My mind is melting, don't know what to do, don't know what to think.

- By "BB" I mean Big Blinds. -
Introducing myself: I've been playing NL Holdem for an year right now, started at PS pennies with a 50$ deposit, always won my couple dollars... Grew up on the game till NL100. Beat all those even lower limits and raised my limits whenever I had 50 times the buyin for the new table. Read some books about the game, always read 2+2 forums for info on hands and more theory to my knowledge.
Seems fine, doesn't it? Yeah, but something terrible is happening to me: I'm losing. Badly. Last 15 days I lost 1700BB (1000 of those were during the last TWO days).
This is driving me crazy and I don't know what to do. I consider it a bad luck streak, losing AA to 36, to K8, to KK, to AK. Not hitting my set on 35 pocket pairs in a row and on the 36th when I hit I win a 7BB pot. When I have a good hand, people own me @ turn or river. When I don't have a good hand I hit something pretty good to make me think I have it, but I don't. Like on this heads up that I lost 100BB with KQ flop KK8 and the guy had AK, he slowplayed me and beat me, maybe I was already on tilt on this one, but whatever.
I'm not saying those never happen, I'm not saying those are never supposed to happen. What I want you guys to know is: it is UNREAL to be happening as much as it is. Every single day I lost, on average, 4+ pots that I had 83%++ to win at the crucial part of the pot and 2+ pots with 92%++.
Wathever. Bad beats happens. And sometimes they do happen a lot like they are happening right now. My doubt is: how to control myself?
Every single day I wake up to play poker I think "today the bad luck will be gone, I know it will be gone". I start the day winning... 50BB, 100BB, 150BB. Then 1 big bad beat happens. I get back to where I started. I grow up to 50BB again and 2 bad beats happen. I go to -100 or -150 and then things only get worse.
I'm starting to lose confidence on myself. I tell my bad beats to friends and they simply don't believe me, what makes me feel even more sad with myself cause they say thats all LIES that I'm telling them and that my bad streak is IMPOSSIBLE to be happening. They say I'm playing bad and they don't believe my beats.
It's all making me feel shitty with/about myself. I'm starting to not believe in basic theories, in math... Man, when a poker player start losing faith on the math of the game... What should he do?

I'm desperate. I can't control myself after I stop playing... I can't think about anything else other then my losses. I don't have will to hang out or to do something else cause I've put so much effort to this game and now all this [censored] [censored] is happening.
What should I do to raise up my confidence on myself, on poker, on everything?

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

[Reef]

take a break
drop down limits temporarily

[TheClown]

I am having the exact problem for the moment.
It doesn´t matter what I do. The flop as good as never hits, and if they do flop me trips, I always gets outdrawn to a straight or higher by someone without the correct odds to call me. The same with 4-flushes, they never hit, and if I´m really lucky :-) I can´t get anything better than a pair. It doesn´t matter what I do, I just can´t seem to win. What to do? I´m gonna stay away from poker for a week, then see if it helps!

Go take a few days away from the game. As of right now your tilt is showing and you will do no better than lose more till you relax. It's all odds and if you are a winning player it will come back if you have the same mind set you had when you won it all the first time. Go get laid, get a stiff drink a nice cigar and relax(w00t for multiple addictions!).

[Tilt]

Repeat after me:

There is no such thing as luck
There is no such thing as luck
There is no such thing as luck
Every deal is an independent random event
Every deal is an independent random event
Every deal is an independent random event

If you believe these things, then you won't take the losses hard. You won't believe "its going to turn around soon". A significant amount of the time it will get worse. But that is irrelevant - all you should need to do as a winning player is play winning poker for enough hands for that to shine through.

Also, recalibrate your expectations. Massive losing streaks happen, but because they happen somewhat rarely one tends to exclude their possibility from their earning expectations. Take a longer view. How are you doing this year at poker?

[vexvelour]

[ QUOTE ]
Man, when a poker player start losing faith on the math of the game... What should he do?


[/ QUOTE ]

We all go through this at some point or another. What you are experiencing is something that comes with the game unfortunately. My suggestion is to take some time off to read up and brush up on your game. I don't know what books you have read, but I will suggest Psychology of Poker by Schoonmaker. It helps me to put great perspective on my own game as well as what everyone else is doing. It helps change "can I win" to "I can win". If you've read this and think that re-reading will not help, pick up a book that will help you with your weaker points of play. Perhaps other posters can suggest some. Hope this helps.

I've read Hold'em Poker, Hold'em Poker for Advanced Players and both Super System.
And thank you guys, I really appreciate your words. They are exactly the kind of words that a tilted player knows he will listen. But he needs to listen to believe.

I'll take a break for a few days, read some books to distract my mind and do something else and then comeback to poker.

And this year I'm still winning money, Tilt, but the last weeks... OMG. =[

Thank you very much guys.

[matt berkey]

When you come back try playing in some big tournaments. Its a small risk to win alot and what better way to turn things around than with a huge tourny win to get you back on track. Not to mention it will force you to play better cards.

[octop]

I once lost 6 huge all ins in a 3 day period where I was literley a 97% or better favorite when the money went in the pot
Throw that on top of the 80+% you lose and missing every draw finally hitting a set to lose to a higher set etc.
It was disgusting
It was the closest Ive ever came to tilting
But you can't control the cards
Get oyur money in with the best of it and if you cant take the swings drop down or play limit