2/4 10man - Forgetting what it's like

For the past month and a half, I've been on a really bad downswing. SNG ROI went from 25% to .044% and I've been bleeding money at the limit tables too. For the 8 months leading up to this, I was a winning player who built a $3k bankroll from $100. Since this downswing started though, I forgot what it's like to win.

I am cringing when I see AA, KK, QQ, and AK. Obviously, that's never good for one's game. The question is, after a month of pretty crappy beats, I need to figure out how to stop the slide.

When you go on a downswing for this long, how do you break out of it and remind yourself what it was like to win? How can I keep myself from bleeding money at the tables because my natural reaction as an 80% favorite is to lose?

I know my conditioned response is costing me at the tables.

Any type of advice or encouragement is greatly appreciated.

Move down a level or two until the cards come back. If you play scared you are going to do more harm than good.

... or go even further. Play at $0.02/$0.04, capping every street with every hand for the first round, then folding every hand for the next round. Repeat for 3 pairs of rounds. Then go to $0.10/$0.20 and play solid poker. Then buy into a $5 NL SNG and go all-in every hand until you lose or win. Then play one normally.

I find that the best thing to do after a lengthy bad run is to push out all of that residual tilt.

[soko]

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... or go even further. Play at $0.02/$0.04, capping every street with every hand for the first round, then folding every hand for the next round. Repeat for 3 pairs of rounds. Then go to $0.10/$0.20 and play solid poker. Then buy into a $5 NL SNG and go all-in every hand until you lose or win. Then play one normally.

I find that the best thing to do after a lengthy bad run is to push out all of that residual tilt.

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I was on a winning streak until I did that exact thing "just for the fun of it" and have been on a 3 week losing streak since.

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... or go even further. Play at $0.02/$0.04, capping every street with every hand for the first round, then folding every hand for the next round. Repeat for 3 pairs of rounds. Then go to $0.10/$0.20 and play solid poker. Then buy into a $5 NL SNG and go all-in every hand until you lose or win. Then play one normally.

I find that the best thing to do after a lengthy bad run is to push out all of that residual tilt.

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I was on a winning streak until I did that exact thing "just for the fun of it" and have been on a 3 week losing streak since.

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Of course. Come on, everybody knows that you dont' crew around with a winning streak. You just ride it out as long as you can. You thumbed your nose at the poker gods, and got what you deserved.

But the problem isn't tilt. I go into every session calm and when a guy sucks out on me, I just say nice hand. When I play one table, I finish down. When I play four tables, I finish down on four tables. I tried going down a level and up a level.

I even took a weeklong break of no poker and came back to literally just bleed money. I'm starting to get sick to my stomach.

Is it time to start being results oriented when AA, KK, QQ, and JJ have cost you about 30 times more money than they've made you in the last week? Is it time to think about quitting a game when you never win as an 80% favorite?

I'm being dead serious. Do I cash out my bankroll and just forget about poker? Isn't 6 weeks of downswing a little much?

[chesspain]

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When you go on a downswing for this long, how do you break out of it and remind yourself what it was like to win? How can I keep myself from bleeding money at the tables because my natural reaction as an 80% favorite is to lose?



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You need to take a break from playing until you can regain the rational understanding as to how variance works. You know, reminding yourself things like "there wouldn't even be games in which to play if the losing players never won."

I try to enter every game with the understanding that on any given hand, on any given day, at any given game - anyone can win. Even the guy who is 19 to 1 with one card to come.

Realizing that isn't making me win though. It's independent of an incredibly long, bad streak of beats that I can't shake. I even switched sites and game type.

It's like that episode of Seinfeld where his car got mutant BO. I just can't get away from this beast and it's ruining my life.