I'm Depressed and Don't Want To Play

[BigBaitsim (milo)]

Last time I got depressed about a streak like that, I cashed everything out and took two weeks off. During that time I read 2+2 forums and SSH. When I was ready to play again, I put some of the money back into my accounts and shredded the games.

Don't play depressed and never play if you don't want to.

[BigBaitsim (milo)]

[ QUOTE ]
Mikey,
As a professional psychologist my job is NOT to tell people what they want to hear. It is to tell them what I believe they NEED to hear, the truth, no matter how unpleasant it is.
The same is true for any professional. Good doctors and lawyers and accountants will tell you the truth about your health, legal, or tax problems.
If a professional fails to tell you the truth, there is a very nasty word for his actions, malpractice.
Regards,
Al

[/ QUOTE ]

Damnit Al, stop putting down my answers before I get a chance to.

[ohiou]

I was suffering through similar poker pains not long ago. The advice that has been given in this thread is solid, well thought, and given by people who have been there.

So follow it.

[Fitz]

Get as far away from poker as you can, and stay there for a while. I'm not suggesting you quit; that is up to you. After you have had a chance to emotionally heal from the carnage, try to figure out what you did wrong. Don't put it off on bad beats and fish getting lucky! I'm sure that was a part of what went wrong, but I am certain that is not the only problem. I've willing to bet you went on tilt and then compounded that mistake by playing way too long. This is one of the drawbacks to playing online; the game is sometimes too readily available. I'm not picking on you; I've done it before myself. I think everyone who has ever played the game for any length of time has done something like this. I believe it is the times like the one you describe, and the horrible losing steaks that are so often described on this forum that give us the best chance to learn about ourselves and improve our game.

Relax for a while, and don't come back until you are mentally refreshed and ready to play your best game.


Good luck,

Fitz

[Slacker13]

I only play NL MTT's and NL S&G's online but I def found that if your over tired or not in a mental state to concentrate then you have no business playing. Well played poker requires concentration and a clear head. Plus your playing NL which normally has tougher competition than limit. If I am running poorly I would much rather it happens in Limit than NL. If your depressed, don't play.

[joedot]

Well, I don't think always taking a day off is a good thing. I think it really depends on your situation. If you are playing for a living, you can't do this very often. And taking a day off can cause anxiety, and you still may be very aprehensive about playing. In other words, it does nothing to improve your confidence, which is the main problem here with Gata. Burnout is another issue, but that is not what he is describing. To get your confidence back, here's what works (for me anyway):

1) Tighten up!!! Very important. You may even think you are playing tight. Stop lying to yourself. Play tighter. This will reduce the variance, and will give you a lot of confidence to once again see that tight play does win
2) Move down limits
3) Go back to playing 1 table until you are confident again and running better
4) find a game that works. If the nl wasn't working, play omaha hi/lo, or shorthanded he, or whatever works for you. That is why it is important to play all games. Experiment, find your niche. Some games are great because they have lower variance, and are more advantageous to winning players. When I go into a drought, I have a fallback game. If that game doesn't work, I try a different game, and find one where I start to kick ass again. I play that for a while, and win, and in no time am feeling much better about poker and life. You shouldn't box yourself into only 1 type of game. This can get stale, and can really create problems for you when it isn't working for you for some reason.

Anyway, that's what works for me. You do this and you'll figure out what, if anything you were doing wrong. Tightening up is the main thing. Aggressive play can often lead to looser play, even if you don't want to admit it. It's rarely just bad beats that cause all your losses. I play for a living, and taking days off never has worked for me in situations like this. The only cure is winning, and you have to try whatever you can to get back to winning. If you're burned out, ok, maybe that's different. But even with burnout, it is amazing how quickly a winning session clears that up. Something else to try is to get out and play some live poker. That could be just what the doctor ordered to get you out of your funk and any boredom that online poker is sure to create. Anyway, good luck my freind, and hope this helps.

[CaptObvious]

Well, like anything sometimes it doesn't hurt to take a couple of days off. I can't remember how many times I've told my friends, "Screw it. I'm quitting Poker." ;-)
The truth is, I love it, it's a fantastic game; but, with that comes some horrible beats, and suck outs. It's just the nature of the beast. If you really can't handle the beats, it's something you need to take into consideration.

[CrisBrown]

Hi joedot,

[ QUOTE ]
Well, I don't think always taking a day off is a good thing. I think it really depends on your situation. If you are playing for a living, you can't do this very often. And taking a day off can cause anxiety, and you still may be very aprehensive about playing. In other words, it does nothing to improve your confidence, which is the main problem here with Gata.

[/ QUOTE ]

Losing six buy-ins in one day at NL, after dropping 40BB in limit, is not a confidence issue. It's tilt issue, thus an emotion-management issue. Charging straight back into the fray is likely to land you at the table with the very same negative emotions that cost so much money the day before. Until he has regained his emotional balance, he really doesn't need to be at a poker table.

Cris