The last 2 weeks i wasn´t sure about writing this because i know that a lot of people here love to troll. That´s why some people are kinda scared of writing down their thoughts. I think it shouldn´t be like that.

I really love this forum and i think it´s really good for players to learn from each other.

Here are my thoughts:

I´m playing live poker for 1,5 years now. I´m taking it serious since october 2017 and trying to play at least 100 hours a month. Since october i played about 900 hours live (i know its not a lot) and from october to beginning of march i won about 15€/h. But since march it seems i cannot win. I mean of course i had winning sessions too but the last ~200 hours i´m down 8 buy-ins.

It´s not a downswing where i get coolered and sucked out on all the time. I mean it happens too but not that much. The problem is being card dead and not hitting any flops most of the time. When i get a hand it´s most of the time in early position with a lot callers behind me and i have to check-fold on the flop. The few times i have a straight draw or flush draw i miss. When i hit something people don´t have anything to continue with or i just win a small pot.

It´s not that i lose a lot of huge pots. I think the problem is that i lose too many small pots that add up because of getting hands in ep and being forced to play them oop and not hitting anything.

Another problem i have is that at the beginning of a session i´m motivated to turn things around and try to play my best but after a few hours when i run bad a lot of times i start playing passive.

I also get tilted when i´m card dead and see bad players spewing around on the table and not having the opportunity to take their chips. Or when i sit with a friend on the same table and i see him taking down huge pots but i can´t even win medium sized pot.

I don´t write this to complain or whine. It´s just that i didn´t experience a stretch like this before and i just wanted to write my thoughts down and maybe read thoughts of players that are a lot more experienced than me.

Any advice and your experience with stretches like that would be great and really helpful.

Change up your play. The same old routine isnt working and people are walking on you..

I always just played through my periods of bad runs. But then again, I never took it that seriously even when I was playing with no job and with playing scared money.

Some good advice I was told once is to just take a break and get away from thinking about poker for a bit. You need to give yourself a chance to break your habits and regular play at the table. Its sort of like a reset. Save up a few buy ins in the meantime.

It's usually a combination of mistakes & run bad, which is pretty par for the course in poker in general.

My 2018 I'm currently on a 40BI downswing in my regular live games, the worst I've seen ever since I started my professional career in poker. I know it's part of the game but it still sucks. Best advice is to take a step back, reset and go back fresh & optimistic.

Also, standard BBV response; quit poker and get a real job, (much) less variance.

I didnt read anywhere that you were a pro nor that you did not have a réal job. Therefore i wont bother telling you that you should quit. It is funny that no one told you To go down in limits. An 8BI downswing is really standard and not worrying as long as you are really working on your game and studying ranges and spots away from thé tables. I advice you to take some objective notes after/during your next session. You should indeed take à lil break and try to focus your energy on something else for a few weeks while studying thé elementary basics +advanced strat. then go Back To playing but in smaller games.
Imho you should go down to 100NL for a while. Re center refocus, admit that you have To learn and that, besides the run bad, you are doing something wrong (tilting, out of focus deep in the session, spewing or playing too passive etc..). you already identified some of your weaknesses so go from there and work on it. Playing shorter sessions but with a stronger focus couldnt hurt you either GL

Envoyé de mon SM-A510F en utilisant Tapatalk

I would never ever read this

But you did. Right?! Envoyé de mon SM-A510F en utilisant Tapatalk

no

So what did you not read then? Envoyé de mon SM-A510F en utilisant Tapatalk

Pretty standard to see a wall of text, not read and just go straight to the comments. ^ You must be new here

Cool!Good on ya m8


Takes 30 sec with normal reading ability

40BI wtf

I saved up some money and im now trying to play professionally.

It is now for sure a combination of run bad and mistakes. I noticed after a few weeks of running bad that i make more mistakes by making bad decisions. Like making bad hero calls against players that dont bluff often enough.

The good thing is that im taking more notes and im working more on my game now.

Im also thinking about subscribing to clp.

cliifs? a

are those needed?

op is a male hooker

a mooker

LMAO

Holy crap this thread went downhill pretty fast...

Anyway, I don't think negative 8BIs is too unusual.

I get why you feel concerned that it's steady losses over a long period, but think of it this way: If you lost 8BIs to a string of coolers and bad beats, sure that sucks, but would you be concerned about your playing? Probably not.

But the cumulative probability of being on the wrong side of a short string of coolers / bad beats, each of which is fairly improbable, is probably similar to the cumulative probability of a loooooooong string of slightly unlucky beats, each of which is far more likely to happen than a disgusting cooler.

I'm know I'm not using the correct math terms here, but I think you get what I'm trying to say?

But it does sound like this downswing is affecting your playing, so take a break and return when you basically feel nothing about this losing streak anymore.

Worry less about what your own cards are.

worry less imo

this thread is in a 40BI downswing



for real tho, OP, 8 BI seems pretty normal for 200 hours, you wouldn't be shocked to be down 4 BI in 100 hours and since it can happen once it can happen twice. Try to note what you can control and just wait for the up 50BI in 100 hours rungood.

dave, we know about you, and honestly, the way you treat women is out of line. you're gonna pay for what you did in one way or another. good luck at the tables.

Short answer: Yes.

I have just under 1000 hours logged at 1/2, and I've had 3 downswings at 8+ BI.

This is one of your leaks. You need to fix your mental game. It's extremely important to be disciplined when playing at 1/2. You're constantly going to see players make terrible moves and get rewarded. It's just the nature of the game. All you can control is how you approach it.

Perhaps you can read The Mental Game of Poker to improve your discipline.

If you're questioning whether or not a 8 BI downswing at 1/2 is normal, you're not ready to play on a professional level. GL

200 hours is only about 6k hands live. You can't judge anything off such a tiny sample size.

Thanks for the replies! It helped me a lot.

With "is this normal?" i was referring more to the card deadness.
I know now that a 8 BI+ downswing is normal but what about being card dead and not hitting any pair or anything for so long?And only getting good hands in ep and having to play oop?

At the moment im reading the poker mindest which i borrowed from a friend.Although a lot of people say that the mental game of poker is a lot better.

In the last 50 hours im up 2,5k and it feels great

Sounds sustainable.