running bad/feeling good/trying to be careful/inner thoughts

tdarko · #1 10-12-2005, 03:55 AM

september was my worst month since april of 2002 and i had been actually running pretty good for about 3 months so i was actually expecting variance to catch up to me.

then october hit and the drought has continued. this isn't really what the post is about though b/c i have been through this a million times and i understand how poker works.

here's where the post starts. i have been posting hands in PL&NL Mid/Hi for a while now and figuring some things out and reading everything i can, and what i have learned is that i am actually playing ok. tonight i had a terrible session, but i left pleased. i played pretty good, i made some decent plays and saved myself a butt load of money and called it a night.

i am wanting to know what is the longest anyone has ever ran bad? i am not talking about tilting away their bankroll, that isn't what this is about. i am very careful and i protect my BR. if the poker Gods or my leaks continue to dwindle my BR i will of course adjust my game choice accordingly.

another question i have is this: does anyone think that their inner emotion that they carry to the table has to do with the way things "turn out?" i am not talking about emotions that make you play different but more about positive thinking as supposed to negative thinking. does negative thinking breed negative results and vice versa? does anyone believe in this?

the people that do believe in positive mindsets and positive results i would be interested in why you think this works. plus, after months of consistant bad running how do you get yourself in the right frame of mind? i understand that players tilt all the time when they don't realize they are tilting this is apart of the dangers of tilt, and it affects the +EV of big hands b/c you push people off b/c you get scared of people drawing out on you etc etc etc, i undertand these concepts. i am mainly talking about being in a positive frame of mind so that it will breed positive results, if negative results still happen thats fine, b/c i will always deal with that.

sorry about my rambling, its late and just finished a session and had some thoughts.

thanks.

MicroBob · #2 10-12-2005, 04:42 AM

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does anyone think that their inner emotion that they carry to the table has to do with the way things "turn out?"

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I know it's silly of course....but I sometimes can't stop myself from feeling this way.

It's not a mindset that I have on purpose and it feels awfully Hellmuth-ian.

I know perfectly well that thinking 'happy thoughts' won't make the internet-poker-gods any more likely to deal me AA and have it hold-up for a big pot.

It just feels that way to me sometimes and I can't help but feel that.

Maybe I make more creative plays or slightly better folds when I am in this confident 'zone' as it were.

Obviously this type of thinking also leads to me avoiding playing if I'm in a bit of a bad or negative mood which I think is a good thing.

Do you think that anyone who has been involved in athletics would be more inclined to feel this way?

You're supposed to think positively when it comes to your golf-swing or sinking a free-throw or hitting a baseball or whatever.
Go in with a negative expectation and you will likely realize that.

We have a young kid on our rec-league soccer team who has trouble controlling (trapping) the ball on long kicks.
One play happened right in front of me when I was on the side-line and I observed that he already had an expectation and that he already knew that he was going to lose the ball out-of-bounds BEFORE it happened.

I don't know.
Seems somewhat related to me.
And I think someone with sports experience might inadvertently try to transfer some feelings of 'positivity' that don't fully transfer over to poker.

KaneKungFu123 · #3 10-12-2005, 05:32 AM

how many hands are we talking in sept-oct?

tdarko · #4 10-12-2005, 11:01 AM

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how many hands are we talking in sept-oct?

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~30K hands

tdarko · #5 10-12-2005, 11:03 AM

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Do you think that anyone who has been involved in athletics would be more inclined to feel this way?

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this is kind of why i feel i am making my own bad luck as they say. like my father always said, "if you throw a pitch and you think the hitter is going to hit it he probably will."

#6 10-12-2005, 11:12 AM

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does anyone think that their inner emotion that they carry to the table has to do with the way things "turn out?"

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Yeah, I've noticed this myself. Not sure why.

Apparently Doyle Brunson believes this too (I swear I'm not a WPT fan-boy [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]). After he found out that his cancer had miraculously dissapeared he won in like 50-something poker sessions in a row.

KaneKungFu123 · #7 10-12-2005, 08:51 PM

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how many hands are we talking in sept-oct?

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~30K hands

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its very easy to break even over 30k hands.

#8 10-12-2005, 09:45 PM

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[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
how many hands are we talking in sept-oct?

[/ QUOTE ]
~30K hands

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its very easy to break even over 30k hands.

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Actually it's almost impossible to do this.

#9 10-12-2005, 10:40 PM

i believe that if you arent feeling confident or happy you will end up doing worse. As someone pointed out before you have to have a positive expectation. I am a collegiate discus thrower, and I find that having a positive attitude and confidence in your ability helps you not only in competitions, but getting through practice, and correcting your mistakes. It goes a very very long way. Successful people in any field are usually very confident (borderline cocky) in their abilities.

tdarko · #10 10-13-2005, 12:25 AM

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its very easy to break even over 30k hands

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you are right, this is the longest i have gone on a perpetual downswing and usually its never one problem but a dynamic of problems rolling into each other to form one big problem.

i am actually glad you commented in here b/c i do have a question for you. i have actually been broadening my game (you might have noticed in the strat forums, probably not...it doesnt matter) i have recently been taking stabs at bigger games. i have had the BR to do this for a long time but poker has always been something "fun" that i do has a hobby and nothing more (still is) and i was always content with staying at 2/4-3/6 NL with the occasional splash around at 1/2 NL when a game was juicy. lately i have been playing 5/10 and the strange thing is that i have been doing better with this game than the 2/4-3/6.

are the mix of games messing me up? i seriously doubt it, but i know you have taken shots at bigger games and succeeded but you play poker and i make my money from other things. its far fetched i know but just curious why i am running well in the bigger game and so God-awful in the game i am "comfortable" in.