play less when running bad?

[pearljam]

I find anymore ill sit down to play a long session, have 1 or 2 losing sets, get sick and then sighn off. its not that bad, 25 buy ins at the 30+3, but man are the actual in game beats horrible. How can I mentally cope with this better and be able to grind through a 50 SNG session winning or losing when it seems like im in the "middle of a bad run".

Edit: In a sence I guess its a good thing that I sighn off before I start making marginally stupid plays and get emotionally off balanced, I just wish I could stay at my top game wile im in a bad streak and in the middle of a bad session.

[R_Brite_TDX]

I am curious to know the answer to this as well...I often just stop playing for a few hours or so when I am running bad. I assume after you have played thousands of sngs the good guys pretty much know that it will turn around real soon and just keep on firing up more.

[pearljam]

I have played thousands of profitable SNG's, but what scares me is I was somehow profitable over a couple hundred SNG's without really any clue of what I was doing when I first started, maybe fate owes me a 100 buy in downswing, who knows.

[ChewyMint]

When I am running bad in the SNG's, I normally drop down a level or two. If I'm playing $100's, I'll play $20's or $30's, to pass the time. Other times I will open one SNG from each level. I would think the best thing to do is to stay at your standard level, provided you are making good decisions, but it is difficult to remain confident.

ChewyMint

[Annulus]

If you feel that your game is off, quitting the session is probably the smartest thing you can do. I feel that im finally starting to take bad beats in stride. I guess after 2 years of sngs im starting to really feel at peace with my poker game, but trust me it has been a long road. Also, I forgot who gave me this idea, but when things are going very bad, go play a few $5 dollars sngs and play as aggressive and maniacal as you please, alot of times this has done wonders for my temperament. Good luck.

[bluefeet]

meh...applicable maybe:

"It's a typical struggle - dealing with the psychological hurdles you put up when you continually measure 'success'. I'm a stat junky myself. Goal setting, monitoring results, etc., are instrumental in my own motivation. The challenge is trying to maintain the 'positive' mindset when you aren't meeting your own expectaions. I don't really know what the answer is, but you certainly aren't alone.

One key for me is to not try to break my 'goal' into smaller segments. I want to play 'x' number of games a month and return a profit of 'z' amount. If 'x' is 300, you have to realize how inconsequential the results are of a specific game or a set of games. The fact that games 14 thru 21 sucked, and that they all occured on the 4th of June, holds no special significants amongst the total. It's only meaningful when you try to measure your success at these micro-levels.

I have a friend that will start a bad run, work his ass off to get back 'even for the day' and then call it quits. Celebrating a small victory for the day. The important thing to remember is that your long-term (monthly perhaps) goal is not divided into a given number of 'battles'. Don't view the days in the month as individual battles in the war to reach your goal. There only is the war.

The competition isn't just the other players at the poker table. The biggest competition is against yourself. I DO track daily (I have more tabs & charts on my spreadsheet than you can imagine). But I work very hard at not letting myself be a defeatist when things aren't going to plan. Far too easy to comfort yourself and say "eh, just not my day", or "man, maybe I just suck"....bullshit. That's too easy. Remind yourself of the bigger picture, challenge yourself to get back 'to work' and play the game you know how to play.

Enough rambling.......get back to work! "

[gildwulf]

I just switch to ring games if I'm running bad.

[11t]

Good post.