My losing streak wins!!

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Holy $hit.

[MicroBob]

[ QUOTE ]
Holy $hit.

[/ QUOTE ]


Thank you.
this is the kind of reaction I was looking for.
I aim to please.

Keep 'em coming gang!!



The non-poker folk in my life know of my losing streak as well but don't know diddly about poker (and, evidently, neither do I really).

So I eas explaining to my Dad via e-mail (for example) that even a 500-600 bet losing string is considered to be HUGE and some would even consider that to be bigger than anything a winning player should experience.

And I have somehow doubled that.

I also drove the point home by mentioning that I think it might be a 2+2 record.


I don't believe I had ever had a downswing of greater than 250BB's at 6-max prior to this wonderful month of non-stop losing.


Happy Holidays Everyone!!

[adsman]

I'm sorry, I just didn't know what else to say. To be honest, your run scares the feck out of me.

[MicroBob]

No need to be sorry!!
My reaction would be the same.

It probably shouldn't scare you THAT much either.


If you are truly a winning player I don't think it should be possible to do what I have accomplished. It takes a true talent (such as myself) to drop over 1000 BB's.

As pokher pointed out, I posted a hand in the SHUSH forum that I played pretty gosh-darned passively. I know I'm misplaying other hands too.

A good player getting the exact same cards as me would certainly not have lost nearly as much as I have. Perhaps (probably??) would have been profitable in fact.

At least I have some RB to keep me going.


Also - I am partly accepting pokher's ideas about staying away. I was planning on doing various errands today as well as spending some time with the GF who is not working today.


Other options for the future will include playing more "for fun" in low buy-in SNG's or satellites (where I've been doing quite well actually...over $1k on Pokerstars from the past week or so).

I might consider playing total idiot poker too:
This would include multi-tabling full-ring at something like 12/6 perhaps with even more of a fit-or-fold style or something like that. I do believe this would still be good enough to win at Party 2/4 and 3/6 actually.

Or I might play some Miller NL short-stack strategy (from his book Getting Started in Holdem) which I would categorize as another form of 'idiot poker'.


I need confidence of course.
but I also need some money and to that end 'fixing' my game immediately isn't my top priority anymore.

I really don't care how dumb I have to play or how long in order to grind out some dollars.
It might sound like torture for some to play THAT boring a style of poker (miller short-stack NL...or super weak-tight low-limit)....but playing in ANY fashion that results in some wins would be a really fun time for me these days.


I actually was playing some .25/.50 full-ring on a different site today on 3 tables (just getting in enough hands for a weekly freeroll tournament).
I dropped 30BB's over there too. my QJ on board of J9425 would always run into 54 and other such catastrophes.


Anyway...I forgot to include those 30BB's in the down-swing...but I had some winning stretches on a couple of those sites too so it probably balances out.

[AllIn3High]

Hi Microbob, sorry to hear about you downswing. I experienced something similiar (at NL):

here

I don't know what works for you, but I switched to a different game (6-max limit) and started from scratch, relearing the nuances of the game and gaining confidence. You could probably do something similar at $25NL, if you have even a basic understanding of the game you can beat it. Your opponents are poor and you risk very little. If you're unconfortable playing with a full stack (which is understandable at first), just buy-in for 50BB and get all-in w/ overpairs, TPTK, sets and better. And stay at the table and play with your new big stack.

Good luck.

[adsman]

How about this;

Take the rest of the week off. Don't post any of your own hands. Just reply to as many hands that are posted with your thoughts and see how your advice stands up. Sit down on Friday night alert and refreshed and start it up. Don't look at your stats or cashier box until Monday morning.

Thank god you've got rakeback.

Actually, come to think of it, whenever I'm running bad, (which I feel embarressed to say now after seeing your 1K effort), I go down to the 0.02/0.04 session and play complete maniac poker. bet and raise every damn hand. Put everyone else at the table on tilt. Get them screaming at me in the chatbox. I always feel great after that.

[MicroBob]

"Don't post any of your own hands. Just reply to as many hands that are posted with your thoughts and see how your advice stands up."


Actually that's what I had been doing for the past couple of weeks.
I'm changing things up now by actually posting a few of my own hands.

Yours and allin3high's ideas are valid.
I don't think I'm going to stay away for a week though.

I might play total retard .02/.04 however which sounds kind of fun.

I remember doing that back in January on the designated .5/1 table when Bisonbison was playing his 24-hour marathon.
Several of us 2+2'ers there were capping every street.
I caught like crazy and won 180BB's in 110 hands or something ridiculous.
I had a really silly streak where I won 6 or 7 hands in a row (most of them on the river). Good times.


I already mentioned the possibility of heading to full-ring playing super weak-tight...or small stakes Miller NL short-stack system...or tourneys.
Whatever. Lots of possibilities.


My tourney game is +$1000 at Stars this past week thank goodness and I've had a few other good performances in there (11th place out of 240 in back to back weeks in the Party 15k-point tourney awarding a PPM cruise to 1st...among other solid performances).


amazingly I'm not nearly as down about this as you might think.
The worst that can happen is that I would actually have to go out and get a REAL job (GASP...the horrors!!!!).

my GF is still crazy about me...my cat is still cute...I still have my health....etc etc.

It's not the end of the world...No biggie.
I'm just a bad poker-player (these days), that's all.
I'd prefer to be a not-as-bad poker-player so I'm going to take steps to try to make that happen.

[POKhER]

Micro, have you been sweated by anyone?

I've read you're posts and "I'm just a bad poker-player (these days), that's all." made me laugh.

Varience man, and the psychological affect.

Drop down 2stakes, Read books after having the break.

You'll be back. You need a break, you need to regain confidance and have someone sweat you on your first few sessions i reckon.

[POKhER]

From you're post you sound like you've kind of disregaurded the money won or lost, i guess you play reasonably high stakes?

Do you depend on it as your income or is this just a hobby?

I seriously think you need to take 2 days off, one day isn't enough but 2days will be good.

Just dont play!!!!

If you really can't control the urge, then maybe read a book on poker but when i had a 100BB swing(yeah seems like pennys vs yours i know) but a downswing is a downswing; They affect confidance if its the worst you've experienced (which that was)! My mind litrally clouded up, it felt like i didnt know why i was raising AJs and i didn't know why im betting a flop when i hold Ace Jack High... my mind just clouded up and i felt lost.

I took a break, then i played lower limit game(.10/.20 i think lol) and winning a pot cleared my mind.

It was wierd, thats why i say i suck at the psychological side of the game interms of tilt/varience(ok im crap post flop but anyhow).

Infact it wasn't the cash i won($1 or 2), it was just the fact i could see i won 10BB's!

It takes will power though to leave your pc... specially if you love poker as i assume you must(Love and hate after this swing).

Maybe drop to 2/4 or 3/6 as you say and get back you're feel for the game without the worry of losing big cash.

If 2/4 still feels like a fair bit of cash, play 1/2 and try win 20BB's. Move up to 2/4....

After all, its better to play GOOD POKER at 2/4 than play weaktight poker at 5/10 because of the downswing you're experiencing right?

I think you just need to rebuild you're confidance, you're game will then adjust to your good TAG play(Where you bet JJ even if a ACE HITS vs a MANIAC).

Then re-read a book, be it SSH or TOP or WTO... Whichever. Do the quizzes to confirm you know you're playing well. All this will help with confidance(Although the quizzes are full ring i know)

I really think after regaining that confidance you're natural tendancies(The good TAG play you've played 1000's of hands with) will come together.

Good luck bob, keep us updated!

[Mempho]

[ QUOTE ]
No need to be sorry!!
Perhaps (probably??) would have been profitable in fact.



[/ QUOTE ]

I really hate to hear about this losing streak, Bob. It's an awful streak to say the least. I quoted the above text because it's extremely unlikely that this could be the case even if you are not playing well. You might not be playing well, but I would bet my bankroll that noone could have turned a profit with the same cards if you just lost 1,000BB. I would suggest that you do what Doyle did during his losing streak last year and have a "play audit." Doyle had Chip Reese watch his play during a particularly bad run last year. Any number of people could help you with this and their POV would undoubtedly be valuable.