For the past few days I have been hitting brilliant hands!

Unfortunately, on almost every occasion, I have been outdrawn on the river so it's pretty evident I am on a cooler. Now if someone wants to say this is short term variance I certainly hope they are right (as opposed to long term )

How do you treat a cooler?

Take a break and stop playing for a couple of days?

Just cop your medicine and continue to play hoping you make the right plays and don't tilt?

Or....?

I am there too at the moment. As soon as I realize I am in a down swing I move down in stakes. I stay here until I have won a couple of sessions again before moving up. I play less poker when running bad and use my time to study HH instead, read articles etc. If the swing is really sick I take some time off from to clear my mind. In this period I don’t play, study, read or discuss poker at all. Sometimes two days off are enough, sometimes it takes a week or more. If I continue to run bad I take a longer break. I hate down swings.

I laugh. Then I sarcastically say "do it again." Then I laugh.

Hard to tell if it really is a cooler. And even if it is a cooler, it might tend to put you on tilt.

I back away and examine my game. Make sure I haven't fallen into bad habits.

Good idea. Do some studying and self evaluation while you're on break.

If you're really on a cooler and it's not affecting your game, yes. However if maybe it's not a cooler and/or if it's affecting the way you play, no. My problem is a run of losses affects the way I play. Speaking for myself, I back away and take a break. And then when I come back I try to just have a few small winning sessions to restore my self confidence. I think it's important to not try to make up any previous losses.

Buzz

I don't know what to do, I only know what not to do:

don't play higher.
don't play longer.
don't play looser.
don't play scared.
don't play tired.
don't play bored.
don't play drunk.
don't open more tables (online).
don't chase losses.

if you do (any of the above) while losing, you're on tilit and need to take a break/quit.

All of the above equalled in my biggest winning cash session ever

If things are not going your way just quit for the day and go do something else.

omaha can be a really sick game, and the variance (or at least the appearance of variance) can easily get into your head

when this happens a break is almost always a good idea, and you may want to consider playing some other types of poker before you go back

if you are focused on another game and then come back to your regular it should help ensure you go back to your normal style of behavior (plus playing a variety of games should help you become a stronger player overall), otherwise you might come back on edge without being fully aware

I have a bad habit where I tend to play longer sessions if I'm losing, but if I'm up a few buy-ins, I am very quick to call it a session and say "well that's enough for today". That's a really perverse strategy if you think about it.

Yeah, me too. Obviously, having ammo is important and winning big and losing small applies to sessions as well as pots as far as being fundamental to profitable poker (rather than just trying to somehow win small a majority of the time). However, I don't like having a monster stack against little stacks who may only buy once. I'm effectively laying them odds if I'm willing to play a long session and they're not. If they get lucky they can double up and use my money against me. And they only have to risk one buy in.

This is (or was) a bitch online, because if a table dies down you can't take your big stack to another table. Even having a big stack against another big stack is somewhat disconcerting, because if you lose a big hand you have to start all over and he gets to play with my $, or worse leave with it! At least that's a fair gamble, though.

This doesn't work for me, I find it tougher at 10c/25c than at 50c/1 :X

If I'm having trouble I play fewer tables, and play a bit more conservatively preflop - tighten up especially OOP, and keep the pot small preflop. Reduces the variance but you can still outplay people postflop.

Brilliant replies! Thank you all very much!

PokerSeemsFun...I have done something along these lines. Have cut back to only two tournaments per day and am studying two Pokers Psychology books which just happened to arrive yesterday.

the orange crush... Your sick (as am I) and I like it!

Buzz...I can't say it hasn't affected my game but I hope in a good way. I am playing only premium hands in position but that makes my game very readable.

When you have the nuts on the turn and you say to yourself "the only card that can beat me is the T" and the card hits can it really not affect your game (especially when this happens ten tournaments in a row).

str8 or better...As usual excellent advice from you!

Monikrazy...Thank you!

Freewill1978 & Hugh_G_Johnson...According to "The Poker Mindset" you have a big hole in your game.

Kittens...Thank you!

OP,
2+2 has a great psychology forum. lot's of good advice there.
You should consider opening a thread there, as well.
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/26/psychology/

Well, duh.... Did it sound like I was bragging?

Don't take it the wrong way mate! No disrespect was intended!

Thanks for your input.

Don't forget to reexamine your opponents hands to see just how many draws collectively they have to "cooler you". Oftentimes, your opponents have way more outs than you think.