Tell me it's going to be ok :)

[fire_fly]

for you lazy ppl who don't want to read lots, I put the meat in bold

Hi, just wanted some advice from people who have been there before.

I play a lot of poker.

PT says I’ve played over 750 table hours, and that’s not counting the eternity I spent 2 tabling the .25/.50 game to built my roll from 20 bucks to a grand (8bb/100 over 25k hands). About 3.4bb/100 over 41k hands at .5/1 and ½, so I’m not a newbie by any means.

I am pretty damn accustomed to normal swings, but in the last 7k hands, I am in the largest swing I’ve ever had.

The funny thing is, I’m not freaking out or really worried, but I’m just wondering, how do you guys deal with it?

7k hands is about 30 hours of strait 3 or 4 tabling for me and the cards have been absolutely unreal. I am honestly more in awe of how bad cards can run than anything.

Just as a small example, I plugged 2k hands of 2/4 (my first attempt at full time 2/4, how wonderful!) into poker grader. Results: -270 dollars, Overall grade A: cumulative luck, -23. And this was not surprising at all, I knew I just had unreal back luck.

So yeah, advice on how to go about it? My confidence is getting shaky, to say the least, expecting the worst, etc, though I honestly think I'm still playing well.

[Fantam]

I dont know very much about poker grader or how reliable it is for evaluating your play.

I accept that you are an experienced player and feel that you are playing well, but have recently had a large downswing. That is certainly possible.

However, its very hard to suggest anything other than to post some of the hands that you played to see whether other experienced posters agree that you played them correctly.

At least that should either boost your now fragile confidence, or it may help to spot some leaks in your game, which you were unaware of.

In the meantime, it probably wouldnt hurt to drop back down to a level which you have consistently beaten to regain your confidence, before having another try at moving up.

[AdamL]

[ QUOTE ]
Just as a small example, I plugged 2k hands of 2/4 (my first attempt at full time 2/4, how wonderful!) into poker grader. Results: -270 dollars, Overall grade A: cumulative luck, -23. And this was not surprising at all, I knew I just had unreal back luck.

[/ QUOTE ]

I have almost exactly the same numbers and the same hands. -370 dollars though. (!)

I just keep in mind poker is a long, long game.

[KingOtter]

I'm going through the same thing, over about 3k hands at the moment.

Was down 65BB quite quick last night, but recovered to 40BB. But it was, as you say unreal. Early in the night I was tilting a bit from the cards I was up against but then I entered some kind of strange zone... where I knew I wasn't going to win, but I knew what I SHOULD do, so I did it. The beats stopped hurting.

KO

[Aaron W.]

[ QUOTE ]
The funny thing is, I’m not freaking out or really worried, but I’m just wondering, how do you guys deal with it?

[/ QUOTE ]

Constant evaluation. Making the right decision is about ten times easier when you've got all day long to think about it. If I'm getting better, there's no way the rest of the fish are catching up to me.

[kapw7]

Online poker is RIGGED

[zuluking]

Normal variance. Get over it.

[numeri]

I'd recommend taking some real time to look back at your play. Like the last MicroPoster suggested, a downswing is often due to poor play. I find it hard to believe that a winning player can have a downswing entirely due to bad luck for 7k hands. Of course, there could be plenty of bad luck involved, but it's dangerous to just attribute it all to the cards.

Take some time. Go over some hands. Find someone willing to look over a few with you. A few bad plays here and there add up very quickly.

Good luck!

[Jaran]

Go do something else. Get drunk. Get laid. Read a book. Go for a hike, bikeride, etc. Play frisbee with your friends (you do have friends, don't you?). Find a new restarant and take a hot girl to dinner. Learn to juggle. Take up woodcarving. Fall in love. Breathe. Write a letter to an old friend. Look at your baby pictures. Call your mom. Volunteer at the local soup kitchen, library, retirement home. Learn italian, farsee, chinese.

Live.

-Jaran

[numeri]

[ QUOTE ]
Go do something else. Get drunk. Get laid. Read a book. Go for a hike, bikeride, etc. Play frisbee with your friends (you do have friends, don't you?). Find a new restarant and take a hot girl to dinner. Learn to juggle. Take up woodcarving. Fall in love. Breathe. Write a letter to an old friend. Look at your baby pictures. Call your mom. Volunteer at the local soup kitchen, library, retirement home. Learn italian, farsee, chinese.

Live.

-Jaran

[/ QUOTE ]
Very nice post, Jaran.