online slump

I am currently in the longest slump in almost

2 years of online poker.

background: more than 2k hours playing at an average limit of 4-8 limit full game hold'em. I usually play 2 games at once..one 5-10 and one 3-6. My take has been 1.1bb/hr total and I have never played poker before playing online.


In the last 200 hours I have lost 200 big bets. This is my longest slump. I have lost 220 big bets before but in less time.


Normal losing stuff ..aa kk qq lose 12 times in a row. 1 hour of mucking and then 2 bad beats. One winning session then 4 losing sessions. Beaten again and again by bankroll building hands like q9utg and j4s calling a 3 bet. I have had 4 people river a set vs aa or 2 pair. I push ak to the river..opponent pairs his q3. If I have second pair good kicker and play it ..it loses..if I don't I toss the winner. More people than ever stay to the river with me expecting{correctly} that they will river me. It's like a cartoon. The road runner vs the coyote. I have had to quit in anger many times. Also..I have stayed in tough games too long for my own good. Prefering to lose to legitimate hands and bluffs than to river crapshoots.

1. What is your longest downturn in terms of hours.

2. How do you deal with the slumps emotionally? {I know everyone loses 200-300 bb from time to time.}

3. Is online poker tougher to beat now? Is this due to bots or possibly the collusion of say 3 or 4 people who play many hands and are hard to track?

penny for your thoughts:

"3. Is online poker tougher to beat now? Is this due to bots or possibly the collusion of say 3 or 4 people who play many hands and are hard to track? "


I have played a ton of hours of online poker. I started out back at Planet in late 1998. I am also a winning player. I have a few thoughts. First of all Yes!! online poker is much tougher to beat. Here are some of my ideas on why. Notice this list does not include Bots or collusion.


1. The micro limit games. When I started playing online the lowest available limit was 3-6. The complete novice player had no choice but to play at this limit. It made the games very good and beatable for a decent amount of money. The micro limits give the complete novice a much cheaper education.This hurts the profitability of the higher games. We are now seeing these micro players moving up with many hours of experience.


2. 5 max tables. The 5 max tables attracted many of the action gamblers away from the normal ring games. I noticed a decline in win rate ever since the 5 max tables came online. BTW actually playing a winning 5 max game may be the best opportunity online.


3.Credit Card crackdown. This more than anything else is probably the number one reason for the tightening of online poker.Its much less likely for a Bad palyer to keep buying in when the money is coming from their checking account than when its just a number on the VISA bill. This is huge and I am not sure online poker will ever be as good as it was /images/frown.gif.


Good Games and profit are of course still out there. Tougher Yes.

Dan Graham

What site are u playing on? It may be time for a change. The reason I say this is because I had something simular happen to me. I changed sites and then went back to the original site a month later and had success again.


Tony

" I noticed a decline in win rate ever since the 5 max tables came online"


Yes the 2/4 to 5/10 games became tougher after

they intoduced 5 table max...They became even

more tough when paradise introduced

no-limit pot/limit.. These games really kill

the bad players, and I have already recommeneded

to paradise that they put a cap on the # of tables

that can open...Similiar to the 20/40 limit.

Apparently, they don't agree.

Hey there. I am posting this late as I am about to go to bed so please pardon any grammatical errors.


First of all I am a low limit player. I was never a novice before I played online and of course im not one now.


You do make some very good points though . And yes online poker is much tougher to beat than live games. Primarily because most people who are willing to play online poker are serious gamblers, rarely youll find a novice who decided just to gamble money online for kicks. Maybe in the casinos but not in poker.


Second I would like to comment on the microlimit comment. I for one play micro limits. 1/2 .50/1.00 --I play those limits because they are the most profitable for me. I do have the bank to play higher but refuse to. I enjoy the low risk and usually reap the rewards. I dont agree with your comment that just because someone is playing at low limits means that they are a novice. That is simply not true. You could have a very good player who just doesnt have a lot of money. That doesnt mean that he/she is a new player it just means that they cant afford playing at a 4/8 table..


Like all of us we have bad streaks and good streaks. Your luck will change eventually as we all are dealt the same cards in the long run. Only problem is having the bankroll to sustain those types of losing streaks. If you feel as if your sick of poker and sick of losing thats fine. If thats the case I would advise you to quit because with that frame of mind you only set yourself up to lose more often.


Good luck to you and just hang in there --We have all been where your at now!

I love this joke, as it has many real world applications.


The easiest to turn things around may be just to find someone else who's in a worse slump. Happened to me, I was at the begining of a big slump -- 100 BB. Did all the right things at the wrong time and was way out of wack.


I FINALLY get on a table with someone that "smells" as bad as I do. I raise pre-flop with AQ in EP. He re-raises and we're heads up. Rags on the flop, and I lead, he raises, I raise he caps. Turn is a Q -- I just knew this was comming, and I knew he was dead with JJ. I bet, he calls. River is a rag. I bet, he calls. It was a turning point for me and now I'm way up again. The key here was that I KNEW that he was going to get out-drawn -- and I KNEW it was going to be me, since we were heads up.


It did me wonders to know that there was someone who was in a worse place than me. So, just table hop until you see a desparate person trying to manufacture wins. That'll be your target!