Dealing with bad runs

[Yawkey]

If you can continue to play optimal poker, there is no reason to set a limit on your play. Even the best players can get razzed after playing a couple hours and not winning a cent, and this is certainly an excuse to quit for the day. Find something better to do with your time if you don't think you can play optimal poker (I swear this is what twoplustwo was created for). If you are playing for a living, keeping yourself educated is most certainly valuable time spent as you need to stay one step ahead of your opponents, plus it will pump you up for the next time you sit down to play. If it's really bad, take a day or two off, you may just be pokered out.

Thanks to everyone who replied, this was very helpful. I don't play for a living, I have a full time job, but I do play about 3-4 hours a night, and as much as 8-10 hours on weekends. I don't win enough to pay the bills, but I win more than I lose.

What I was trying to get at was not really how to deal with bad beats, although that is part of it. But more what Hank
mentions. I went through a long period of bad cards (Which I easily folded) but it was the good ones that never improved, or improved enough to let me stay in, only to lose to a better hand. (Like flopping a set, but the flop is suited, doh!)

Then, like Hank said, I found myself playng hands like Q10o because I felt I had to hit something, or I hadn't seen 2 cards that high in an hour. Anyway, I went through about 4 buyins in 1 weekend when I rarely ever lose an entire buyin much less two in a single session. I kept saying "I should just quit for the day", but I kept playing, and admitidly playing poorly. I actually sucked out a few hands I had no business in, and at that point I realized I was on tilt, and definitely needed to quit especially since I just sucked out twice on the same guy in about 5 or 6 hands (rivering the flush both times). So that prompted me to think maybe I should set a 1 or 2 buyin limit for myself so I don't get to that point where I am so annoyed I am playing cards I shouldn't be.

I know I shouldn't let the bad runs affect my play, and usually a bad beat doesn't get to me all that much. It is the long runs of bad luck and bad cards that eventually get me playing poorly.

I was just curious if people who rely on their winning for a living do something similar.

Thanks

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