[rtrombone]

You must not play online. Only after experiencing 300 big bet downswings and break-even stretches of 30,000 hands do I understand how long the long run is. Do you have any idea how many hours you have to play in a B&M to log 30,000 hands? A [censored] ton.

Granted, B&M games tend to be much softer than internet games, which makes it less likely one will encounter these kinds of streaks. Still, now I believe what Doyle and other old-timers have said about it being possible to run bad for months.

It's easy to tell whether you're running bad or playing bad. Simply review your big hands after each session. If you kept getting outflopped by dominated hands, missed every draw, ran into sets and got sucked out on on the river, what could you have done? Similarly, maybe you were dealt far less than your fair share of playable hands and missed the flop badly when you did play. It's going to happen.

There will be a few hands you could've played differently. Maybe you got out of line a couple times or played weak-tight or something. But it's definitely not unusual to play well and get your ass handed to you by the donkeys that infest the low- and mid-stakes games. Keep your head up.