What to do when cards go cold.
What do you do when the cards seem to go ice cold. In the last 2 days I can't win a race to save my life (AKo, and AKs have killed me to little pairs). I know I"m behind on these hands but in my last 15 times I've won twice now. If I hit the set I get the flush chasers chasing me down and hitting the flush (sometimes runner runner style). I know the answer is probably take a break and regroup mentally. Eventually you'll go on a run and your cards will hold up more than they should. I at least understand the chasing that happens at the casino, but I'm still amazed at the chasing that happens on the net.
Comments
If it has affected your game by changing your style, then yes take a break. Think about what you are doing "right". If someone else is doing something "wrong" and happen to get paid off, that is not something you can control.
If it hasn't and you are still playing your A-game then fight through it, smile at the perfect-perfect suckouts and just keep playing. Two days seems like a long time when your at the end of it but in reality it is a small percentage of your poker playing life.
I recently was on the reverse end of this situation where it seemed any two cards I played would win. So then I started playing any two cards and realized that I was making my own luck by playing the right cards in position, etc.
From what I see on the forum you are a good player. Try not to let the variance get you down.
Two days?!?! No offense, but that's not a losing streak. That's a hiccup.
Read my post about the $500 SNG hands. It'll make you feel better.Â
More seriously, it took me a long time to get rolling in 2006. November '05 was a great month for me, and then it all went sour until about March 1, '06. That's three months of not showing a profit, which is a long time for me. I felt, as you do, that I couldn't do anything right... no matter what I had, someone found a way to beat me. It was sickening. Dave is experiencing something similar now... see his poker log for details.
I am pleaed to report that all is back on track and then some. Although, Dave has told me that "my worst losing streak hasn't happened to me yet". How depressing. If that's the case, I'm screwed.
Yup.
I've said this on Poker Night Live, and I'll say it here:
If you are going through a really rough streak, the best thing you can do is take a break. That is my opinion. There are people who would disagree with this. They would say that IF you are playing your best poker, and your best poker has been proven to win in the long run, then it doesn't make sense to stop playing. Your "luck" won't change just because you take a break from playing.
OK, fair enough. But what taking a break DOES accomplish is this: it brings you peace. Whether you know it or not, and whether you admit it or not, an extended brutal losing streak can have an adverse effect on your overall peace of mind. It doesn't matter if you're a recreational player, a professional player, a semi-profesional player... getting beat by an endless string of one, two, and three-outers on the river will not make you the happiest camper in the world, in general. And that's not good. By taking a break, you are distancing yourself from the bad beats that are the source of your misery, and in doing so, you are effectively saying to the game of poker: "Fuck you. I have a life outside of you, I don't need you, see you in a while, I'm going to have some fun". (OK, I didn't say the "F" word on PNL, but you get the idea.)
Taking a break can also re-focus your game in the event that you have developed a few leaks brought about by tilt. So that's another thing... when you're getting hit by a lot of beats, it's VERY easy to convince yourself that EVERY hand you lose is due to a bad beat. Most probably are, but probably not all of them. It is hardest to be honest with yourself when you are in the middle of a prolonged losing streak, or winning streak, for that matter.
A poker player's skill should be measured by how well how he plays when he's losing, missing flops, taking bad beats, etc. A poker player's skill should not be measured when he can't miss. It's easy to play great poker when you're sitting in the middle of a +40BB session.
Hang in there.
OR, you could just play higher and higher limits, way above your bankroll, until you win it all back. Nah... probably best to just take a break, or to make sure you're playing 100% solid poker if you continue to try to play through it...Â
thanks all aces I needed that reality check.
I will go read your post of the $500's. I"ve only played a few there and it wasn't good for me but that was also way over my bankroll but it was the prima rounders so I got there for $5. It's frustrating and expensive enough at the $50's.
1/ Â Take up fly fishing. Â After spending a few hours up to your waist in ice cold water, waiting for a fish to recognize your fly for something edible is probably the most frustrating thing in the world. Â You will welcome the time spent on your computer and getting busted...at least you get action
2/ Â Take up needlepoint. Â After the 15th time you jam that damn needle into your finger, drawing enough blood to keep a horde of vampires satisfied for a month, you will realize that you are not your grandmother and needlepoint sucks, and you will be aching to draw out on some yahoo who seems to think that reading a Helmuth book makes him a pro
3/ Â Sleep. Â Everything is better after a solid 22hours of continous sleep.
4/ Â Give up altogether and move in with a group of Mormons and have 3 wives. Â You'll have little time for poker (it's a sin, you know), but all the time in the world to meet the demands of THREE women
5/ Â Relax, move away from the game for a short period, enjoy a nice long walk in the park at spring time. Â Regain your bearings. Â Realize that suckouts are going to happen, cold cards will soon get warm again, and in no time, you will be playing better than ever.
Right now, I'm working on step four. Â Just wifey #1 has a couple of issues with it first. Â
Yup, everyone knows the best thing to do is to play 2 to 3x higher than the limit you typically play. That way you waste less time getting your money back.
Don't forget my favourite, move up and go short -- the shorter the better. In fact heads up is perfect as you really don't need cards -- you're mostly playing the player. Speaking from experience this works 1 in 3 times and the 1 time it works it doesn't even come close to fixing the damage of the other two times.
I would agree with Aces. These days it's tough for me to take time off. So, I hit the gym, and study the game a ton.  I go over my starting hand requirements meticulously and will add/remove a hand here or there to experiment. I study odds and go over many different game scenarios. When I'm in a game I now have tons to think about instead of how many times I'm getting beat by crap. It helps.
Cheers
Magi
Ya, I know, I was just being a donkey. A few weeks ago I had a semi-bad run with 3-6. Not the worst I've seen, but one of the most "concentrated" short term bad runs I've seen in awhile. Quad tabling and hitting monster hands, and losing to bigger monsters, runner-runner etc, and of course it was happening on all 4 of my tables to boot. Anyways, I decided to donk off $5 bucks for "stress relief" at .02-.04 limit on Stars. I figured it shouldn't take that long, my plan was to just raise everything the entire way, pedal to the metal. It took a little longer than I expected (I ran the $5 up to over $9 - 100BB ) through a ridiculous run of cards, but finally managed to lose it all. The comic relief was enjoyable. I especially loved the "playas" that were slow-playing their monsters (sets, trips, etc.) against me, costing themselves a multitude of bets.
That's freakin diabolical.
That being said, I'm starting to love 6 max.
Hopefully those 'playas' will remember you when they move up in limits and pay you off because they think you are a donk.
Yesterday my favourite ATM on pokerroom moved up to $3/6. It was a happy day.
Nice. And the point about people moving up in limits is a good one, and makes me think I should probably start adjusting my PT database to only rate players at the limits I'm currently playing rather than some old stats on a guy that sucked a year ago playing .50-1 and is now a semi decent player at 3-6 or 5-10.
Learning a new game was great! Plus I went up about $650 in 3 weeks playing 25$ PL.
The benefits were two-fold. One each game you play improves your texas skills.
Specifically Omaha helps you forget some of those bad beats - First of all you are never that far ahead preflop so you cant be upset when you are beat post-flop.
Second, in Omaha you know when you are beat - so it is easy to fold - unlike AA on a dangerous board in l limit - where you should fold - but for a few more bets you wanna know (cmon we have all done that:)
Bad runs will always be hard - but they pass.