Getting hammered online

[SoBeDude]

Hi all,

I play on paradise and party. I have done pretty well up until about a week or two ago.

Seems I can't have a winning session anymore.

Basically i'm looking for advice on how to recover. I'd like to think I'm a decent poker player. I'm picky about my starting cards, I try not to chase w/out the odds, and I try to vary my play with the big cards.

So I'm not sure why I find myself down a thousand bucks on paradise in about a weeks time. Especially when the week before I made more than that.

I play mostly the 5-10 game there.

I also got cleaned out at party in their 3-6 game, and suddenly find I can't even beat their 0.5/$1 game.

I'm honestly not sure where to go from here. Am I suddenly getting outplayed?

I don't think I'm on tilt. I'm not upset about losing the grand because its all profit from online poker to start with, and I know there will be swings...

I've tried the "time at the table" that all the books talk about, and all it seems to do is get me in deeper... Yesterday I was able to go from down about 300 for the session to up about 70. I was quite happy with that, but then proceeded to give back about 150 of that to end down.

So any and all input would be appreciated!

thanks!

-Scott

P.S. currently down $45 from down $250

[travisand]

I have had this happen to me also.

The best thing you can do is to sit out for a few days and re-evaluate your game. Read some books, go over some of the hand histories to see if you are making a continual mistake.

The other thing you can do when you are off for a few days is do something else besides play/think about cards. Sounds like poker is all you have been thinking about for a while.
When I did this and came back I had gotten back the excitement for the game back. I think this is what you might be missing. By playing for a long time things become routine and you don't worry about getting or saving all of those extra bets. You are just not excited about the game anymore and I think this is something you definitely need.



Well this is just my opinion so take it for what it is worth (usually not much). [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[cbass]

Problem is you put in 250 and started off running really well playing 5-10. If this is your first foray into online poker then even though you had 1250 at one point, you might not have had a firm grasp of whether you can beat the game you're in. Don't know what your background is. I know when I first started playing I got smacked in the head with the deck and it was the worst thing that could have happened for the overall development of my game. Thought I was playing really well, but knew nothing about reading players, position, bankroll requirements etc. I was soon humbled. Anyway sure you're further along than I was- but if you don't have a big bankroll for playing poker I would suggest starting much smaller than 5-10, make sure you can beat lower games over a long period then move up and give the 5-10 another shot when you have at least 2000 in account. Good Luck.

[beernutz]

Travisand, are you the Travis nick who plays at americas cardroom?

[travisand]

No, I play at paradise and party.

[togilvie]

My personal experience has been that the games online have been getting significantly more difficult over the past 6 months / year. I find it's rare to sit down at a table without at least 4 good players, and sometimes the entire table is good.

I'm assuming that this is in large part due to the payment processing issues making it increasingly more difficult for casual players to fund their accounts.

[758219]

"I'm not sure why I find myself down a thousand bucks on paradise in about a weeks time. Especially when the week before I made more than that. I play mostly the 5-10 game there."

Especially as the week before?? That should just show what the average every day/week fluctuations of that limit are. Winning or losing 100 big bets is nothing, everyone will run into that. I remember my first big down, 300 big bets. It was a lot to overcome, even though I was still up 600 big bets. If you think your luck will get better in the future, I doubt it, as mine didn't, weather I played or not I ended losing that 300 big bets in few months. Already when I was at -150 big bets, I knew I was in the bad bad bad bad bad beat, and it just didn't stop, the luck was continuously too bad, I couldn't understand how that could happen, but that's how it looks when one runs in to those bigger losing streaks. Then, just in case, I went to play elsewere, to many different places; collected myself slowly, rarely playing but slowly getting hours in, and started to win again; not as well as before, but I was back.

[Hotchile]

Assuming that you are a winning player at a rate of 1 BB/hr. Over 30 hrs = 30 BB or $300. Any wins that go beyond that are anomolistic in themselves. At some point, the math is going to correct itself and you will either win smaller amounts or even take some losses. At the end of the day, you will still expect to be up 2BB/hr. In the meantime, don't panic. Make certain that you are still playing your "A" game. If you are, rest assured that this "slump" is just a mathematical correction. If you have enough bankroll to cover a bad run, you really have nothing to be concerned about.

HC

[tadowta]

Not sure if this is the best thing but when i get fustrated, i uninstall the software, don't play for a couple of days, then re-install the software (because the gambling itch came back) and start out fresh again...
does this explain the huge swings? definitely not..but just my own methodology..ahahaah

[goodguy_1]

this is a great topic/thread with some great post guys...

Remember If you are making 2 or 2.50 BB's an hour online and you've played 400/500 hours..guess what ..?? no matter how good you are you are going to gett smoked for 150 bets or so somewhere along the line..thats just my personal experience.Sometimes I even know that I am "due" for an hourly average correction.This is a very timely topic for me because just 2 weeks ago I was making an anomalous 2.6BB's an hour at a certain limit after 400 hours...BAM..WHACK smack ...playing 5max , heads-up and ring games I lost 150 bigbets in 4 days..Ouchenheimer..
I play superfast too so this has been very nasty..
But I knew I was running lucky before ..this was inevitable.
On the other side of the spectrum their is a lowlimit ring game limit( i keep separate hourly averages for ring,5 max and HU)that after 100 hours I was stuck a full big bet.
But I know those poor stats are just as anomlaous as my great stats were in my main game.
Bottom line is this:If you know you are a "player" from valid game stats at whatever limits from a sizable sample size(more than 500 hours more like 1000) you will be confident and be able to keep on playing.A great thing about onlie play is that you can play 80 hours a week not 40 like B&M .I count each table hour separate.So in 3 months you can log almost 1000 hours.

Fact is most online players that dont have prior B&M experience are newbies.
You can play supertight blah blah ...but you gotta know you can BEAT the game you are playing.BEAT it means having accurate records of 300/500/1000 hours at that limit that show you are making a decent hourly average.
If you know thru accurate records that you are a wiiner then the swings are just part of the game.
Most people think they can beat a game but in reality they cant.
Worst of all Malmouth and others have pointed out that even if you are a solid professional player sometime in your career you may have a 1000-2000 hour losing streak.

.The great thing about thousands of hours at a limit is that once you do that your daily results have a very small effect on your winrate.Strive for that: a solid hourly average and many recorded hours and grind grind.Few can do that.Move up in limit and repeat..if you got balls or stay at your main game and grind.

so in summary getting hammered is part of poker..getting blasted by 2,3 and the most common 5 outers headsup over and over for days or even weeks(running real bad)is very very painfull.try not to tilt and backoff ..play slower...I tilt a little...try and avoid this..its easier If you regular game isnt so FAST.
SLOW it down
Play tighter
and stay away from marginal hands.

the storm will past.

GL LEE