Running Bad
 

I have been playing/studying the game for about a year and a half now. For about the last 9 months the cards have been running very badly. I strongly believe that I play considerably better than my opponents. It seems that no matter what my holdings, the cards continue to fall for the bad guys.

I am making this post in hopes that others can relate or offer some kind of advice from times they have experienced this sort of dry spell. Any and all comments appreciated.

Re: Running Bad
 

How many hands is this over? 9 months seems like a really long "downswing", and you should probably seriously question whether you're a winning player at this point.

Re: Running Bad
 

downswings can happen to very good players, although you might want to consider truly picking apart your game looking for leaks. The following is a link to a downswing thread with comments from very good posters.

linky

Re: Running Bad
 

Most players think they are better than they really are. Why do you think you are better than your opponents? What have you studied and how much do you study? How do you analyze your play? Do you use PT?

Part of being a good player is understanding what the correct play is and being able to seperate your play from the results at the table. If you truly understand the game you will be able to look at your play critically at the end of a losing session and see the mistakes you are making and correct them the next time you play. I strongly recommend reading 2+2 books (many of them), these forums daily and getting a coach if you are serious about winning at poker.

Re: Running Bad
 

Sorry for not being more specific. I would say all together, probably 30-40K.

Re: Running Bad
 

start by purchasing yourself a copy of ed miller's book.

then buy poker tracker to start analyzing your play.

start posting problem hands of your own, and/or responding to other posts which you either think you have a grasp on, or don't understand at all (being wrong is ok... expect it)

pick up "the theory of poker" by sklansky.

continue posting.

re-evaluate your situation.

give yourself a deadline. say, by the end of the month. if you're serious about it this shouldn't be too difficult (lest you're busy with school... in which case... give yourself more time), and will help you immensely in the long run, even if you really are just on an extended cold run

Re: Running Bad
 

I have to say that in my experience if you analyze a run of bad “luck” you’ll always see tilts, poor judgments and too many extremely marginal calls lead to “bad beats”.

You can use PokerGrader to analyse a session, it’s supposed to measure luck, I find it useful. What do others think? Also, put in the hours going back over your hands and making some honest assessments.

Good Luck!

Re: Running Bad
 

You may be playing fine considering the number of hands you played, but chances are if you aren't doing everything evry1 else suggested then you have serious problems with your game.

Re: Running Bad
 

I have read/studied/re-read the following books. The limit hold-em section in the original Super System, Winning Low Limit Holdem, Small-Stakes Holdem, Hold-em Poker for Advanced Players, and Hellmuth's Play Poker like the Pros.

Even though I've found some contradictory advice over all the titles, I feel I have a pretty good grasp on the game.

Re: Running Bad
 

I would ditch SS and Hellmuths book.

Read WLLH one more time.

Then read SSH over and over and over (I dont care if you "read/studied/re-read" it either). Like I said, read SSH again and again and again. And then depending on the type of game you are in maybe read HEPAP.