Long, Painful, and Seemingly Endless

[PokerCad]

to dankhank, Im printing your post and keeping it in my poker log for daily read, excellent post and I hope it helps the poster. I know it will help me now and in the futurehttp://forumserver.twoplustwo....icons/cool.gif
cool

[ElSapo]

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Try this, what have you got to lose? Cash out, down to about $1500. Just doing this is very therapeutic; you're pulling a chuck of money out of the game that you can never lose, because you are never going to redeposit it. It will feel good.

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I can't agree with this more, although arguably it's a reason I don't play very high. There is tremendous relief when you're running bad in pulling out money and rebuilding.

[arkady]

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This is a scary post, but I can't believe it's possible without there being something wrong with your play. It's certainly possible to have good stats but still be botching some things. What happens is your winning and losing sessions are both a little worse than they should be, and this causes the longer down and break-even swings, and the shorter upswings.

You probably need to start by rebuilding confidence. I don't think you should be afraid to drop even further, just to regain confidence that you can win again. This is the most important thing. It sounds like you may have been a little stubborn about this.

I had a similar feeling for two months last year. I dropped and dropped, as low as 2/4 before I got it back together. I cashed out most of my roll and rebuilt it all. I needed confidence and this helped. All the while I kept reading and thinking about the game of course. I worked my way back up to 15/30, even while poker was my primary source of income.

Try this, what have you got to lose? Cash out, down to about $1500. Just doing this is very therapeutic; you're pulling a chuck of money out of the game that you can never lose, because you are never going to redeposit it. It will feel good.

Now rebuild. Start at 2/4, get to $3000, go to 3/6, get to $5000, go to 5/10, etc. Don't bang your head against the wall for too long; if you stall at a level for a while, cash out and drop back one. I had to do this twice, once at 10/20 and again at 15/30. Each level feels easier the second time around, both coming down and going up.

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good advice here, imo.

[brick]

[ QUOTE ]
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Try this, what have you got to lose? Cash out, down to about $1500. Just doing this is very therapeutic; you're pulling a chuck of money out of the game that you can never lose, because you are never going to redeposit it. It will feel good.

[/ QUOTE ]

I can't agree with this more, although arguably it's a reason I don't play very high. There is tremendous relief when you're running bad in pulling out money and rebuilding.

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I second this. It just takes the pressure off.

[Justin A]

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"not nearly where I should be."

you have been running bad and unlucky. others on here have been running very well and very lucky, and moving up higher and higher and they think theyre poker gurus. still others have been coasting along in between, paying the bills.

just chill, do other stuff and when you least expect it the sun will peek through the clouds and you will smile again. i was where you were for about 8 months, a very dark place, and for 3 months it's back to the sort of non-stop winning i had been used to for 5 years.

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I think this is bad for someone who is serious about poker regardless of whether they are running good or bad. You should always be looking for ways to get better.

[MoDOH]

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Try this, what have you got to lose? Cash out, down to about $1500. Just doing this is very therapeutic; you're pulling a chuck of money out of the game that you can never lose, because you are never going to redeposit it. It will feel good.

Now rebuild. Start at 2/4, get to $3000, go to 3/6, get to $5000, go to 5/10, etc. Don't bang your head against the wall for too long; if you stall at a level for a while, cash out and drop back one.

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I think this is excellent advice, and something I have done myself in the beginning of my career. Also taking a long break from poker will d a world of good for your game.

1. Take some time off or if you want to play
2. lower your play limit
3. set up a losing limit for a session
4. Accumulate little victories to re-build your confidence (e.g., in 15/30 level, your session goal can be set as a $200 winning or even less, you can achieve it at very beginning of the session, and then you quit from the session right away).

Confidence is very very important to poker, if you lose it, you must to find it back. Good luck.

[SmileyEH]

I didn't read your entire post or all the replies but I've gotten the jist. My advice is to swallow your pride and play like 25k hands at 2/4 or something, 8 table if you can. Just convice yourself you're good at poker and can make lots of money at it. If you're struggling with 15/30 it's not like you'll be giving up a lot of cash. My .02 at least. Good luck.

-SmileyEH

[mike l.]

you must have misunderstood me. what i mean by just chill do other stuff is have a life outside of obsessing about poker and how bad youre running and changing that and woe is me and that whole obsessive cycle. i didnt mean, dont get better, dont try different approaches or anything like that. i meant take some serious time off away from the game. sometimes this means finding another source of work.

[flub]

If you want advice your party username would help, and at this point I wouldn't worry about getting hurt.

Generally for your mental health though I'd quit poker and get a real job. There's nothing wrong with your work actually contributing to society. Also there are other challenges you can take on instead of poker from building homes for the homeless to making an uber everquest character.

-f