Your hours are insane. How long does it take you to get to your games?

I play club games within 20 minutes mostly; the nearest casino is 1 hr 15 min away, which just feels like a pain a lot of the time.

Yeah i play somewhere 15-20min away during the week, then travel 1-2 hours each way for the weekend

October results:

Still in a downswing, but did better (ie lost a bit less lol) than september.

However I already started november off on a good note!

Two of my poker friends came in town to visit and we obv had to go and gamb00l it up. We were collectively in for like 14k at 5/T at one point but then we had a 11k upswing so we all won a decent bit at the end

Do you call or fold here?

5/5. Fish opens to 15 utg. 1 call. H calls with 88 in sb. Bb folds. 3 way.
V is one of the spots on the table. He has several large cashes in tournaments but is terrible at cash. Plays too many hands, not really scared money.

H's image is probably nitty at that point in time.

Flop (50): 623r. H checks, V bets 35, other pf caller folds, H calls. Eff stacks about 600.

This is an expected cbet here for the type of player V is. The board is as good as i can ask for with my hand, so I'm happy to check call here. It's kind of a crappy bluff catcher because I have no blockers to anything but it's also better in a way because it's just a bigger hand than something like 6x.

Turn (120): 2 bringing a flush draw. H checks and V checks behind.

Board didnt change much, pretty good turn card for me, not too worried about the flush draw and no point leading out so my plan was to check call again.

River (120): 4r. H checks, V bets 115. H?

If he plays a lot of hands then he should have a decent amount of 5x: 55, A5, 56s, 57s (and 44 makes sense). It's basically those hands and bluffs imo. Think bluffs should be discounted by some measure due to the very large sizing, unless you have a read of the opposite.

fold vs good players

call vs bad players

AP, I'd lean toward a call. There are many over card combos in his range, besides not being scared $ to bet ~pot OTR.

Given his image, which I implied = wider opening range, I'm more likely to 3b pre for value from oop. May depend on the other caller.

Yeah i agree he's polarized between a fh/5x and air. I dont think the sizing necessarily means he's less likely to be bluffing though, I dont know - i guess from a bad player they might be reluctant in putting in a lot of money with air, but i felt like his value hands are such a small part of his range. Actually if he bet less i might lean more towards a fold because it looks more value-y and fish arent that balanced.

I thought about 3betting pf against this particular guy for sure. I didnt because 1. He's not that deep and 2. 88 is just below (imo) my 3bet range against that guy. I *might* do it with 99 and definitely with TT there for value.

I think you need to take initiative at some point in the hand

Meaning leading out?

Yeah, I'd bet the turn and bet fold the river small

Im out of position though. Donking the turn would protect my equity against his overs, but fold all his bluffs and he doesnt have that many draws because flop is rainbow (i guess he could have picked up a bdfd). my hand isnt that strong to bet for value either, so i rather just get to showdown.

What would be your thought process for betting the turn and river?

He has lots of pairs + GS and might float with over cards and his flush draws.

His calling range that you beat ott is >> his bluffing range as a % of hands he has.

Obv he might have an over pair etc but you said you are calling anyway so versus that % of his range you ate breaking even.

But I'd check fold this river in particular I mean bet small on most rivers

I think it's an easy checkfold against a nit, but against a fish who's capable of bluffing, and who's not repping much on that board, i think i could check call. I think he might check back an over pair or vbet really small with TT+ so he seems polarized here.

I love this:



I think poker is finally starting to get to my head a little. Been in over 1.5 months of downswing now despite playing quite solid and putting in good hours. I have been ultra-critical with myself to the point where Im nitpicking about pots I lose that are like less than 20bbs and making notes about them after. It just feels like that there just hasnt been anything else in my whole life so far this difficult to "reap the rewards" after putting in the amount of effort that I did.

I know a lot of players far better than me has had way longer breakeven/downswing stretches and in a way that makes me feel better knowing that the length of a downswing is not an indication of your skill level. I honestly dont know how they dealt with it but I admire them for being able to live through that.

Also i recently decided to pay back all my student loans which is a decently high 5-figure number (a good part of my tuition was paid for by scholarships/grants thankfully), so Im not being charged a terrible interest rate (i thought about keeping it but figured it was more +ev to pay it back). That's just additional pressure, but Ive been trying to not think about it because what good will that do?

I thought the quote above very accurately portraits the state i am currently in. Self doubt is beginning to chew away at confidence. Not just at poker but poker was an inducer. It's funny how poker seems to be one of the few things in the world that can do this to a person.

Any thoughts of simply moving down a stake or two? Perhaps crushing at a lower level will help get your confidence back / put you in a better state of mind?

Ggoodluck!G

First, I would suggest a break to refresh other interests / aspects of your life. You don't want to play with even small holes in your confidence level.

Secondly, perhaps a drop-down in stakes, at least short-term.

You have put much energy / effort into the game. As a result, it is only natural to feel this way during an inevitable downswing. Not unlike a broken relationship, you will get through it.

GL!

But when I see a bigger game that's soft I just feel like I can't not play, it's like seeing money on the ground and not picking it up

Plus i dont even know if i can beat 1/2 now lol unless i literally play like an abc nit maybe

Most winning 2/5+ players dont have the patience/discipline to win at a decent hourly if they drop down to 1/2 or 1/3. That being said, if you did drop down a level you would notice how much easier it is to play against everyone at the table.

Snowball,

Sounds like you've been playing 5-10 mostly from what I'v seen in the threads - no need to drop down to 1-2 but you might try making 2-5 your regular game for a while and rebuild confidence.

As long as you are playing well it will turn around eventually - that's what a bankroll is for to withstand the downswings.

Good luck.

I did notice that the one time i played 1/2 at parx recently with duke. But i also did run hotter than the sun for that 1.5 hour (hourly of $400, yo) so i dont know. Im sure there are also frustrating times where you make mistakes because you gave too much credit to the villain or leveled yourself, i guess thats why i think i cant beat 1/2 anymore.

Thanks for your encouragement.
I did consider playing 2/5 because the field is even softer, but my issue is mainly: all the effing shortstackers lol, it being a 100bb max game im put in ******ed spots sooooo often because im playing against 60-80 bb stacks (like i would be more than happy playing the 1k max parx game. Hmmm maybe i should go there more lol)

I went through a brutal downswong in November. Every time I thought it couldn't get any worse... boom. Kick in the chest. Then again. Kick to the jewels. It was demoralizing and soul crushing.

Pulled my game back a bit to where I stopped taking marginal spots and only going for fat value. I.e. giving up a spot where you put in $500 for an EV of $20. Let people bluff you more. Don't bluff as much. Stop trying to be a 10bb/hr winner with high variance and play like a 5bb/hr winner nit.

I don't know about you, but one of my leaks is that I play a pendulum-like game on a 3 month cycle. For a few weeks i'll play nitty. Then ill start swinging into my TAG crusher phase. Then i'll start going LAG and super crush. Then i'll go into my whale LAG phase and lose. And when I recognize it, I take a break and go back to nit phase. Try taking a swing into nit-land just to boost your confidence.

In other words you implemented #dukestyle

Sunchips has valuable suggestions. When running bad it never hurts to tighten up, specially OOP.