PAIN!!!! my month of despair!!!! break needed or try grind through it???

waller02

MASSIVE pot would have put me up to 2nd not far from the bubble in the mini ds.....hands like this are destroying me and my confidence!!!! been a month of bad beats!!!
Do I just crack on and wait for the tide to turn (if it ever will) or do I have a break? If so for how long?

splodgemay	Small blind		300.00	300.00	30456.00
waller02	Big blind		600.00	900.00	20227.50
	Your hole cards	A A
jamy999	Fold
Pgooner4	Fold
DAVEYZZ	Fold
splodgemay	Raise		2700.00	3600.00	27756.00
waller02	Raise		9600.00	13200.00	10627.50
splodgemay	All-in		27756.00	40956.00	0.00
waller02	All-in		10627.50	51583.50	0.00
splodgemay	Unmatched bet		9928.50	41655.00	9928.50
splodgemay	Show	9 9
waller02	Show	A A
Flop
		Q 9 8
Turn
		5
River
		K
splodgemay	Win	Three 9s	41655.00

DOHHHHHHH

Hey Rik!

I think you mainly/only play small stakes mtts? 

And you play for fun, so when considering whether or not to play, I'd just be honest with myself about why I'm playing, is it coz I want to, or just for the sake of it?

Don't care what anyone says, you can't have fun playing if you're losing all the time, but you're one of the better players at your stakes I think? So you'll always stand a good chance of going deep in every tourny u play.

You've also posted a few hands in't clinic lately, keep doing that, can only help.......

Also....try cash! ...if u want.... lol..................................

waller02

In Response to Re: PAIN!!!! my month of despair!!!! break needed or try grind through it???:

Hey Rik! I think you mainly/only play small stakes mtts?  And you play for fun, so when considering whether or not to play, I'd just be honest with myself about why I'm playing, is it coz I want to, or just for the sake of it? Don't care what anyone says, you can't have fun playing if you're losing all the time, but you're one of the better players at your stakes I think? So you'll always stand a good chance of going deep in every tourny u play. You've also posted a few hands in't clinic lately, keep doing that, can only help....... Also....try cash! ...if u want.... lol..................................
Posted by DOHHHHHHH

Cheers for your advice, it's always appreciated. Yeah I mainly play small stakes mtts, used to play medium stakes but had to withdraw all my BR so I'm  starting from scratch again. This makes the beats even harder to bear I guess, though I am playing within my BR. I have always enjoyed playing but I've never had a month like this, I'm at the stage where I am expecting to get outdrawn every hand I play which in turn effects my play and bet sizes etc....

I certainly like to think there are worse players than me at this level, afterall I used to cash on a fairly regular basis and have made a reasonable profit but I'm playing without confidence which is half the battle imo. I'm gonna take a few nights off, dust off the old xbox, and come back on monday for the DTD comp and hopefully ENJOY playing again! lol

Also I do play the odd cash session but strictly 4nl, so you can eye up somebody elses money!!! haha

AcidMan27

I'm going through the same thing Waller. Mine has lasted since last month. I've had the odd winning cash session here and there but generally i'm losing.

Each session seems to follow the same pattern too and the fun soon goes out of the game again.

I know i'm making mistakes that's costing me money and maybe i'm not getting enough value from some hands because my confidence is rock bottom.

Just keep looking over your hand history, trying to spot weaknesses and ways to improve.

pomfrittes

  Hi Ryan, dont worry about it m8, it will turn around. as discussed last night i am running(and playing) so bad in MTTs at the moment. Doing ok at the low stakes cash and fiver dyms tho and i know you used to do really well at the dyms so why not give them another go.

Crunchybob

Hey mate.

You sound like me a few days ago, i been running bad for cpl of weeks losing money every night. i was scared to go all in as i felt i would be outdrawn. had kk beaten by kj aipf. i had aces cracked by sets aipf, i had straights beaten on river by flushes. it was rank!.

so i did the sensible thing and changed poker sites!!!

just saying ;-)

NColley

If you feel like your going to be outdrawn constantly your never going to be confident of putting your chips in the middle, maybe take a short break of anywhere between 2-3 days or 2-3 weeks untill you feel refreshed.

However if you feel like your still playing very well and are just that tiny bit of luck away from another win, carry on what your doing and just take the bad with the good.

GaryQQQ

A downswing is infuriating, but it will not last forever. Hang-on in there, I recommend you keep the volume and the buy-ins down until your luck eventually changes. A break won't do any harm, a week away 100% free of poker and you'll come back refreshed and keen to play.

I had an absolutely terrible month for the whole May, I knew I was playing well but I kept getting hand-after-hand just like the one you've posted above. It was always the big crucial pots, I was becoming convinced I was jinxed across all sites, I was even beginning to think that I must have just been lucky in the past and that I'd never win a poker tournament again. The most painfull was my first ever SCOOP event, I squeeze-shoved JJ pre-flop from the SB on the bubble for a 56K pot when the average stack was 41K. The button called with 77, he rivered one of his 2 outs of course.

Then it all suddenly changed for me on June 2nd. I reg.d for two tournies that afternoon, a BH on Sky and a $3 rebuy on another site. After a couple of hours or so I binked the BH, I was absolutely delighted, it wasn't much money but if felt great to finally get there and break my long losing streak. Meanwhile I was getting deeper and deeper in the rebuy. Another 3 hours later I took that one down too for $856 (about £500). Overnight my confidence returned, my cards started to hold a fair proportion of the time, I even began making a few suck-outs myself. I'm now over £1K up in June. Your June 2nd might come tomorrow, it might come in 3 weeks. Who knows? But it will come.

You need to do two things to win a poker tournament; play well and run well. You control how well you play, but there's absolutely nothing you can do about the luck. We all know you've got the skill, I'll never forget your brilliant run in The Primo, I railed you all the way from about 60 left to the FT. When the luck finally stops working against you you will be back to winning ways. Patience ftw.

unknown_username

In Response to Re: PAIN!!!! my month of despair!!!! break needed or try grind through it???:

A downswing is infuriating, but it will not last forever. Hang-on in there, I recommend you keep the volume and the buy-ins down until your luck eventually changes. A break won't do any harm, a week away 100% free of poker and you'll come back refreshed and keen to play. I had an absolutely terrible month for the whole May, I knew I was playing well but I kept getting hand-after-hand just like the one you've posted above. It was always the big crucial pots, I was becoming convinced I was jinxed across all sites, I was even beginning to think that I must have just been lucky in the past and that I'd never win a poker tournament again. The most painfull was my first ever SCOOP event, I squeeze-shoved JJ pre-flop from the SB on the bubble for a 56K pot when the average stack was 41K. The button called with 77, he rivered one of his 2 outs of course. Then it all suddenly changed for me on June 2nd. I reg.d for two tournies that afternoon, a BH on Sky and a $3 rebuy on another site. After a couple of hours or so I binked the BH, I was absolutely delighted, it wasn't much money but if felt great to finally get there and break my long losing streak. Meanwhile I was getting deeper and deeper in the rebuy. Another 3 hours later I took that one down too for $856 (about £500). Overnight my confidence returned, my cards started to hold a fair proportion of the time, I even began making a few suck-outs myself. I'm now over £1K up in June. Your June 2nd might come tomorrow, it might come in 3 weeks. Who knows? But it will come. You need to do two things to win a poker tournament; play well and run well. You control how well you play, but there's absolutely nothing you can do about the luck. We all know you've got the skill, I'll never forget your brilliant run in The Primo, I railed you all the way from about 60 left to the FT. When the luck finally stops working against you you will be back to winning ways. Patience ftw.
Posted by GaryQQQ

As above 

A major factor in downturns is confidence, or lack of confidence. Bad outcomes accumulate and we eventually end up playing scared poker. A break clears out the mental clutter and gives the confidence you need to be successful.

waller02

In Response to Re: PAIN!!!! my month of despair!!!! break needed or try grind through it???:

A downswing is infuriating, but it will not last forever. Hang-on in there, I recommend you keep the volume and the buy-ins down until your luck eventually changes. A break won't do any harm, a week away 100% free of poker and you'll come back refreshed and keen to play. I had an absolutely terrible month for the whole May, I knew I was playing well but I kept getting hand-after-hand just like the one you've posted above. It was always the big crucial pots, I was becoming convinced I was jinxed across all sites, I was even beginning to think that I must have just been lucky in the past and that I'd never win a poker tournament again. The most painfull was my first ever SCOOP event, I squeeze-shoved JJ pre-flop from the SB on the bubble for a 56K pot when the average stack was 41K. The button called with 77, he rivered one of his 2 outs of course. Then it all suddenly changed for me on June 2nd. I reg.d for two tournies that afternoon, a BH on Sky and a $3 rebuy on another site. After a couple of hours or so I binked the BH, I was absolutely delighted, it wasn't much money but if felt great to finally get there and break my long losing streak. Meanwhile I was getting deeper and deeper in the rebuy. Another 3 hours later I took that one down too for $856 (about £500). Overnight my confidence returned, my cards started to hold a fair proportion of the time, I even began making a few suck-outs myself. I'm now over £1K up in June. Your June 2nd might come tomorrow, it might come in 3 weeks. Who knows? But it will come. You need to do two things to win a poker tournament; play well and run well. You control how well you play, but there's absolutely nothing you can do about the luck. We all know you've got the skill, I'll never forget your brilliant run in The Primo, I railed you all the way from about 60 left to the FT. When the luck finally stops working against you you will be back to winning ways. Patience ftw.
Posted by GaryQQQ

spot on there gary thats exactly how I feel. I'm having one more night tonight, gonna play a few micro dyms and the mini BH. It's not that I'm playing too bad, I get my chips in behind sometimes of course, but the majority of the time I'm getting my chips in ahead 70-80% fav in a lot of cases but still losing!! lol

I'm not moaning don't get me wrong, I know downswings are part of the game but 1 month is my worst in the 2yrs I have been playing. If tonight goes badly then it is def a few days off!!! 

Dudeskin8

I recently returned to cash 4NL after a long break and have been steadily grinding up. I only began with £45 so whenever I lost a buy in it felt very bad as it was such a big perecentage of my roll so I usually took a break every time I lost a decent pot but doing this meant I hardly ever played lol.

Now I've built up to £94 and still get some of the beats I used to but it doesn't effect me hardly at all, and now I stay on the table and try and get that money back off the fish who hit his 2 outer. So basically for me anyway when the losses only amount to a small part of the total roll it is far less of a problem, just merely a flesh wound that will soon heal.

Also I realise you're playing MTT's mainly but the same rules apply, I myself have a separate MTT BR that I played with for a prety long time but it's a LOT more risk averse as in I don't play tourney's that amount to more than 1% of it, yes this is very tight but it just means that the buy-in has virtually no impact on how I play which is crucial late on when you need to play uber aggro to get the big cashes.

Good luck anyway mate, it will turn.