Dry Spell/Bad Spell ... how to deal

[hamstacker]

I recently decided to go "semi-pro." I still have a job but I devote a minimum of 25 hours per week to poker with weekly goals. I have been on a steady stream of healthy winning sessions for the last three months. The last week or so though, I have hit a bad patch. I lost a number of buy ins over a couple of days and then have seesawed between winning and losing with only very minor net progress. Either I cant get anything going or the bad beats/cold deck stuff is happening so much that I am starting to feel the tilt coming on.

I tried moving down to a micro limit to play through it but I am not playing my A-game there (I think) because I no longer take those stakes seriously enough and I make some loose calls and try to set up plays that are lost on the other players.

I tried playing some cheap SNG tourneys and that has helped my confidence but its not generating enough $.

I think I have kept the tilt factor in check but it is grating. I thought about buying a second monitor so I could have eight tables open to keep me from playing hands out of boredom.

I am out of ideas.

Any suggestions on how to deal with this sort of thing are appreciated.

Thanks for your help!

[Chillout]

Sounds to me like you're trying too hard. You have been on a winning streak for THREE months! You shouldn't let a couple of days or a week - or even a month, put you off. I know it's not easy though - I was in a similar situation in March. I lost half a month's income in one day, and used three weeks to get my game going again (and another three-four weeks to win the money back).

What got me back on track wasn't a single action or measure. I just kept playing the same limit and the same site as I had been winning on, knowing that I could beat the game if I just focused and played my best. I also confered with my poker buddies and watched them play from time to time, just to make sure I wasn't totally off in my game. Gradually, my losing sessions became more infrequent, and I remember one day in particualar when I looked at my negative trend graph in Excel - and even though I had a losing session that day, I felt more confident than in weeks and I thought "this is the bottom. I'm back". And I was [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] The next day was the start of a month long winning streak (of course minor losing sessions scattered in, but these I could ascribe to bad card runs without being dishonest to myself).

Ok enough rambling about me, the point is you should focus on the game you played when you were good - you know you can get back on top! But because the tilt/frustration barrier probably is lower now because of lower confidence, you should take short sessions and be very strict with yourself, taking breaks when you lose. AND when you win! Allow yourself to go to bed with minor winnings regularily - this way you'll build your confidence back gradually, and the large winning session will come eventually.