I've had losing streaks of more than 30 consecutive tournaments several times online by now. If that ever happened to me live, I probably would have quit poker well before the 30th loss. Most of my variance-reducing and EV-maximization strategies for online also apply to live:
- Site and game selection, e.g., I have never wasted money buying into Seneca or other US tournament with 30% tax in the past five years.
- Satellites, such as Bill's freerolls. I was probably among the least experienced players on the forum back in 2007 and didn't even play online, but I decided to start taking shots at the Brantford satellites, which later led to a ~$50K week.
- Swaps and BAPs. Swaps have been really good for me this year in that there is a high ITM % where either I or the other swapper cashes so we don't have the usual after-MTT DEPRESSING drive home. A Gold Member has turned into a
hveepoker/brianS tho and still hasn't paid me the agreed-upon 10% of gross winnings for the last ITM swap, and has ignored my multiple messages. :(
- Instead of just waiting for the next live tournament, play cash games with beatable rake and online. In my case, I play many more days online and only play the live tourneys that have a buy-in of >= $220.
- When the eventual long bad runs happen despite all of the above strategies, then I can drop down in buy-ins. For example, if DirtArse and I had not won first place in GBH and had a downward-sloping
giraffe, then we would not have bought in directly to the WPT Main Event.
- The mental factors such as tilt and discipline may be the most difficult. In my case, I've learned to deal with everything from racist drunks and online trollers with haterade, so the multiple bad beats I get just like every "
unluckiest guy in the world" :bs: is just another day in variance paradise.
Irunit4times;385134 wroteHow do you players keep your heads about you when you run like this? Do you start to second guess your plays, are you happy even when you bust knowing that you got it in good. How do you keep the motivation to keep doing what your doing if you feel it is right.