I'd rather have a losing session than this? (probably not)

[dfscott]

I had a wierd occurance last night -- I set down for my typical 3-4 hour weekend session. I bounced from able to table, multi-tabling most of the time, playing mostly 2/4 but a little 1/2 as well. Tore up some tables, took some bad beats at others.

At the end of the night, I compared my ending bankroll to my beginning BR and the result: I made a grand total of $0.25. Not $25, but one shiny quarter.

I felt like the entire night was wasted. If I have a down session, I at least feel like I'm "paying my dues" and getting the inevitable out of the way. Of course, an up session is always good, but this is just "blah."

I started thinking about it, and it reminds me of the feeling you get when your favorite sports team plays a big game and it ends in a tie. You're left feeling like it's unfinished or something.

Not sure what I'm trying to say here -- I always try to console myself with the fact that a lesser player would've had a losing session, and I should be happy that I didn't lose money, but it's just a strange feeling.

[Duke]

A few weeks back I decided that I was going to play 30k hands in a week to put together some cash real fast. The first 2 days I played around 10k hands and found myself stuck $200.

And it took the wind out of my sails. I just didn't feel like playing. The next day I just couldn't convince myself to get on the sites. And the day after that.

Now I'm pretty much back in the swing of it, but I couldn't make myself play for over a week.

Yeah, it sucks to run flat.

~D

[The Ocho]

The concept of "Paying your dues" is just plain silly. The nature of poker is such that you will win sometimes, and lose other times. That is just the way the game is. Losing in a particular session does not preclude the next session being a winning one. Losing money does NOT necessarily mean you have gained experience. What you learn from playing and thinking is the experience you gain. You can learn as much from a winning session as a losing one as a break-even one. Play well, apply what you learn and observe, and everything will fall into place.

Breaking even can be unsatisfying. But winning and learning nothing can be much worse.

[dfscott]

[ QUOTE ]
The concept of "Paying your dues" is just plain silly. The nature of poker is such that you will win sometimes, and lose other times. That is just the way the game is. Losing in a particular session does not preclude the next session being a winning one.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think you missed the point of my post. If this was just a bad-beat post, I would've posted it in SS (or, more correctly, not at all). I've played a hand or two and understand the basic math of the game.

My point is the psychological feeling when you get a result like this. There was very little to "learn" in these hands, getting draw out with runner-runner is part of the game.

[ QUOTE ]

Breaking even can be unsatisfying. But winning and learning nothing can be much worse.

[/ QUOTE ]

I understand that you're talking about long-term here, but I'm talking about short-term. I think we'll have to agree to disagree on this one. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[BarronVangorToth]

A little over a month ago...

Played a marathon session at Foxwoods for like eighteen hours (yeah, I know, it's -EV that many hours but I was feeling great and the table was hot even though I took random bad hits, blah blah blah) and I stacked my chips not in my traditional 20-stack way (i.e. $100 per stack) but in this new configuration that I was toying around with, anyway, we racked up, and....

up $4.

FOUR DOLLARS.

Needless to say, the tip to the valet guy was on Big Daddy Barron.


Barron Vangor Toth
www.BarronVangorToth
"Four Dollars ... I (Don't) Want My Four Dollars"

[Blarg]

From the rake alone, you have to win to break even. I don't feel bad about that at all.

[dfscott]

[ QUOTE ]
"Four Dollars ... I (Don't) Want My Four Dollars"

[/ QUOTE ]

Priceless... my three year old came up to me yesterday and said "I need two dol-lars," and I immediately cracked up. My wife just looked at me -- if you haven't seen the film, it loses something in the translation.

Anyway, thanks for the commiseration -- at least I didn't make a special trip. [img]/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]

[The Ocho]

I'm not questioning your knowledge of the game. I also realize that there always isn't something new to learn in any particular session. My point was just that breaking even is just like getting nailed by runner-runner. It happens. It doesn't feel good, but sometimes there isn't much you can do. There's always the next session.

Breaking even can feel like a waste of a night. Maybe you can find solace in the fact that you did not press too hard to manufacture a win and ended up losing instead. You quit when you felt like quitting, not when you won X dollars. That's good poker.

[dfscott]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm not questioning your knowledge of the game. I also realize that there always isn't something new to learn in any particular session. My point was just that breaking even is just like getting nailed by runner-runner. It happens. It doesn't feel good, but sometimes there isn't much you can do. There's always the next session.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sorry, I probably was a little defensive -- didn't mean to get sarcastic. I appreciate your feedback.

[ QUOTE ]
Breaking even can feel like a waste of a night. Maybe you can find solace in the fact that you did not press too hard to manufacture a win and ended up losing instead. You quit when you felt like quitting, not when you won X dollars. That's good poker.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yep, I always set a time-limit for my sessions before I start to keep from chasing after lost money -- it's worked pretty well in the past. However, in the spirit of "be careful what you wish for," I dropped about 45BB in about 2-1/2 hours of play tonight. It was my first 2/4-only session, so it was a little shocking seeing my BR drop by almost $200. I actually stopped my session early and went and played some 1/2 stud just to cool down. Fortunately, I also track by BB won/loss, and I've had bigger BB drops than this, so although I tilted a bit , I think I'm ok.

Anyway, thanks again for listening...

[BarronVangorToth]

Plus, as to the title of your topic, I can't believe you'd really prefer a losing session over a break even one.

Writing that "-" symbol into your poker journal is just aggravating, EVEN if it's a small number next to it, "+" just looks better.

Barron Vangor Toth
www.BarronVangorToth.com
+ > -