A Nightmare Night

I started playing hold-em about 2 years ago and have had what I consider a steady progression in my level of play and more importantly my emotional reactions at the table. I have been playing the best poker of my life over the last month or so. One problem.....I am not winning. I played a no limit tourney at the Mireage about 2 weeks ago, ninth place, busted out on a stupid play. No limit tourney at the Orleans the next night, sixth place, played great until I busted out with the second biggest stack going against the biggest stack with KsJc.


Two nights ago at a Lake Charles casino playing in the 10-20-40 game I got these hands within a 3 hour period. JJ-raised two callers flop comes a Jack, one oppenent catches runner runner to make a straight with 97 off. 1010 raised pre and after flop only to get reraised folde on fourth street to what I knew was set of K's(he showed). 77 flopped a set and lost to set of 10's. KK and once again flopped a set and lost on the river when the fourth heart appeared. 22(in big blind in unraised pot) flopped a set and lost to a set of 10's. I drove every one of these hands from the start.


I never lost my cool or went on tilt. I just got up after I lost with the set of 2's and went home. I felt good about my play. My question is..........how do you guys deal with extended losing streaks when you know you are playing well? Do you take a break for awhile or do you keep on playing through it? I am not a pro and I do have a very good paying job so going broke is not really a concern. Should I have stayed knowing I was playing well and still did have the best of it? I felt the poker Gods just weren't smiling on me and decided to give up for the time.


You guys tell me how you deal with losing streaks when you know you are the best player in your game.......Thanks!

David,


Several months ago I discovered a few leaks in my game that cost me quite a lot of what I should have made in the previous YEAR. I've been playing in casinos for about four yrs, two and a half full time. I had long been considered one of the best players in my regular games, could see the mistakes that the other good players were making and couldn't figure out how I could be running so bad for so long. Well, maybe I did run bad for extended periods of time, but that was of no consolation to me or my bankroll and I examined my game intensely on and off for quite awhile. As I said, I discovered a few leaks( a few too many starting hands and too much aggression with some hands that didn't always warrent it) and lo and behold things got better, ALOT better. The problem was my ego and my belief that I was "good enough" to get away with certain things that I maybe did for some time and that I could see other players "getting away with." Well, I had learned better than that and now these leaks had caught up with me and I couldn't recognize it for a long time. I'm not saying that you have such leaks, I couldn't know; I'm just saying to keep examining your game and always be on the lookout for any leaks. The cream does rise to the top, just make sure that you're the cream. BTW, tournaments can be a crapshoot anyway and the other game that you described, 10-20-40, is a game in which people are rewarded for chasing draws(even bad ones) due to the structure of the game, with the largest bets coming on the river after there are no more cards to come, draws are cheap compared to the eventual size of the pot and so I hope that you take this into consideration when you are playing both your made hands and your drawing hands.


I feel like I've been leading up to a Tom McEvoy ending but I won't do it(no disrespect meant to Tom) so I'll shut up now.


Mike

"Should I have stayed knowing I was playing well and still did have the best of it?"


Go home. The entire table is inspired by your losses. They see you as beatable regardless of how strong your hands started. The only way you can win the rest of the night is to finish with the best hand. No chance to bluff or make otherwise profitable plays. The good thing is you should get paid off when you do finally have the winner.


It also sounds like you are fairly aggressive in your play. I suggest when you are losing like this to back off from this style until you make some hands and show the table that you can catch cards. Image counts in poker. (This relates to marginally strong hands, I would still get the money in with very strong hands)

if it is a home game, try to keep it going as long as possible. hopefully the swings will come back your way and you can inflict the damage you've been waiting to. in any case, back off a bit until you can win a few and do some good to your image. when you are losing, your table image goes way down, and people will make plays at you way more than they usually do. this will tend to do bad things to your game, you will lose more, etc. back off a bit and then start building a big pot by driving that winner extra hard. that'll show em.