7 hours of being card dead (I logged the hands once I realized how little I was playing - no AA-TT, AK twice, AQ twice, a few pocket pairs, few suited connectors).

This follows the other night where I played for 4 hours with AA once, TT twice, AK a couple of times, and not much else.

And the few times I had a playable hand in position or the blinds, most of the time I was ahead and the Vs got lucky (which we do expect to happen). fwiw - i'll be posting this hands to see if they could have been played better


The question is really: is this a "play it out and eventually you'll get hands again" type thing, a "change your style and loosen up" type thing, a "take a break and stop playing for a month or two until the planets realign" type thing, or "switch to only playing tourneys and limit for a while" type thing?

I'm at a loss right now and I kind of hate playing because I shouldn't feel jealous when someone sits down and instantly triples up against the marks, yet that is how I feel when I've spent my entire day trying to get a hand and position to do what it took them 15 seconds to accomplish.

You should have earn serious money during that period of time with the hands you described. If you not, then there's if a big problem the way you play AK, AA. You should be able to lure players into the pot with your AA and AK. Obviously there must be a big problem. Try getting more experience.

Thanks MamaRolex. Your advice is sound and I am always appreciative of the feedback you provide. I scour the forums looking at every post you make, deeply meditating on the words, thoughts, and emotion your words evoke. Thank you for being such a positive, caring contributor to 2+2.

This depends on how serious of a player you are. If you just a casual player then sure, this is a good time to take a break. If you are more serious then you have to learn to play through it because it will happen to everybody sometimes and if you are earning part or all of your living this way you can't just take a week off because of bad cards.

Exactly how to play through depends on your table. At some you can take advantage of a nitty image to steal a few more pots preflop and on the flop, at more loose/stationary tables you just have to sit there and fold hand after hand until you have value.

Learning not to feel jealous of players getting lucky can be hard but with some practice you can learn to instead watch how they are playing and think about how to get their money.

Volume is important.

Let's pretend you see 30 hands per hour. (high)

7 hours = 210 hands

You're only going to see a pocket pair about 6% of the time which means that on average you'll get 13 pairs in this time.

That's not as often as some people think.

If 7 hours is enough to get you to stop playing for a month, this game probably isn't for you.

Also you should be adjusting to your opponents. Your range of hands should be dictated by scenario.

Try using a different lure?

I think it's more of a "this is all a totally standard part of poker" thing, and you're going to have to learn to get used to these frustrations. They are part of the reason the game is so hard to play well- it seeks to drive you nuts at every opportunity.

I guess you are just playing for fun, there is no fun to be had atm for you, take a break until you feel like playing again imo

You're describing 11 hours of play, which is a really small sample.
If you are seeing 30 hands an hour, that's 7 hours to see 210 hands. The odds against being dealt AKs are about 330 to 1. The odds against being dealt AA are about 220 to 1. I always think it's funny that it's more rare to start with AKs than AA but I digress.
So in 11 hours, to get AA only once isn't hot or cold. To not get any KK, QQ or JJ during that time is a bit unlucky but with standard deviation.

When I'm running cold or if players are drawing out on me, I tighten up. I don't play as many speculative hands in position, I play pocket pairs more slowly, looking to hit a set before getting too committed (obviously, big pair play differently than small pairs).
If you start openings up you action, you can take a bad run and make it terrible. Sometimes, no matter how well you play, the game is going to beat you. The difference between winning players and losing players over time isn't always winning one session or one week or one month. Sometimes, it's more about losing less than someone else would. Minimizing your losses during a bad streak is as important as maxing your wins when your luck is breaking even or when you're running hot.

My advice: take a deep breath. Realize that 11 hours is a very small data set. Keep playing but play a little more tight and when you're in, more aggressive. Don't start playing full on ABC poker, but do return to your fundamental, best game. All of us, when winning or losing, have a tendency to open up our games. When running bad or running cold, get back to basics. Don't be limping JTo in early position. Don't complete the small blind with Q3o. Don't get caught up in FPS. And don't be scared to put the chips in.

If you're a winning player, if you show discipline, if other players are making mistakes that you can exploit, just be patient.

Some great players run bad or run cold for a week or a month or a year. It sucks. But that's poker. 11 hours? A blip. If you start feeling like you can't beat the game, take a break. Mindset matters. But if you can come in with the right, winning mindset, you play through the troughs.

Best thing to do when you're running bad is have a notebook with you and take notes. Reconstructing hands you witness will make you a better observer.

No limit Texas holdem is a very boring game when card dead.

Doyle Brunson said no limit holdem is hours and hours of boredom, followed by moments of sheer terror.
Maybe not the exact quote but pretty close.

Look, a lot of people start pushing edges that aren't there when they are card dead. Someone already stated in the thread that poker is about minimizing your losses just the same as maximizing your wins. Sounds to me like you did a great job of that. Staying disciplined through hours of being card dead is an underrated but very important skill that a lot of players have trouble with.
I think your ahead of the game in that sense.

That's why top live players don't go to casino and focus only on the game.

They go and hangout, so when cards are dead, they just socialize. When cards run bad, they socialize. When cards run good, they stay quiet .

There are two types of poker players, ones who can handle long stretches without any significant action and losers. It's that simple. Decide which you want to be.

You should stick to your normal game, which I guess you are because you're getting bored and annoyed, which means you are folding. That's good BTW, plenty of rec players literally can't do it, they have to start playing junk because they can't deal with lack of action.

That said, your normal game should include paying attention to your image. If you fold for hours, people will assume that you are a rock. You should look for spots to leverage that image. Since the general pool couldn't fold a towel, let alone top pair, observing your opponents is key.

Work out which guys have a fold button. Work out which guys are paying attention and taking note of you being a rock. These are candidates for a bluff or at least semi-bluffs. 3bet in position with suited aces or kings or x/r your draws vs. them...if you eke out a 10bb pot, that pays for nearly 7 orbits of blinds you had to fold.

How do you honestly expect anybody to respond to this? You already know what the answer is. The next hand is the next hand whether it's now or a month or two from now and you shouldn't play any differently based purely on a small sample of past results. Why are you asking for silver bullets to solve variance when you know there aren't any?

I think one of the challenges is to separate the coolers from the "could have been avoided"s.

e.g.
set over set (8s / 5s)
vs
trips over trips (AQ / QJ)

I have hit quite a few coolers recently, but there have been a couple of other hands where I should have simply folded preflop and nothing bad would have come from it.

Downswings make people go crazy.

I'm interested in hearing more of your thoughts here. Being card dead does nothing to bolster the potential earnings of pre-flop monsters.

work harder on your trolling game...it has really gotten stale

This is exactly how I have felt this last week. I have a very good few days mid week, they were terrifying hands though that had many people involved, I was able to come away with some big pots. Then after that, card dead for a few days. I think over the last 3 days I got AA twice, KK twice, and I played for probably around 30 hours, it was my birthday weekend. It was a good week, but a horrible weekend, and this quote hits right at home, when I made money it was terrifying trying to hold up, then after that just boredom or frustration.

Maybe the problem is that you're actually tallying how many times you had KK+.

Only time I could recall how many times I had KK+ is when I had them more than 10x in 2 sessions, and I was like WTF.

Just a couple quick points which others have touched on:

- on average, you should go 7+ hours in between being dealt AA, and ditto for KK, and so on
- the overwhelming majority of people who play poker are losing players; that guy who sat down and ran his stack up to $1000 in 15 minutes, that guy is most likely a long term losing player so don't be too jelly of his 7 hand run good
- patience and discipline are on par in importance with your underlying poker strategy; your strategy (even a proven winning one) is useless without them
- don't overdue the "I'm going to use my rock image to steal a pot"; this pretty much never works preflop unless in the right situations, and postflop you still should lean towards telling a story that makes sense
- I've noticed you've posted HHs for both 1/3 NL and 2/5 NL; my suggestion would be to play at the lowest level until you build your confidence up

GgoodluckG

This is good advice, but unfortunately the casino with 1/3 is a long ways away and just not viable to play at unless I can leave early enough on the weekends.

With that in mind, I did come to same realization yesterday that I need to do something to minimize the losses until I can get back into the spirit of things. Part of me is tempted to go back to limit and tourneys (my original games), but it is too easy to get things a total mess mixing SSHE concepts with NLHET&P and PHE concepts, so instead I will simply short stack the games. It should help my mindset when I'm card dead since my starting range is super tight and rations a couple buy-ins into many until I can build them back up.

FWIW - I am a rec player, playing for a living with kids is incredibly difficult which is why I went and got a day job

Keep in mind that small stakes live Limit games are virtually unbeatable due to rake.

I know nothing about casino tourney strategy, but my overall guess (???) is that most of them are also unbeatable due to rake / structure (but that is admittedly a real guess on my part).

I notice your 2/5 NL games seems to be a small maximum buyin of 60bbs, so maybe not a horrendous choice since it will probably play a lot like your 1/3 NL game.

Absolutely do not attempt this for a living with kids and only keep poker as a hobby with a budget just like all your other hobbies (expect to lose money, and if you happen to win any, that's just a bonus as all other hobbies typically lose money).

GgoodluckG

I hate swings like this. A few years ago I played about 36 hours over one weekend, got KK eight times and lost seven of them -- playing six of them well. The one I won I was short-stacked, of course. I never saw AA over that time. I have gone eight-hour (and longer) stretches w/o seeing AA or KK. It happens to all of us, unfortunately.

I'm sure you've gotten some great responses here, but I just blamed variance and kept at it. Things do turn around. Play well, use the advice you're getting here, and you should start winning again.

You got to play the AK and QQ to perfection in order to show a profit. The AA, KK almost play for themselves unless a scary flop comes out from the deck.