Do any of you guys implement a donking strategy? I ask this as I personally find them difficult to play against for the most part when I'm not at the top of my value range in particular..

If so, then how far apart is this range from the check raise as semi bluff you incorporate in your post flop lines? Do you donk the top and bottom of your range and check raise the middle mixed with value and air?

I've noticed regs donking into me on boards that are dry and also ones that I have range advantage on.. Mostly HU, but I'd understand if a drooler was left to act before me on wet boards etc

What's an acceptable loss of buyins over like 5K hands? This has never happened to me before but I'm down 6 buyins over 5k hands and 9 buyins over 10k hands.

I am literally on suicide watch. I feel like I haven't tilted. It's just that I run pocket kings into pocket aces blind vs blind, set vs set, I get it in nut flush vs top set, and lose over and over.

I can send some stats. Perhaps I am actually playing far too nitty but I feel like I lose 85% of the 100 big blind+ pots. I sit around folding for days then we get to a point where it's a 75-150 big blind pot and I lose the large majority. So I bleed, bleed, bleed, then lose 100 big blinds in a ridiculous fashion. Then bleed, bleed, maybe win a couple hands, then lose 100 big blinds on some bad beat or cooler. I have seen no spots to just steal or chip up since I'm mostly multiway and can't make a hand to save my life.

I am considering taking a break. Generally I'll play 200-300 hands and have absolutely nothing going on where I just fold because it's abundantly clear my opponent has a strong hand and I have nothing.

Overall it's really taxing mentally. I'm by no means a rookie so to be sitting here down on the year is really tough to deal with.

It's standard bro. I lost 30 stacks in less than 7k hands in December. Absolute deathrun. Take a break then come back when you're ready and play for 1 hour spurts until you gain the confidence and mental fortitude to grind through long sessions again.

@Claret~N~Blue haven't really studied it but I'll throw it in the mix once in a blue moon

If you're in the United States, I'd suggest calling the suicide hotline 800-273-8255. If not, I'm sure there's some equivalent for wherever you are. Poker is just a game that doesn't define your worth as a person, and there are people in your life who care about you, even if it doesn't feel like it. Taking a break sounds like it might be a good idea

That said, losing 9 BI over 10k hands is going to happen relatively often to even the best players in the world. I'm a long term winner at my stake, and I had a 5k hand 7BI downswing last month (not that I'm one of the best players in the world)

Take a few days off bro.. Post some hands in the strat thread for piece of mind too..

Come back in a few days and crush

GL sir

Anyone seen the new Scream film? I'm pretty much done with the grind til tomorrow morning so guess I'll take a look

yeah it was good as long as you can get past some characters lacking any common sense

felt the same way about the new TCM, but I thought Scream was better overall

Ignition only does the standard flush animation for a royal flush. I was hoping for something special.

Brag: I got 3 streets of value!
Beat: I am likely going to have to waste my time with many back-and-forth emails when I try to claim my bonus since Ignition's customer service is so bad.

fk christ im winning this year at 7evbb/100 and ready to throw my fk PC out the window, i need a mental coach im such a fk fish

Have you ever worked with a therapist? I've been going to one for years because of preexisting mental health issues, but late last year I started working with my current therapist on my mental game. Haven't done a ton of work, but I've made some real progress with my entitlement tilt. Went on a 20 bi downswing last month on a super soft site and didn't even flinch

Ofc if you have the money you should just hire someone like BenaBadBeat (if he's still accepting clients idk), anyone with a deeper understanding of poker or sports psychology is going to be optimal. But even garden variety therapists can provide a lot of help and insight into the aspects of the game that parallel life

I have worked with therapists before but not related to poker or competition of any kind. I may give Jason Su a try. I definitely want to get some help it's just a money issue atm. I think I have an unhealthy outlook on what winning/losing means in poker and it leads to unnecessary suffering for me. Thanks for taking the time to offer me advice I really appreciate it.

Bobby, I have a somewhat counterintuitive suggestion. It sounds like your winrate is quite high at your current stakes, and I usually see you posting 100-200nl hands. If your winrate is 7+ evBB/100 over a decent sample, I feel like doing everything humanly possible to move up would help a lot. Money does solve problems, and successfully moving up is great for the ego. Grinding lowish stakes sucks ass for the most part once the novelty wears off. Poker only becomes truly awesome at $100+ in my experience.

I also feel like a couple weeks totally away from poker might help if you haven't tried that.

I was actually seeing a therapist way back when I moved up from 2/4-3/6 to 10/20+ LHE in 2009. He basically helped me to admit to myself that I loved money and had a huge ego, but that this was okay. Once I did that, everything else fell into place when it came to poker.

I am very fortunate though. I am pretty naturally mellow at the tables. But still, I am never as calm as the RIO coaches who don't even flinch or even crack jokes when they get brutally stacked over and over.

I would take my own advice as far as moving up, but my winrate is nowhere near 7 BB/100 lol.

Was late when I watched it and fell to sleep lol. I'll try again tonight

I also endured basically the same run in december/january. I actually took time off planned around christmas break. I started the downswing before, and finished it afterwards. 30 buyins in about 6K hands, but the full swing was 35BI. Most of it was at 200NL where the reality is I'm probably barely a breakeven if not losing player. Still, I was down about 5 BI's after 30K hands after some swings, and then kaboom, 30 more down. All the standard hits. All my premiums ran into AA, set over set, set over top 2, and all their draws hit at a heroic clip. I've never been a high volume player, so prior to this my biggest downswing was maybe in the 10 to 15 BI region. So more than doubling that all of a sudden hit pretty hard.

I'm now a 100NL player again, and am past the halfway point to recovery 20K hands later. I wish I had made the move down earlier but was a bit stubborn and determined to prove I could beat that stake. The point is as has been mentioned by me and Bobby here, these things happen. They suck and we can't really control them. We just have to accept that either we are possibly a losing player in those games (like I may have been) and move down, or push through them in whatever way our mental health can tolerate. Working on our games also helps, but we should be doing that anyways. But it may get better, or it may get worse. A lot worse. It always can. It's part of this game we play, and something we have to learn to accept is going to happen.

Of course the obvious answer is if your mental health can't handle the downswings you need to evaluate if poker is right. But knowing that is really hard until you're actually in the situation. At least for me time does help. I've had some 8 to 10K downswings in other gambling ventures before and those hurt pretty bad at first. There were some nights of lost sleep in there for sure. You eventually acclimate to them. I'm sure my worst downswing as a poker player/gambler has yet to happen, and when it does, I will feel like **** again.

I always keep in mind that I'm just holding onto the money for someone else. It's all on its way to someone else eventually, it's never really mine.

@Koss well said. Knowing in the back of my mind that I will probably run as bad or worse again at some point is just one of those things I really don't want to think about lol but we have to be somewhat prepared for it. The expectation is: Well sht, I already ran as bad as I can imagine so it should be smooth sailing from here! When that doesn't happen it can be extremely frustrating to deal with.

@Unguarded thanks for the kind words and advice. I'm always shottaking aggressively and I think that may be part of my problem. I'm constantly desiring the next stake up instead of just being content with the present. My monkey brain just wants the pure sunrun so I can move up to 500nl already when at the start of the year getting to 200nl was the absolute dream. It's really fkd up how quickly I can shift perspective into unhealthy territory. I'm taking a break for a day or two and using this 'setback', if you can call it that, as a moment to reflect and improve on some of the things that I have neglected for the last month or so such as study, diet, fitness, meditation etc...

I'll have to come to terms with the fact that I'll never be perfect in these areas but staying consistent on the path of improvement, even on a smaller scale, is still much better than abandoning the path altogether.

@TheWhoWhat I hope you're doing okay. I kind of glossed over your suicide comment and took it sarcastically and I really hope you were joking. @JohnRusty had great awareness to point that out. Dealing with swings is one of the hardest things poker players have to deal with so you are not alone. Sht, I told you not to worry about it and a day later I'm crying about the same sht lol. Try to use this rough stretch as a chance to strengthen your mental resolve and to improve your skill as a player and if you need someone to vent to my PMs are always open.

hahaha i like that philosophy

Bobby, it sounds like you have a great and ballsy plan in place for moving up. I was worried that you were a crusher who doesn't try to move up since that is always so tragic, but that doesn't sound like you at all. I hope the rest helps you feel better.

What comes to mind then you guys see regs 4bet ship for 100bb rather than to 25bb for instance? I always think of fear of playing postflop? Surely they're not doing the same with A5s for example? This is excluding vs whales

they have AKo and don't want to see a flop. like every time

I just do the same thing I would vs a 100bb ship

I think that too.. Guess it's good vs droolers before they miss whatever shite they have called with..

I've seen this a fair bit the past few days, mainly off unknowns with broken stacks.. Flat a 3bet OOP and donk shove on Axx.. I level myself into thinking well if they had something surely they want me to put some money in and then check ship.. This an RNG decision?

I have my bet sizes preset with Starscaption for both opened and unopened pots, but can't figure out how I can set it to raise 4x vs a limp.. I'm probably just being dumb but any ideas?

Thank you bro. Wishing you all the best. I think it was you that mentioned Ozarks? I finished the season and that was a pretty sick cliffhanger. When I play on stars I have bet slider set to 0.5bb and to make it 4x over a limp just click pot and scroll down once.

people who donk shove oop aren't rnging ****

idk what you play but you can basically assume that every reg is mediocre and plays too nitty. there are exceptions and you should tag them. but at 2nl-100nl it holds true