also began to realize that a lot of them were hands I never should have been in in the first place, or hands where the other player was giving off signs I should have picked up on. However because of stubbornness and frustration I wasn't seeing those things. I had become one of those tunnel vision players who only saw his own hand. One of the most common responses to the "what was my mistake in this hand" posts is "Your first mistake was playing this hand ion the first place."

Here is another thing I have picked up on in my own game, as my confidence waned I stopped bluffing. The bluff re-raise against a perceived steal or weak hand was a big part of my late game strategy in certain situations, but as I began to lose and my confidence waned I became far more passive and never made these moves. Another part of the confidence failing is that I no longer trusted my own instincts or reads of other players. Obviously this is deadly.

So yes, by all means take some time off, but also really sit down and think about your game and what you've been doing and how it differs from what you were doing when you were winning. Maybe nothing is different and it really is just a bad streak, thats great! However I don't think there is a single one of us from the newest newbie to the oldest old hand who can't benefit from taking some time to think about how you're playing and ways it can improve.

[jedi]

Seriously re-evaluate your game. I am in a little rut myself, and at the beginning of the rut, I looked at how I was playing and how I got myself into the situation that I busted myself out. A couple of times, it was due to lack of concentration and taking really poor chances (usually with TPTK early on when everyone else had deep stacks). I was multitasking too much, playing 3 ring games AND a NL tournament. That's tough to deal with. I'd be bluffing off my entire stack for no reason at all, HOPING the other guy would go away. That didn't work either.

In the NA vs. EU tournament I tried to open raise all-in on a steal attempt with marginal hands (QJ and 22) Unfortunately I got called both times by AA and I was out quickly. I'm not sure if I should have changed anything there, since the table WAS pretty tight, minding the gap very well so maybe I just got unlucky. I dunno.

I the last 2 tournaments, though I've busted out of the money both times, I've felt much better about my play. I've got guys drawing very slim on the river catching on me when I get the money in the middle. Can't do much about that. When I'm short stacked, I push all in with decent hands and got called by an underpair to my overcards. Lost the coin flip and I'm out. Oh well, that's life.

Figure out how you're doing in the tough situations, post some hands and keep on plugging away.

-Jedi

[gergery]

That still means you're ITM in 16 of 63, or around 25%, which is well within a normal downswing standard deviation if you had been getting ~40% ITM.

I built a bankroll from $300 up to $1700 and had just moved upto $20 sngs to get there. The i had a terrible downswing where i crashed back to $800.

I took a few days off, and reviewed my play for errors. Bankroll rose back up to $2400. It happens.

-g

[slogger]

Just wanted to echo all of the advice the others have provided and toss in my own relevant anecdote. About 4 or 5 weeks back, I finished one of those 100-SNG challenges that everyone seems to be doing these days. I ran at the 10+1 level on Party and absolutely crushed it for near 90% ROI.

I then moved up to 20+2 and proceeded to miss the money in 11 of 12 games, finishing 3rd in my only cash. I had a feeling that this might happen before I even started (given how good my luck had apparently been over my previous 100 games), but that premonition made my resulting feelings of frustration no less devastating. I even questioned whether the 20s were actually much more difficult than the 10s (they're not, there are just fewer complete idiots).

Since then, I have played 24 more games at the 20 level and I've cashed in 11 of 24, with 5 wins. Just like that, I'm in the black at the $20 level and I'm once again realizing something I already knew: swings happen. That's not to say I was playing anything resembling perfect poker; just that combinations of certain factors tend to make the bad runs seem worse and the good runs seem better.

Many here will tell you the same thing, but then slip into utter despair when they go for a week or two without winning. A month later, they will come back and offer a tale similar to this and the advice that you must learn to handle the swings.

The point is that we all go through this (some on a larger scale than others). The important thing is that you keep the big picture in mind and take some time (away from the game if necessary) to keep your game sharp.

[aslowjoe]

Play good solid poker, all plays are well thought out, mind is clear and focused. Solid ROI is produced.

Mind is clear and focused, make inspired plays, bluff at right time. Produce great ROI. ( I am a poker God)

Mind is scattered, you get sloppy, you feel what ever you do you will win( I am a poker god). Blame every thing on bad beats instead of studying your game. You drop down a level and still lose. You are still playing sloppy because after all what ever I do Im still better then these players(poker god).
Boy do I suck,(poker moron) I couldn't beat a blind mind.

Back to step one.

Joe

[Lori]

Many here will tell you the same thing, but then slip into utter despair when they go for a week or two without winning

I tend to read my own old posts when that happens (and others should read their own posts).
Gives you a feeling of I said that? and reminds you that you were not always a crazy losing nutcase.

Lori

[PITTM]

im running great lately, except for the sngs. ive been running terribly in the 20s but i went back to my 6 handed 25nl roots and am cleaning up.

rj

[LinusKS]

I think one of the most frustrating things about poker is that much of the time you're not really in charge of your own destiny.

In other spheres, improved skills translate directly into improved performance. That's not necessarily the case in poker.

I think to survive with an equitable state of mind, you have to realize a slide in performance doesn't necessarily mean you're playing badly, just as a streak of wins doesn't make you a great player.