I've been playing poker for 3 years now. I started at 2c/5c online and am now playing 25c/50c, 50c/1, and up to 2/5 live. I'm not a crusher by any means but have been living off of poker for a year and a half now. I keep my expenses very low and was over rolled when I first took the plunge. This year I experienced my longest downswing live and its taken a toll on me mentally. I'm hoping by posting here everyday that I play, that it will help me vent my frustrations and keep my head clear. Ill post session results and how I'm feeling in general on here starting tomorrow.

Session results for today -$20. Currently in a 20bi downswing online. I've been playing too loose and overdefending vs 3 bets. Gonna take the next few days to study and try to dial in everything pre flop cause I've been getting sloppy. I'm planning to take January off and do nothing but study. I don't want to keep grinding low stakes, so next year Ill study more than I play. Up until now its always been secondary to playing which is probably the reason I keep spinning my wheels.

-152.04 today.
I haven't had a winning day in the last 6 days. I keep getting beat flush over flush, set over set, top boat losing to rivered quads. KK into AA more times than I can count, losing to runner runner straights. Gonna play live today, hopefully that'll go well. Although I've been on my worst live downswing ever this year. Losing in 1/3 after 440 hours. Playing much shorter sessions now cause I get tilted more easily. Just gonna keep playing until I start winning again, or go bust.

Frustration is understandable given the tough beats and the extended downswing.
Experiencing cooler situations can be mentally taxing, especially when they seem to happen repeatedly.

Taking breaks, studying, and maintaining a healthy mindset are crucial aspects of weathering downswing.
Keep in mind that these challenging periods are temporary, and with a thoughtful approach, you can navigate through them.
If you continue to find the downswing impacting your well-being, consider seeking support, either from fellow players, friends, or professionals.

Best of luck, and I hope the tides turn in your favor soon!

It's just the length of this one that's been getting to me. But really I need these. When I'm winning I get complacent and my game deteriorates. It forces me to look more closely at how I'm doing things. There's things I'm doing well and spots where I'm completely lost on what to do. I cleaned up my diet, am on a workout routine again, and I'm feeling pretty good although my results haven't changed. Yea it sucks to lose all the time but outside of poker things are good. I wont be doing anything but studying next month and I'm looking forward to that.

Managed to get a little above breakeven this month after rb. Final tabled two micro tourneys and that helped out. The year ended up being ok but it was super frustrating. RB and bonuses helped me out a lot. My winrate before those came out to 1.3 bb per hour which makes it my worst year so far. Luckily my highest winrate was at 2/5.

The focus of this month is just studying. I won't have any distractions. February and March I'll play a lot of live hours for a promotion. In April I'll play mostly online at 100NL and depending on how it goes it'll be my main focus.

Goals for 2024
-1000 live hours
-100k sample at 100NL with a 3bb winrate

Adding a couple of goals for 2024.
-Become more disciplined
-Increase emotional control
-Staying positive through downswings
-Be more patient
-No complaining about beats or variance.

When I first started playing I was much better at these things. I didn't have much of an edge as far as experience or strategy so I tried to create one with patience and discipline. Last year I did not do well with these things. As the downswing progressed I became more and more negative. It did fire me up to get better. I've been studying theory a few hours a day and want to learn as much as I can. After I get back to playing on a site where I can track hand histories I'm going to look for a backer/coach to help with the learning process, and get a GTO Wizard subscription.

Started playing again at the beginning of the month. Things were going pretty well until I had two -3BI days at 1/2. Getting crushed online too. After every session I swear I'm gonna quit, but then i sleep it off and try again the next day.
How common are 500 hr and 1K hr live low stakes breakeven stretches?