Played 2 sessions yesterday. Didn't seem like the blind steal or C-bet was working at all yesterday. No one could find a fold button so I had adjust so I wasn't spewing chips. It was a weird night. I was up and down and up and down before finally finishing up. I found I was getting a little bored 1/2 way thru the second session with not getting cards. I decided to try something different for a little while. I wanted to see how many tables I could play at one time. Basically I was only going to play premium hands, play all low/mid pocket pr and fold if I didn't catch the board. I knew I wouldn't be able to be cute with any of my hands so I basically played ABC poker with 12 tables. It was a little crazy but it was pretty fun because I was getting premium hand a decent amount of the time. I think 12 tables is a bit too much but I did it for about 45 min. before going down to 9 then 6 as tables started to break up. I probably folded way too many blinds and probably didn't steal as many blind if I hadn't been playing 12 tables but I wanted to try something different. I will say it kept me out of questionable hands. LOL pretty easy when all I was doing was playing top hands and folding any miss sets. Anyways I managed to get out of the hole and had a 2 buy-in up swing before calling it a night. The other thing is you can get some serious hands in while playing that many tables.

Anyways: 4:36 hours @ 3-12 tables for 1,541 hands played w/ 7.20 BB/100

So I have to admit for the first time since I started this challenge I contemplated moving up to the next level to chase my losses. I'm glad I made the right decision to not do it but I have to say at this point I will be taking a few days off. I clearly am not playing good poker at this time, I clearly can't win flips and I clearly can't beat 2nl right now. I've said it before but I'm not a good loser. The game just isn't fun right now and I'm on the edge of tilting every time I play. I thought if I just keep playing thru this down swing thing would get better. But all I see is me losing flips, me playing bad and me losing $. Not sure when I will play again but at this very moment I really don't give a sh&t if I don't play for awhile. I've reached that point where in the past I would probably have lost my BR tonight and not really given a sh&t. But I'm trying something new with this challenge and if nothing else it's kept me from doing just that. I'm tired of losing and playing break even poker for the past few weeks. I guess this is where I'm mentally not a good poker player. I don't get how the game can be so easy for weeks and now for the past few weeks it has been a struggle. OK I guess I'm just repeating myself... I'm clearly frustrated, I have zero confidence in my game and I'm really not having any fun right now.

So hopefully with some time off I can come back with a clear head, play better poker, maybe I won't continue to run bad and maybe I will find the game enjoyable again. Or I could come back and nothing will have changed.

I'm sure I'm just super emotional right now with how bad tonight went but I really feel I need to not play for a few days.

Anyways: 1:44 hours played @ 5 tables for 761 hands played w/ -52.76 BB/100. 4 buy-ins lost (but a total of 5 buy-in down swing for the night, some how I was up before the sh&t storm happen).

been there the swings in this game can be pretty brutal. its like you hit an upswing where all the cards hold up you hit flop after flop. then you just hit this stretch where none of you hands connect, when you do have a hand it always gets beat, but realize that its just your mind playing tricks on you. everything goes both ways.

i dont know what site you play on but im beating nl4 global for a pretty good winrate but sometimes it feels like i run terrible but ive more then tripled my bankroll. i dont know if nl2 on your site plays as soft as nl4 on global but if it does i can tell you one thing - play 4 tables and nut peddle. a few nights ago i was losing a lot and i realized that i was betting into calling stations with hands like AQ id miss the flop cbet, bet the turn, showdown river w/ ace high and they'd win w/ some midpair or bottom pair type hand. at first i was kinda tilting like why are they calling flop/turn w/ bottom pair then i realized its my fault for betting into them w/ nothing.

lately ive just been folding every single thing except pp and premium hands. i bet bet bet. sometimes ill check shove w/ a set if they're showing interest like betting large amounts w/ a quick timing tell if not im just value betting. ill occasionally flat call raises ip w/ suited connectors and if there is no equity present o nflop i just ditch it. i dont cbet missed AQ QK KJ type hands anymore i just check fold now. if i flop top pair thats when i bet.

Thank you for your thoughts on this.

As I have stated before this kind of down swing is pretty new for me because normally by this time I would have titled my BR away and taken a month or two off. So I've never been in the position to have to work my way out of a long downswing.

With that said I'm 100% sure I'm not playing my "A" game right now so that isn't helping. What you said above is exactly what is happening.

When things are running good raising and c-betting seems to be working like a charm and you feel like you are a good player. When you are running bad and your raises and c-bet mean nothing and all you are doing is spewing chips you feel like a bad player.

This game is such a mind f&ck. A month ago I was like... sweet I think I can beat 2NL... this is actually pretty easy. Today I'm like I'm the fish at the table and everyone has notes on me stating such and I clearly can't beat 2NL.

Again thank you for your comment. I needed it!

at my state ive estimated the biggest downswing i could probably have would have to be 6-8k hands tops. the players are just so bad that variance kinda offsets itself because of how often the fish gift stacks. id assume nl2 is the same for you so if your losing money after 10k hands then i would say your leaking money in tons of spots.

i personally know things that cost me a lot of money are cbetting double barreling against calling stations so like said ive competely stopped doing that. 3betting fish lightly. trying to win 3bet pots that i missed its alright to cbet heads up if you miss the flop but if they call dont try to win the pot on the turn or the river they're calling there too and it will cost you by that point your entire stack. i dont stack off w/ AK preflop ever unless its a short stacker. ill flat call 3bets in and out of posiition w/ this hand. same w/ AQ.

think of poker in terms of two things getting as much value out of your good hands your sets, straights, flushes, tptk. betting against certain villains, finding good spots to check raise, building a pot by river so they're priced in to call w/ their weaker holdings. now the second part is just as important its minimizing your losses when your 'running bad' so you missed 100 flops in a row w/ every single hand check folding is going to be better then putting money in behind and not being able to win the pot on later streets. and the ev will show itself for instance w/ QKs QKo i hated the hand because i kept missing flops and betting trying ot iwn the pot but could never get folds. then one itme i flopped tptk and value bet some fish all hte way to the river and got good value from it like i made 3.00 off the hand. so i realized all hte times that i raise that hand preflop and miss im investing .14 cents (my standard pf raise) so im only going to flop tptk or a good straight/flush draw only certain percents of the time but when i do i get maximum value. so like 29% of the time im going to flop top pair and get a lot of value on flop/turn/river by being calling w/ worse and when i dont flop im going to check fold minimizing my losses. in the long run ill be gaining money doing this.

also if you have hm2 or pokertracker really start to look in there at where your losing money i dont know much about database analysis where i play there is no database of hands so i just have to kinda theorize on spots that are good/bad for me which in future i may purchase a database of like a nl10 player on pokerstars and analyze that to learn more about leaks/etc. but dont be afraid to really break everything down and find the things your doing that are costly betting into stations, trying to win pots against regs where you dont haeve a premium holding, not folding to shoves on turns, not folding to overbets on river, stacking off tptk on a multi way flop where two players are raising all in (one always has a set). etc. also look at the little things that are costing maybe your opening too many pots from btn and not winning them find out if you could win them pots by doing certain other things postflop or if you just need to tighten up on btn. filter by biggest winners at your stake see what hteir preflop stats are and see how they play their different hands their tptk hands multi way, their straights, their draws, their missed draws, etc. im sure youll learn a few things that can make you more money and save you money long term.

Quick story... decided to go to the place we are buying to see where they were at as far as cleaning out the place. No one is living there at this time so I figured it would be ok. I wanted to look around where we plan on putting the horses and over all be nosey. Well I do all my nosing around and go to get in the car and I locked my f&cking keys in the car. OMG Now I have to sneak into his garage to use some of his stuff to break into my car. I pray they do not have a security camera because I'm going to look like a complete @ss hole. Moral of the story... stay the **** off property that isn't yours until it's yours... unless you have permission... Karma baby!

Ok now poker: I went back thru my major winning hands and major losing hands. What I found on the winning hands was that they were all premium hands to begin with or they were made into really good hands after the flop... basically sets... pretty standard here... I didn't really have to suck out with my big winning hands... which is good.

Now on the losing hands I'm going to say I'm getting unlucky in some spots but I'm clearly playing bad poker in a ton of spots. It was clear to me after the review that I was on tilt and that my play induced more tilt to where I was playing like a complete ******. I will save face by not putting down what I was playing but I will break it down.

Played 3 premium hands that got unlucky and lost. (it's poker)
Played 2 decent/premium hand (AQs and QQ) that I played like complete dog sh&t. (I don't believe I played these hands poorly due to tilt but just bad play in general.)
Played 6 hands on tilt, 4 of these hands were hand I should never have even played(they were bad and I'm embarrassed). The other 2 I know I shouldn't be playing but I keep doing it they are hands where I play them in late position hoping to trap with A/8s and A/6s. I call a raise hoping to nail the flop but what I'm finding is that I will catch just enough of it to keep me involved and I'm spewing money on these hands. I need to stop doing this and just fold these hands. I clearly remember doing a HH on this one in the forum and it was made clear to just fold this junk... If I don't play these kinds of hands I don't put my self in the position to lose big when I'm chasing. I will work on this as this is an easy fix.

So game plan is to go back to my nitty range that I had when I first started. I know it's too tight but right now I need to get centered again and stop being so loose. I need to start believing/respecting shoves as well. I think I've gotten away from the motto: stay afloat until the big hand comes. I'm clearing trying to push the hands and it's not working. Take a step back... regroup... play a tighter range and stop trying to force things... let them come to me. Sounds like a plan... now I just have to follow it.

I would like to thank Spacerat65 for posting in the thread. I was able to put your words into focus on my game and get back to what I was doing before this mess.

I know I said I was taking a break but I decided to see if I could play a session with the new/old game plan. Happy to say I was able to play the entire night sticking to the plan. It's easier to not get upset when you aren't putting yourself in difficult situations with questionable hands. The game was a bit boring with sticking to the plan but after awhile I did open up just a little and I did attempt to steal/c-bet in certain spots. One thing that I think really helped was letting the hand go if I didn't connect. I can't wait to review my session tomorrow to see if I can notice a difference.

I would have finished the night up 2 full buy-ins but the river f'd me twice at the very end. I had the nut str8 and a full house. The str8 I ended up having to chop and the full house I'm not sure how I didn't lose more money. Probably because I knew my hand wasn't the actual nuts and if I was going to lose the hand I didn't want to lose all of it. I had 22 vs 44 flop was 2K3 Turn was K and River was 4.

Ok heading to bed... I'm tired... happy with how I played. It felt good to be in control and to have a tighter range.... it just made things easier.

2:40 hours played @ 5 tables for 1,011 hands played w/ 14.74 BB/100.

Well we all know how week 7 went so I won't rehash any of it. You are welcome. Plan for this week is to keep to the tighter range, fold when I don't hit sets or catch any of the board and stop playing Axs in late position. Keep losses to a min and build pots when I have the made hands.

We are close to closing on the old farm house so once this happen I will be spending most of my time working on it. I have a feeling my volume is going to drop down to almost nothing. Not to mention the slow season for my profession is coming to an end and I will start being balls to the walls busy again. But those are priority over playing recreational poker.

Anyways here are the amazing stats for week 7 along with the most beautiful graph you will see.

Week 7: (3/30-4/5)
Hands Played: 4,382 (Total: 36,837)
Money Won/Lost: $-6.04
Current BR: $73.44

Played a session where I ran really good for 364 hands. Lost an all in with QQ vs KK... not sure if I should have played the hand the way I did. I guess I was hoping at best he had AK anyways I had AA vs. QJs bet every street except the river when the 3rd diamond caught the board... had a feeling he was chasing the flush. Both checked and sure enough he caught it... I can feel a slight tinge of anger so I ended the session right then and there. Going to try to end these session as soon as this feeling comes up. I don't want to start doing stupid sh&t. So I'll go jerk off or something and come back later when I'm feeling 100%.

I would love to understand why it actually angers me to stop playing right now. Clearly it is an inner issue of being told to do something when I don't want to... even if I'm the one telling myself to stop playing. LOL I'm f&cked up for sure.

1:20 hours @ 4 tables for 380 hands played w/ 3.03 BB/100. I don't lose those 2 hands I'm up almost 2 buy-ins instead of breaking even.

The longer you play this stupid game the more you realise the mental game is massive. I've fooled myself I am mostly tilt free for years, but its b/s. Everytime you play a hand wrong for some b/s reason in your head, its because the tilt monster is kicking your butt.

this last year i finally think I'm getting a grip of it...and I've been playing (and mostly b/e, small winner) for 8 years.

I think what gets me is that you play 100's of hands in a season, maybe you win a little or maybe you lose a little during this time. Then you play one hand, whether it was played poorly or just unlucky and you get stacked. It takes 1 hand to lose a whole stack but can take hours to get that 1 stack back.

I've been on a pretty massive roller coaster ride emotionally/mentally the past few weeks. What I hope I get out of it is to start becoming numb to it. If I can play emotionless / robotic poker I don't think my losing session will be as sever. I really don't think they are that massive of lossing sessions after the fact. They feel massive while they are happening but when you actually go back and look at everything after the session it really isn't that bad.

Yesterday I put in more volume in one day than in any other day for this challenge. I can honestly say I was running really bad at one point but I feel most of it was just unlucky play. I only feel I was on the verge of tilt once and altho I knew I was getting angry I kept telling myself... keep playing correct poker. I honestly feel I did exactly that the entire time... I didn't do anything stupid during this downswing. At one point I was down 3 1/2 buy-ins. Now at the time I was thinking wtf but looking at it now that isn't that big of a deal. Anyways I feel I stayed even keel during my session and I managed to finish the session only down 1 buy-in. So by keeping to my game and not going on tilt I was able to get a decent amount of that back.
If you tilt you will continue to lose and make wrong decisions. But if you keep playing correctly (by my standards) the bad beats will eventually end. Which is what happen... my hands started holding and I was winning. I still finished down for the day but I didn't let my emotions take over. I'm hopeful that at some point this won't even be a thing. I'm hoping I can look back and say... remember when 2 bad beats in a row put you on tilt. I would say I have gotten better because I'm not blowing my BR but I want to progress further. Ok I've rambled enough. Thanks for dropping in. I believe I sub'd to your challenge yesterday as the name looks familiar.

Yesterday: 5:58 hours @ 4-6 tables for 2,568 hands played w/ -10.51 BB/100. I'm actually happy to only be down 2 1/2 buy-ins for the day after how it was going early.

Hope to play a little later today.

Absolutely,

My last meaningful session I lost 3 stacks (one of which was 200bb)...

98s to AK on QJT rainbow flop (when unknown villain flatted me in BB, so I didn't have AK in his range).
AK to QQ
AK to QQ again

...in the first five minutes, I also won a 100 bb stack in the same period with KK or sumink.

Three buyins down in five minutes. You know what you have to do. Smile and get on with your A game. Coz it's poker innit.

I'm finding this to be the hardest part of this challenge. LOL But I did state in the very beginning of this challenge that it was one of the two things I needed to work on. Before this I would have probably lost my BR trying to get that 3 buy-ins back NOW. I'd play up levels trying to bink a quick hit... or I would (and I hate admitting this but I'm trying to be honest as possible) but I would go to the online casino and try to double up by putting money on black or red. Ugh the thought of this makes me sick. But again this is one of the main reasons for this challenge, to work on. I feel I'm getting that part down... if it gets that bad I just stop playing which is progress. Now I'm trying to work on not getting upset when I go down 3 buy-ins in 5 min. Not easy and I'm def. struggling but I'm really trying. Yesterday was a good lesson that if you just stick to your A game eventually things will turn around. Maybe not this session and maybe not the next but eventually cards will start to hold and your game will turn around... SOOO easy to say now but not so easy when it's happening. LOL As I have said before, baby steps.

Well going to go play some poker... should be back in 10 min. complaining how I'm 8 buy-ins down.

Heading out to play basketball... again tonight's goal is to not get hurt. I don't even care if I do well this week I just want to stay healthy.

Not sure if I already said this or not but it looks like 4/17 will be closing date for the farm house. Things are starting to sink in and I'm getting a little nervous. Always wanted an old farm house but now I'm not so sure. LOL Going to be a lot of work... Going to do a little research on this house as it is about 200 years old. I would love to find out some things about this house... Like did an old farmer kill his family in this house 175 years ago? You know cool things like that. LOL

Ok well heading out. My plan is to play more when I get home tonight but we will see.

Was up a buy-in early... then got my nuts smashed when I ran into a 4 of a kind... so I ended up down a buy-in for most of the session until my cards started hitting again. FYI this has happen to me 4 times in 2 days. I wanna call bull sh&t on this. Oh I did get my own 4 of a kind but funny I wasn't able to stack villain off with mine. GRRR f&ckers!

1st session: 1:40 hours @ 6 tables for 846 hands played w/ 5.61 BB/100.

Just wondering... at some point will I actually have a winning session where I'm actually up like 3 or 4 buy-ins? This break even crap is getting boring.
Got a decent amount of volume in so I guess there is that.

2nd session: 1:46 hours @ 6 tables for 840 hands played w/ .95 BB/100. Yawn!

Being b/e is better than losing like me

This is a good point, I should be happy winning even if it's only a little. But then I wouldn't have anything to b&tch about.

If I hadn't run into 4 of a kind (again) maybe I wouldn't have had to spend the second part of the last session trying to get back to even. Not 100% sure but I think that is the 5th time in 3 days I've run into them. I'm starting to think they shouldn't be a part of the game. I find them hurtful and offensive.

Got lots of work to do today so won't be playing until I get most of that done. Shooting for completing 4 out of 5 things on my list for today. We shall see.

I tried my best to become more robotic, but it didn´t work well in the end.

Instead, work as hard as you can on becoming very solid so it gets to the deepest parts of your brain and becomes your default autopilot mode. And when we have mild tilt attacks, we unconsciously revert to the same autopilot mode. Having a solid autopilot is key.

Unless you´re on a fury monster tilt due to being stacked by a fish who gets his straight on the river after calling your bets on the flop and turn with 95o and crack your top set. Then it´s better to take some time off the tables.

Having emotions can be a good thing. Most people seem to need it in order to find the motivation to grind.

GL

I like the advice. I would say my reference to robotic would be close to your definition of autopilot mode.

TBH I do not believe you can play this game without emotion. I guess I would just like to have less emotions. I believe a lot of how a session is going to go is on your mental state at that time. If I'm hungry or tired or in general grumpy it becomes easier to get emotional when things aren't going right. But if I'm in a good mood these same hands might not effect me as badly. I think it also depend on when they happen... do you get 2 or 3 bad beats in a row? Did it happen 10 hands into your session, did it happen 5 min. before you were ready to stop the session and now your are stuck... This game is so emotional/mental driven for me and that is why I would like to become, what I said emotionless. I realize that isn't possible but if I could maybe dial it down a notch or two it would really help.

Thanks for your insight.

Didn't have it in me to post after last nights session. I was super tired and just needed to get to bed. As it was I was only able to put in an hour before I needed to end the session. So not much volume. Good news is I didn't run face first into any quads which was nice. TBH I really don't remember much of the session as it was pretty uneventful. I think all my hands held and I didn't allow myself to lose big on hands I wasn't sure if I was ahead or behind on. Hold on... let me check something... I think I did see quads last night...brb

OMG! Ok I'm an idiot... I had a 4 of a kind on the flop last night. Didn't stack anyone but I did win some $ with it. I guess I was tired last night. LOL

Anyways I have some work to do but I might play a little at lunch time for a quick session. Have to see how the day plays out.

0:55 hours played at 5-6 tables for 293 hands played w/ 67.06 BB/100. Finally had a decent run.

I just remembered something I wanted to mention. Before this challenge I talked about how I would constantly look at my BR while I was playing. This would effect me when I was losing and it would trigger the "Need to Win it Back NOW". So I said I wouldn't be doing that anymore. I almost never check my balance, maybe once a week if that. BUT what I'm doing now is checking my graph and stats all the time. I just realized last night this is the same thing as checking my BR all the time. I need to play a session... keep track that I'm not losing more than 4+/- buy-ins in a session so I know to walk away but I need to stop seeing where I'm at vs. the even line. I just need to play my sessions and it is what it is when I stop the session. Funny how I stopped one thing but picked up another thing that can act as a trigger. Last night I didn't check my stats at all during the session. So I really had no idea if I was up or down which I think allowed me to stay even keel and play decent poker. I will continue to work on this... pretty easy fix.

Hey Jae_cubed

Just wanted to say I have really enjoyed your thread, I hope you keep it up and the poker gods smile on you

Cheers
Naz

Thanks Naz. I really appreciate that. I don't suppose you have the poker gods numbers so I can text them do you? I think I've pissed them off or something.

LOL, they have deserted me too Hence forth I shall create a special dance to entice them back to my side, and when they finally get here I shall point them in your direction too

PS. Good luck with the house!

So I was thinking back yesterday how I was actually starting to get a little cocky at 2NL. I remember writing about how it was fun targeting certain people and taking their money. LOL This blahness that I've been going thru has humbled me. Funny when you are running hot the amount of confidence you have. Ahhh I miss those days.

So I ran 2 sessions yesterday and they couldn't have been any different from each other... with the exception that for the most part I finished EV.

The first session was like the good ole days... man I was getting cards and I was catching flops and everything was working so nicely. Built the chippies up to almost 2 buy-ins then I literally got my Peepee smacked by 3 hands right at the end that put me under. The river was not too kind to me in all 3 hands. 2 hands made flushes and the 1 hand made a better 2 pr.

Then we run second session and I'm getting kicked around at the tables by everyone. I was being bullied and no one was sticking up for me. LOL I'm looking at the graph now and it looks like I couldn't get any traction in the first 1/3 of the session. Then it looks like I stabilized for the second 3rd of the session before I got my legs under me and started winning by the last 3rd of the session. I was down 3 buy-ins at one point and managed to grind it up to a 1/2 a buy-in in the positive.

With all this said I'm actually pretty confident in my game right now. I'm not confident my cards will hold but I'm confident that if I keep grinding I can win at this game. I don't know if it's that I'm starting to put more volume in during a session but I'm noticing swings during a session now. Could be coincidental but I don't remember noticing it when I was only running 400-500 hand sessions. IDK I think I might just be rambling at this point.

Probably won't get to play tonight as I have to get up early tomorrow to get my daughter to the airport. Probably should put sleep ahead of poker this time.

Anyways: 3:57 hours @ 5-6 tables for 1,890 hands played w/ 0.98 BB/100. I'll actually take it seeings I was down 3-buy-ins at one point.