Being a losing player.

[suited_ace]

About a month ago I decided to give PP SnGs a try. I consider myself a decent NL Hold'em player, and it looked like an interesting way of making a few bucks and maybe, just maybe, in the long run end up being a way of saving myself from some crappy job paying $10/hr. I love the game, so the fact that it was lots of fun didn't hurt me either.

I got myself a coach, deposited $330 and started to play the $11s. I made some profit in the first tournaments I played, then dropped down, and then some more. It was really scary for me to see my money go away so fast. A few players here were really helpful on building back my confidence, and my coach was incredible. He helped me a lot and coped with me freaking out about going broke.

I made some improvements on my game and had this very good run, going up $307 in 33 tournaments. I was making a profit again. I got so confident that I thought starting to multi-table would be a good idea.

It really wasn't. I wasn't ready then, and I'm still not ready now (maybe I'm writing this post to remind myself of this). What happened then was a recipe for disaster: I had (and still have) a lot of room for improvement in my game, so I was making mistakes and on top of that I started having some horrible luck.

I just went through all my HHs since I reached the peak until now, my all-time low (-$284). Of all times I was a 2-to-1 favorite to win the hand, I won 42%. I won 39% of all coin flips. This is just bad luck, it's variance, it can't last forever. The problem is that all the bad luck produced frustration and tilt, and I have a bunch of absurdely stupid moves that I wouldn't have made had I been in a good run.

I'm gonna receive a few bucks from rakeback tomorrow and I'm not playing until Monday to give myself a break. Instead of hitting the $11s again, I'll play the $6s and everytime I make more than $11 in profit I'll play a $10+1. All of this single-tabling.

Why am I writing this? In part, to get it out of my system. There's another side to it, though: I think what I'm going through is a good example for those that are starting out and aren't winning. I'm not freaking out, and I'm not affraid of going broke. I'm doing everything I can right now so it won't happen, but I'm not desperate.

When I first ran bad I had the luck of having people around me to encourage me and tell me that if I play it right, results will eventually come. I'm running bad again, but this time I'm not having a heart attack. I know this is part of the game, and I know my game could use a lot of improvement, I can't just blame Lady Luck like that.

The lesson I'm learning now is that all we can do is play our best, and give ourselves the things we need to play our A-game. This is the brutal part of this game, but it's also its beauty.

I think I finally learned to appreciate it.

-SA

[Blarg]

If you can beat the 5's, you can beat the 10's. Playing the 5's automatically takes out 9 or 10% of your ROI because of the increased rake. Unless you're incredibly broke, just don't do it. You'll have to be a much better player just to turn less of a profit.

[Nicok7]

As long as you notice your play getting affected, you can snap out of it, discipline man! Two little mind tricks: first don't do what you wanna do, just imagine you were Johny Chan or Gigabet and wonder what they would do. Be prouf of your game! Second when there is an important decision where u think you might be on tilt pretend to click where you wanted too and pause... are you happy with the move? Do you figure him to have you beaten? I know when I am on tilt my mouth changes shape as I reraise for all my stack, now I pretend to push but click on the side and watch my mouth, great self tell /images/graemlins/smile.gif

PS: Ho and don't play the 5s... 20% rake man!

[ripped]

great post if this helps you feel better. I actually enjoyed reading it as it was about how someone is doing instead of how party is rigged.

My advise is keep at it and always ALWAYS read these boards and read sample hands on how to play them. The posters here are the best on the planet when it comes to sng's and they have helped my game 1000%. I owe every 1 of them a thank you.

Thank you.

[Slim Pickens]

[ QUOTE ]
Of all times I was a 2-to-1 favorite to win the hand, I won 42%. I won 39% of all coin flips.

[/ QUOTE ]

Good for you taking the time to find this. It doesn't mean anything really, but it sure makes you feel better to prove you were running bad, and it wasn't your fault.

Slim

[valenzuela]

nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!! play the 11s !!!!!!!!play the 11s!!!!!!!I beg you to play the 11s!!!!!!!!!

[SuitedSixes]

Your thread could just as easily be called, "Being a learning player."

You need to look at poker like life. You have good days and you have bad days. Sometimes you have lots of good days in a row, other times, you have what seems like an endless stretch of bad days. At this point, you don't know what kind of a life you're having or you're going to have . . . you're still an infant. But after a few thousand of these things you can look back and see that your life is nothing more than a mixture of good runs and bad runs. Hopefully, there are more goods than bads and you'll show a profit.

Someone made a post about a bad run earlier this week and they called it, "Just a blip on my AM spreadsheet."

Just like life, the only way that you really fail at these things is if you quit waking up every morning and trying.

It is great that you are able to look back and recognize that you are making errors, but at this stage of your career there is no way to gauge the amount of luck you have had or not had.

Keep your head up and keep playing (and if you have rakeback, the $6s aren't SO terrible).