Bad Streak

[Mez]

Wanted some opinions from this forum regarding a pretty bad streak that I've hit online.

Some quick background on me - I started playing online in June 03. Started with $100 playing $.50/$1.00 fixed limit and $5 SNGs to build a BR. I've slowly turned that $100 into over $5,000 over the course of 15 months or so. I primarily play NL holdem SNGs and some cash NL recently. I've moved from the $5, $10, $30 (didn't have $20 SNGs at the time at Party) and I've been fairly regular at the $50's for the past 5 months or so and have dabbled in the $100's. I've read several books including Lee Jones, TJ, Sklansky (TPFAP etc) and some others. I lurk here frequently and post rarely when I'm not working.

So, with that said, I've recently hit a real snag lately. I've been losing at SNGs and its not even close, finishing 5th and 6th. Seems like every hand is meant to be cracked and opponents have caught rivers on me. I generally don't have a good feeling about winning races or having my hand hold up. I know this doesn't mean anything to the cards, but you need confidence to play IMO. This has happened once before and I lost 50% of my bankroll. I've lost about 15-20% this time and I'm determined to curb those losses.

So, I've stopped playing 100's and 50's. I'm playing the 30's now, but still not able to shake this funk. I took the past week off and tried to play again last night with poor results.

So a couple of questions - how many here have had similar streaks? What have you done to get out of this funk?

Strangely enough, this seems to happen when I read new poker books, that happen to anyone?