plea for help (l/c...lock this)

[goofball]

Pokerbob - I would strongly reccomend you play full games. The worst thing you can do when running bad is play short where people are going to be testing you all the time. The 3/6 full game is very honest and I was there for about 20k hands a few months ago. It helped me turn around a devastating online losing streak.

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Gah, you guys in SSSH are tooo good. Inspite of what tporoor bob says, I can't lock this. there's too mcuh cguooo d tstuff here.

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I like Egg Nog too.

FWIW, Bob, I think you have great skill for poker, but, speaking for myself, I often have trouble applying what I learn on-the-fly. When I'm running badly, I'm comfortable if I'm still seeing where I made mistakes, like missed value bets or bluff opportunities. I get scared when I can't, in which case I take a break (like days off).

Also, if it makes you feel any better, I've run fairly bad my whole poker career. I've rarely had my premium hands hold up more than 80% of the time at any limit I've played (usually starts out way behind and then approaches that magical 80 over months). I've almost never had more than the mean number of high PPs dealt to me (I'm almost always behind on AA-QQ). I think there 's a large difference in long-term luck between players, enough that it may take years to even out.

I think I used up all my luck the time I flopped quad As at the final table of a SnG and busted out the last two opponents at the same time. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[Victor]

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I think Victor closed in on that at one point.

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one 400 and one 350 in 300k hands.

my roomate has had a 700 and a 500 and he practically taught me poker.

[Adam22]

the nice thing about my relationship with downswings over my poker career is that as i get better as a player, the down swings seem to get less horrific. i think i've been running good for 200,000 hands or so ( nothing over a 200 bb drop ).

possibly my most heart-wrenching downswing was when i moved to 10/20 after having played 5/10 for like 4-5 months ( i got most of my most important advanced poker lessons at 5/10 i believe ). i ran good for like 20k hands at 1.85bb/100 ( which blew my mind because i couldn't believe how much money i was making and had to remind myself that 1.85/100 was a pretty normal win rate that i could certaintly maintain ). so anyways i hit an insane -500bb downswing and i think at one point i resolved to become some sort of poker monk and eat only turkey sandwiches and play 5/10 8 hours a day.

so i spent like 2-3 months grinding hard at 5/10 after that and really learned a ton about blind defense and stealing as well as playing marginal hands profitably. i'm like 1000 times more confident in my play now ( and my last 60k hands are way better statistically than my last 60k before that ) so now i'm playing 10/20 again and i'm pretty confident about my ability to do well.

the only thing i'd like to remind the bobs about is that making a living at online hold em isn't really that hard. the things we argue about and sweat on here are very small in the grand scheme of things and although the overall ability to analyze our play correctly will definetly be +EV, the small decisions that you might think are affecting your play right now are not the reason for your downswing. like, i always remind myself when i'm running bad that i make like 15 bucks an hour just from rakeback so all i really have to do is break even and i'm doing better than i would be lifting boxes in a factory. there are a lot of players who just grind it out and probably earn around 1bb/100 hands including rakeback, and i wouldn't cry myself to sleep if i was sentenced to doing that for the next few years.

this post is long, rambling and lacks the charm of a micro bob essay.

[imported_stealthcow]

get a coach.

[oreogod]

nice post.

[Wynton]

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the only thing i'd like to remind the bobs about is that making a living at online hold em isn't really that hard. the things we argue about and sweat on here are very small in the grand scheme of things and although the overall ability to analyze our play correctly will definetly be +EV, the small decisions that you might think are affecting your play right now are not the reason for your downswing.

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I agree that many of the hotly debated topics here are about decisions that are not likely to have a large impact on one's bottom line. But I would not state that it is "easy" to make a living that way.

One of my mantras is that the hard part about limit poker isn't so much understanding the right strategy, but attaining the zen-like discipline to use that knowledge and play correctly. I think maintaining a disciplined approach is quite hard and that ability is what separates the real winners from the real losers.

Also, while many of the strategic decisions are so close that they may not matter tremendously in the long run, I think we all agree that even those discussions are helpful, as they invariably illuminate and refer to the fundamentals.

[TomBrooks]

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Try changing your avatar. Sorry if it seems like a stupid suggestion, but sometimes a small, symbolic gesture can be the catalyst for a shift in thinking and feeling that turns things around.

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I don't think it's a stupid suggestion, and I believe changing that avatar would be more than just a symbolic gesture.

What we believe tends to manifest in our lives. What kind of belief does that avatar reflect that you might have? If it is a negative belief, reinforcing it with images, words, and even thoughts (especially thoughts) is not only not helpful, it is self destructive. Changing that avatar will not by itself make you believe more in happiness and prosperity, but not removing it will probably tend to work against the kind of positive attitudes that will help manifest the kind of changes you'd like to see.