Part of the haziness of "running bad" comes from the non-specific time frame. Looking at the shortest, it's not uncommon or faulty usage for a player to be thought of as "running bad" because he lost a few big pots on the river in the last hour or so, even though he's up good for the day and the week and the month. Likewise, a player can kill a game during a months-long losing streak. In his mind, he's still running bad. In his opponent's mind, he's running good.


"I think that there's a difference between running bad and playing bad."


But let's say a player really does play his A+ game for 100 hours or whatever and gets crushed. Finally he succumbs to the mental burden and starts playing bad. Couldn't we say that the act of playing bad is a subset of the more general concept "running bad," simply because the bad play was caused by the bad running?


My experience is that when I run really bad for a really long time, I'm playing my B and C games more often than usual. Let's say I go a few days where every good flop and every big pair gets beat. The second I start feeling that "Oh woe is me" thing, that's the telltale sign that I'm off my game.


Tommy