I see some of these graphs that look like they have no real downswings to them. We all say "everyone takes beats, everyone goes on downswings, etc" but it seems like some guys just don't experience these extended profit droughts and obviously it's because they're doing something better than their competition over a long enough time line. So, I'm asking legitimately regular cash game winners: How do you deal with long stretches of card death in juicy games? How do you deal with running way under EV and taking some pretty brutal beats in a short period of time? How do you continue to play your a-game after that when there's no guarantee anything is going to turn around any time soon?

I want to really analyze my own tilt issues at the tables. They've gotten much better but I need to elevate them another level at this point.

Quit playing or play through the pain. Take breaks until the bad memories fade

What I did last night was a first: I went and played some lower stakes sng's, started to feel better, and then returned to the cash tables. After literally thousands of hands of card death for 2 days straight, I put together 3 stacks in 5 minutes lol. This will help me out a lot moving forward since I now have the faith that things *will* turn around. At least now I'm not burning stacks chasing when things are cold. I used to do that and that's no longer part of my repertoire.

Is it possible to approach the game totally afresh, without the thoughts of past hands and losses burdening us and affecting our decisions?

Of course. Easier said than done but like with anything else it would just require retraining the brain and my thought process. A "clean slate", so to speak.

this is what works for me:

focus on the micro decisions in each hand, and the macro will take care of itself

dont focus on winning, focus on making perfect decisions with complete disregard for the outcome

in any given hand there is a right and a wrong way to lose, take pride in losing perfectly. when you are losing remember that this would happen to any player sitting at your desk (and it happens to everyone, at every desk), and take pride in losing perfectly

quit losing sessions early (yes this sucks), and push way harder/longer in winning sessions. this is how you book monster winning sessions. idk if it is momentum, or playing better when winning, but it is a real thing

My best ever tournament result, I remember repeating to myself “play every hand the best it can possibly be played, regardless of results”. I remember actively meditating on those words, really trying to let the concept sink in and apply it. Thoughts of all other things dispersed and I was totally concentrated on what was actively going on right now. My level of focus was insane and left me exhausted after the tournament. I was apathetic toward the result of each hand, except immediately realising any mistakes and mentally noting them - it’s as though I was getting better by playing really quickly. There was also an intuitive understanding of the importance of ICM. There was a hand where I got super lucky when short stacked but the rest of my play felt solid and intuitive. I felt as though I could intuitively consider all factors in my decision process without having to consciously think.

For some reason I haven’t been able to replicate this often at all.


It made think that the state of mind that one plays in is more important than strategy or other knowledge, once the fundamentals are known. Do professional players maintain this kind of focus constantly or are things more automatic for them?
I’m aware of tendlers concepts of conscious and unconscious competence, maybe what I’ve described is conscious competence and when I try to rely on unconscious competence my game fails?

run good or the graph is over such a period of time that their extended downswing doesn’t physically appear like it would on a shorter time frames graph.

There are players with millions of hands that have 100,000 hand samples of run good and 100,000 hands samples of run bad. There is no player out there that never takes beats or downswings. Their upswings can be massive and for long periods so looking at a graph they look like they never lose.

Not to mention if you take an overall winning sample it will converge in to a "straight line" with some up and down dips but zoom in and there could be some big losses in there.

When you are getting bad beats in juicy games it just means it's your turn to pay the fish tax. Everyone owes. Mentally it's not an easy thing to accept but it needs to be. Focus on how you played not the results. We win when our opponents make mistakes.

Thanks for all the replies thus far. This has been a very productive thread and past 48 hours for me. I LOVE "it's your turn to pay the fish tax". That's what it is sometimes with me: I hate that isolated, "left out" feeling when everyone is profiting off a soft game but I'm just seeing nothing to play back with. I'm seeing that everyone goes through that now and then and the measure of a strong player is how he deals with every phase of his journey, not just the run good.

My volume has increased. If I want to make money, I have to put in the work and there's no way to keep that volume up without a solid mental game.

Focusing on each individual hand, all the other players, what they do when I'm not in a hand, etc - is becoming more of a habit. I was watching Boiler Room for a few minutes again the other day and it was the part about "we don't pitch the *****". I'm starting to see how absolutely silly and illogical worrying about individual hands and sessions really is. Study, play, stay mentally healthy, and let the results come in time.

More experience (thinking experience) in the game is also exposing me to the fact that a *lot* of crazy things are going to happen on the tables and if you're not overall immune emotionally, there's just no way you can even approach playing a winning game consistently. You'll just be fighting demons way too often. You can't play or study like that.

The big bonus here - and why "winning sessions" aren't as important to me anymore is that the game is allowing my tolerance and patience away from poker to grow drastically lately. Very little is getting to me and I'm far more even keel than I was when I was younger. That alone is worth the price of any beat I'm going to take.

What a great feeling. To be completely engaged, to have pure focused concentration. To be present in the moment, not worried about future or past results. To makes decisions on an intuitive level, with no effort or struggle. To be so tuned in that nothing else matters.

I feel as though there is a point you’re making with the smiley face that I haven’t grasped..

I'm starting to *enjoy* "blowing through" variance. Playing my a-game and take a beat? Don't even think about it, just move on and keep grinding. It builds character, stamina, and is the only way to play +ev poker. It's like football: When you took a huge hit from someone, pop right back up and make sure nobody sees that it hurt. It's a big psychological edge and I see that in poker, as well - other players notice guys who are unflappable and respect them.

Put in about 1,200 hands yesterday, running under EV and ended the night feeling great, woke up feeling great. Played my a-game for 6+ hours straight losing 3 coin flips ~50% and learning a ton by just spending hours grinding 10nlz.

Enjoying the game and learning more than ever because I'm just sitting and playing with a clear head, intuitively, and relaxed.

There was no point, just an understanding. I understand where you are coming from, i have experienced it and continue to strive to elevate my state of mind. it is also hard for me to replicate on a consistent basis. There's something about losing money that makes it hard for me to have a detached appreciation for the present moment no matter the outcome.

This is when the game becomes fun. Everything moves more slowly, time/boredom doesn't exist. It's like you are watching an engaging movie and nothing else matters. You aren't trying to control anything and have no expectations nor are you trying to exploit others to maximize your own personal gain. You approach every situation as a learning experience and as a chance to reach a point of equilibrium where everyone is winning either socially, financially, emotionally etc.

I suppose the question is, what prevents this? Fear? Fear of losing money, fear of not achieving ones goal, fear of busting? Can we eradicate fear? Are we able to shift our perspective, to accurately perceive our life as it is, so that there is no cloud of money worry/dreams of winning a score, which become desperation and fear of busting? A cycle in which poker is an unpleasant habit, a bid to desperately improve our circumstances.

“Are we able to shift our perspective, to accurately perceive life as it is”

And therefore perceive poker as it is, without the past interfering, without the burden of what others have said distorting our perspective

I think fear and greed play a big role in clouding my state of mind. To appreciate what you already have is hard when you set goals for yourself to achieve and acquire more.

yes it is possible. Maybe not all the time, but with discipline and regularity we can increase the frequency at which it occurs.

Monkey off my back. I went thousands of hands without hitting the board nice and getting action. Probably the longest dry spell I've ever had. Hours of card death at times. Then, finally - boom....

Hand History driven straight to this forum with DriveHUD Poker Tracking Software - http://drivehud.com

NL Holdem $0.1(BB)
BTN ($14.98) [VPIP: 50% | PFR: 0% | AGG: 0% | 3-Bet: 0% | Hands: 2]
SB ($10.51) [VPIP: 10% | PFR: 0% | AGG: 66.7% | 3-Bet: 0% | Hands: 10]
BB ($16.98) [VPIP: 8.9% | PFR: 3.8% | AGG: 32% | 3-Bet: 2.7% | Hands: 159]
HERO ($10.12)
HJ ($13.19) [VPIP: 14.8% | PFR: 7.4% | AGG: 60% | 3-Bet: 0% | Hands: 27]
CO ($10.6) [VPIP: 5.3% | PFR: 2.7% | AGG: 40% | 3-Bet: 0% | Hands: 75]

Dealt to Hero: 9h 9c

HERO Raises To $0.30, HJ Folds, CO Folds, BTN Folds, SB Calls $0.25, BB Folds

Hero SPR on Flop: [14.03 effective]
Flop ($0.70): 8c 5c Ac
SB Checks, HERO Bets $0.30 (Rem. Stack: 9.52), SB Raises To $0.70 (Rem. Stack: 9.51), HERO Calls $0.40 (Rem. Stack: 9.12)

Turn ($2.10): 8c 5c Ac 9d
SB Bets $1.15 (Rem. Stack: 8.36), HERO Calls $1.15 (Rem. Stack: 7.97)

River ($4.40): 8c 5c Ac 9d As
SB Checks, HERO Bets $7.97 (allin), SB Calls $7.97 (Rem. Stack: 0.39)

SB shows: Ah Kd

HERO wins: $19.11

The thing is that this time, during thousands of hands of desert, I didn't burn up 10 BI's chasing. Definite improvement but man, I still need tons of work on all aspects of my game, especially mental.

Not trying to seem too critical, but what % of hands are you playing as an opening range? If you’re waiting for 99+ it sounds mega boring. Not a fan of cash, doesn’t have the same feel to it

I can understand the cash players of 10 years ago who were making mega money in a pool of fish, but these days to grind out hours for a few dollars ph just seems fruitless

My RFI is dependent on my position, villain's position, stack depths, etc. It's not just "this is my range", you know?

You're not being critical of me - you're being critical of cash games. I'm by no means waiting for 99+ (lol) all the time and neither is anyone else in 2019.

I saw you saying that you didn't like cash in another thread. I can understand how frustrating it is at times but I think you're oversimplifying the game when you say that basically people are just sitting on the nuts trying to grind out a few bucks here and there.

You learn the game by spending countless hours grinding it out, taking losses, reviewing hands, studying, etc. That's what I'm doing. This zoom pool also has a ridiculously lucrative bbj running and I can see tons of hands an hour in it. I play elsewhere, too.

You fold through being card dead. Sitting at a juicy table doesn't inherently entitle you to win money. You still have to play solid poker.

Expectations and entitlement really are killers in this game. I'm getting much more used to staying in the zone and playing my A game without getting distracted or tilted by what's going on around me. As said though, I still need a lot of work but I'm putting it in daily.