Long term Tilt -EV

imported_AAcheckraise · #1 05-17-2005, 01:26 AM

I used to be a competent poker player, who suffered a few bad beats every once in a while. Lately *past 3 or 4 months* I have had not cold cards, but many unfortunate events. I used to be comfortable playing 25NL with a 800$ Bankroll, but now it is 350$ and it keeps withering even when i am playing right, it seems the last 20 sessions have been losing.

I know cold streaks happen for long periods of time, but is it time that I develop a new stratagy or may go back to .05 /.10 limit? I still only play good hand preflop ad have learned to drop anything except for a cont. bet or TPTK or better.

I would like any advice for NL because It seems MANY sessions i flop a big hand only to be called and cleaned out by a runner runner or a 3 outer. I try and make only EV+ calls, but whenI get good cards I make 10BB as where my bad beats yield 100BB.. Any clue on whats wrong!!?

Jazza · #2 05-17-2005, 01:39 AM

it's hard to tell without seeing some of your hands you've played, if you have PT go back and find the last couple hands where you lost your entire stack, and post them here if there's any doubt as to whether or not you played it correctly

UOPokerPlayer · #3 05-17-2005, 02:49 AM

Don't play poker for an entire week. Your mentality seems to be what's killing you. Stop playing and thinking about poker, then come back when you're excited about playing well, not fearing inevitable bad beats and losing sessions.

TheCat · #4 05-17-2005, 05:34 AM

If you lost 20 straight session there must be something wrong. If I lost 5 consecutive sessions I'd be worried, if I lost 10 I'd be sure something was seriously wrong.
Drop down a level until you fixed your problem.

subzero · #5 05-17-2005, 07:49 AM

Losing is part of the game. If your'e just losing to runner-runners or 3-outers, you should be happy to know that you were a big favorite and that you made the correct play. But if you're letting the bad beats affect your play, than this is your problem. Forget about the money you've lost. Don't think about getting even. Concentrate on your current session. If you play correctly, the money will come back in the long run.

snappo · #6 05-17-2005, 08:03 AM

Two things:

1) As the title of your post says, it sounds like you are on long term tilt. I can tell from the tone of your post. You just seem frustrated and your confidence is shaken. As UOPokerPlayer said you should definitely take a break from poker for a week or two. Just erase it from your mind completely for that period of time. You'll be pretty amazed at how refreshed, confident, and clear-headed you'll feel when you come back.

2) Aside from general tips to take a break, move down a limit, hang in there, keep your composure, etc, there is very little we can do to specifically help your game if we have no idea how you play. Make a few posts showing the hands in which you are most uncertain of your play and we'll try our best to help.

Irishfly · #7 05-17-2005, 08:40 AM

After a session of long term tilt- 14 days straight, I took a break and looked back over my pokertracker to see what was up. I did exactly what these guys are telling you to do. I also was getting crushed by suckouts etc and it seemed worse than any stretch of bad cards I had had before. I found a few leaks in my play that I was able to correct but more importantly I made some interesting observations about my bankroll. When I got to looking at the last 10-14 days I realized that on more than half of them I started up for the day before spiraling down. Playing 1/2NL I sometimes would be up a couple of hundred (or more) before catching a bad beat and saying "here we go again" and ending up $150, $200, or $400 down for the day. I had some of the longterm tilt that you described and even though I started everyday fresh and renewed, no positive results kept me in a weakened state easily tilted.
Here is what I did to combat this- I needed to rebuild my bank so I told myself that if I made one buyin ($200) in a day then I would be done for the day. I was free to play frisbee with my boxer, hang with the wife, go to the shooting range, or whatever. Same goes if I lost a full buyin. What this accomplished was 1) getting my confidence back...I don't care how small the amounts are, you string enough positive days together you begin to feel better and start to play at your best. 2) Built my bankroll back $200 at a time. 3) Almost tripled my $/hr albeit shortterm so far because I wasn't sitting for 10 hours trying to make things back after a bad beat. I know that I have cost myself EV by leaving obviously lucrative games after only modest gains but I have to admit that this is +EV longterm for me as a way of coming out of the LTT (long term tilt). I also realized that if I only end up with 10 buyins a month (after cancelling out the losing days) that provides me with $2K/month supplemental income (which is my goal for poker anyway) and less variance. I am going to finish out May with this strategy and then June I could conceivably up my self imposed slot-limit to $250. Poker is about making good decisions and anything you can do to make better decisions is +EV. Your mileage may vary but I found this to work very well for me. Also check the Psychology forums here (where this thread belongs) as there is mucho good info there.

Da Fly