[PokerAce]

I know how you feel. The first month after I quit my job to play for a living had me going on a 275 BB downswing, followed by a 200 BB upswing, then immediately after a 200 BB downswing. For months after that, I dealt with an abnormal amount of negative variance over about 150k hands.

After taking nearly 3 months off to clear my head and work full-time on PA Hud, I can see that I wasn't playing as optimally as I had thought.

When you run bad, there's nothing you can do to get out of it. The cards will fall how they will fall and it's up to you to lose as little as possible. The most important thing you can do now is to ignore the beats and concentrate on making the best decisions on each and every hand. Don't avoid a value bet because you're afraid they drew out. Don't call a bet you should be raising because you think the next card will kill your hand. Poker is a game that rewards aggression. It's natural to want to play cautious when you're losing. However, all that does is slow down your recovery.

So, in short, make sure you don't let the beats affect your play. The game is a lot more stressful when it's your only source of income, but you need to put that out of your mind while you're playing.

Some things you can do to try to help:

# Take a few days off
# Play fewer tables.
# Pay more attention (no TV, 2+2, AIM, etc while at the tables)
# Read some books
# Post hands for discussion

Good luck and don't let a crappy run get you down.