Just saw this post now for the first time....

After I wrote that blog, I had a fairly intense next few weeks...put in a ton of hands. Didn't enjoy it at all, but it needed to be done.

After about a month, I had made enough to get myself in a stable position. I then transitioned back to playing more live poker, as I needed to switch things up.

I've now gotten my bankroll up to where I can comfortably play $10/20 NL again, although I have yet to do so yet(kinda funny, as I used to be a big risk taker early in my poker career, but now I'm actually pretty conservative about moving up in stakes). I'd like to make a trip out to Commerce sometime soon, and then the Wynn will have the Wynn Classic coming up in ~2 months, and I"m sure $10/20+ will be running during that.

My goal is to be playing $25/50 NL by the WSOP, have a good WSOP, maybe take a shot at a few tourneys. If I can do all that then I'd like to give myself some vacation during the last 1/2 of the year.

I'm going to try to start updating my blog more, so check that if you're interested in further updates.


Thanks for all the positive feedback, guys.

bump for greatest gimmick post evar

looooooooooooool

this is a good post and all but when your downswings last for 6 months or longer and your all in ev graph is 25% below your expected winning over 500,000 hands, it's really disheartening to think it's only variance. you say 500,000 hands isn't good enough? i say think as you please... some people are luckier than others, if you believe luck is evenly distributed, well, keep playing the lotto. you might win someday. i've already accepted the fact that i will never win the lotto.

this is the best post ive ever read on 2+2.Helps me to motivate.+1

I run bad when I'm bored from playing too much poker.

For me the problem isn't that I can't put in enough volume, just that if I do I will start running bad.
If I only play when I'm ready to play my A game then I won't get enough volume anymore.

Anyone else been in same situation and wanna give me any advice?

wat

I started playing online poker in 2005. Starting in 2007, I took it seriously and began 4 tabling NL100. By the end of 2008, I was 6 tabling NL200. 2007 and 2008 were very profitable with a winrate of 3bb after rakeback over 800k hands. The first quarter of 2009 was not as good, but not horrible.

Since then I cannot find a way to consistently win. Over 500k hands, I am basically even after rakeback and now play 6 tables of NL50 because I am trying to restore my confidence. I have tweaked my strategy, by raising preflop more often and double barreling the turn or river more often. Both tweaks have added some profit, but cannot overcome consistently running below EV on my AIEV and my SECT Sklansky bucks. One problem that I have found is that when I raise without a PP, I am only flopping a pair 25% instead of expected 27% and reraise is worse at about 23%. In 2008, these states were 27% and 28%.

I have played on various sites, but mostly AP. I know that this is a long bad run streak. I'm glad to know that I am not the only one to encounter this long a bad run streak. I intend to keep playing about 50k hands per month which I find is optimal for me. I will not quit.

Veryyyy nice post, im on a downstreak right now and this motivated me to man up and quit whining about how bad i run. Thanks op

Didn't read a lot of the replies, but after thoroughly reading the OP , I think this is the best post on 2p2 I came across in 3+years of membership.

Thank you , Assani, for this. If this would be exchanged for gold , you would be a very rich man.

I think this same approach will work as effectively on diarrhea.

Awesome post, this really keeps me motivated when I run like crap, thx!!!

I don't really understand why everybody here says it's an awesome post...
I mean, yeah you did a great job at writing about your thoughts and your own experience, but what did u teach us here ?
That we gotta follow proper BR management and that people must work hard to succeed ? Who doesn't know that ?!
To me it seems very much like a disguised beat which would be your own therapy to get out of this downswing, but like you said, no one cares.
Also, you don't seem to understand that everyone is different, and that each individual can have his own techniques to avoid the bad mental state during a so called "downswing" to still be able to play his A game all the time.
Putting hard work all the time no matter what state of mind you're in might work for you, but not for everyone, so don't act like if you all figured it out and call other people slackers for not doing so.

great post, good work!

Its allmost as if you know me OP ...

I must say reading it was rather humbling ...

I could write a book about excuses .. i really could .... but i just dont have the time right now ..

Ive printed a copy of it and its up on the wall right next to my monitors ... every time i start to repeat previous errors ... I shall look up at that post ...

Im off to watch TV ..

thank you very much.

I agree with you. Op makes it sound that in the end it all comes down to working/grinding super hard. For some people that might be true, but there are also others whose game is severly influenced by the psychological affects of running bad and therefore they just lose more and more by putting in more volume.

For those people it is far more effective to play less and keep a healthy life balance so that when they are grinding they can still play their A-game and don't get sucked into that state where how you feel correlates with how bad you run in poker.

Awesome post/thread = bookmarked. However, I do think sometimes it's good to air out some stuff and not keep everything in for psychological reasons, but of course I agree that complaining and whining is silly, but at the same time talking about things objectively and nonchalantly would help a player to "air out" and get things out of their system in order to be more motivated and get back to grinding smartly (kind of like this thread lol). I love the "Variance is the lifeblood of poker. Its what keeps the fish coming back" comment. Should be your signature.

I try daily to become the hardest worker I can be, if I can stay motivated, I think I can get lots of stuff done. What do you guys do to stay motivated for poker or just any goal in life? (movies, books, success stories?). This thread is very motivating. Love the no excuses video too, it's dope and very motivating.

Entourage is absolutely amazing, I have watch this show over and over, Ari is sh.it too, he is so witty and funny, but as you mentioned, the man is hardworking and cares a lot, I think his wife had a line and said that he hast slept past 530 since 1992, that's why he's always calling and annoying E early in the morning, hehe. I heard on 2p2 podcast that Esfandiari will be in a poker scene in the new season, which I can't wait for. Will be an epic summer with World Cup and Entourage.

Again, great thread, hope I can master and persist step #4.

Thanks man!

The truth has been spoken. Good stuff.

bump after having a terrible start to 2011 and needing to read this again

One of the best post's I have ever seen!

Expert bump

best thread

although i'm already kinda like that it was a good read

you rock man

great point of view imo