I know there are many topics on this but..

I have no idea how to win anymore.

It's been like 4 months and I'm probably down -2k in this period of time. Either breakeven days, slight winning days or huge losing days.

Since the beginning of this month I've played around 40k hands and my KK is breakeven because I ran into AA around 30% of the time (no joke). I mean, I know players go through huge downswings, but this is like a perpetual one. I feel like I'm the unluckiest player in the world.

My BR is pretty steady and I can take a hit since I have well over 40 buyins for 200NL but this is just insane. The last time I ran really good was in February/March this year =[. I don't mind a losing day here or there but it would be nice to know that I'm actually going up. I feel like I'm crushing these players because they simply make all those atrocious plays, but all their draws hit and non of mine hit lately. It's been like this for a shitload of time. Never hitting with AK/AQ etc. I'm confident that I'm a better player than those retards I'm playing against.

Sorry for this topic, needed to vent some and didn't want to bother someone at MSN =[.

Ok bring up the tissue box pics.

lower stakes, poker players blame everything on luck because they dont want to think themselves as "bad" I was in the same position as you, but i realized it wasnt luck killing me, it was my cockyness that got to me

bleh dont worry about it ul bounce back and youl start hitting your draws them missing there ect ect ect happens to the best of us. just dont do what i do and break your knuckles on a computer screen because it aint worth it , the next day u have a winning session and a cast and cant whipe your ass

sounds like maybe you are to confident. always revise and study your play trying to get better. always.

i have no idea ive never seen u play, but -2k swing isnt much of a downswing in 200NL... but over a 4 month period u might wanna take a look at ur game

maybe just drop back to 100 NL and regain confidence as well as some $

odds of being up against AA in a full-ring game when holding KK: 3.61%

your jump to 30% is nothing short of a miracle

i've been dealing with quite a bit of KK vs AA lately too, what a pain in the fucking ass that shit is. but then one day you wake up, you play a 5,000 hand session, and it doesn't happen once. then the next day you wake up, play a 5,000 hand session, and you get AA vs KK three times. then today i wake up, play a 5,000 hand session, and go up another 5 buy-ins.

Four months stuck on 200NL, well actually I'm more interested in the amount of hands you have played. If you are playing a good amount (which I don't think you are) it is an impossible losing streak for a player of your calibre on these limits. If you have indeed played like 150k hands or more you will really need to re-evaluate your game because you are doing something wrong.

Taking a break over one week is what you should do. After such big time, see what your biggest losers are, compare them to positions you play them in. Also look at which type of hands you lose money with (one pair, two pair, etc).

In my experience, I pretty much always do good or better after a break, even though before a break "I think I'm playing good". Few big bets per 100 hands is very easy to slowly bleed away when you develop a bad habit that the break will help you clear.

Taking extended break is the best advice there is. For sure. Take two weeks off, first week, don't even look at pokersites, next week, do some study of the game and start playing on the third. That worked for me.

Try 4-tabling a session and then spend a good hour analyzing all the important hands you played, or get a buddy to look at all the hands.

Suckouts happen, and should make you happy because it's a reminder that you're playing well. Plus, usually we forget about all the times we suckout on them.

But as Frinx said, 10 buyins is really nothing. I lost 13 buyins on the weekend over something like 3000 hands...so I took a break and only played Dota this week.

And If you count all the rake you've paid over 4 months you're probably making money...so there's still hope!

How can he figure out what he's doing wrong though?

I haven't been doing so well for the past month either really, but i don't have any programs like pokertracker, i suppose i should get it ?

i think it bothers him that hes down 2k in 4 months time idea
not the 2k itself

I know it's not much buyin-wise, it's just frustrating that I can't get up anymore. I've had days where I lost 6 buyins, make 5 back the next day, then 2 more in the next, then I lose 5 again.

And yeah it isn't 150k hands, I don't play that much. I reckon it's about 80k.

'Muh says:
I see you've been doin' bad - just replied to your thread
Muh says:
take a longer break, it helps
Muh says:
I've played like 50k breakeven stretches because I didn't take that break I needed
Muh says:
you start to think you're playing good when in fact, you're bleeding money with some marginal type error in your game that you've developed over the last 23143902483 hands
Erwin says:
could be
Erwin says:
meh
Muh says:
I am currently idle.
Muh says:
breaks seriously help
Muh says:
even if nothing else, you'll feel good to be playing again
Muh says:
after breaking even forever (trust me i know), you can feel frustrated and you do feel
Muh says:
a bit even before you sit down
Muh says:
that's very very bad ;P
Erwin says:
yeah hm
Erwin says:
i guess i won't play poker for a while'

Probably what Muhweli says is true, I'll just play some pc games instead of poker I guess.

Thats one long downswing

thats nothing, I've been on a downswing for over 2 years. I'm a winning player though, I swear

feel ya. i havent been doing good either over last 4 month (well i was doing extra good one month, but rather bad the other 3, though i usually ended slightly up in the end).
and i am down 2 grands for this month so far, seems like this will be my first whole month which i will actually finish in negative numbers.

anyone willing to watch me play or help me analyze my game and find mistakes is welcome

On November 24 2006 10:00 RaSZi wrote: and 80k hands is nothing

it's so disillusioning, it seems the longer you play and the more experience you get, the more you realise that the skill edge takes a long time to show itself


80k hands is unbelievably much to me... i guess i still overestimate the skill factor

Im in the same kinda place as you atm. Stick to it

anyways twisted you are indeed much stronger than your competition, but that doesn't mean you're going to win their money effortlessly... you also need to compensate for the rake and still have a high enough edge for it to matter. And then you need to retain your A-game even during inevitable losing streaks. It's a tough task. When you're running good and winning, you might forget that because poker seems easy at those times.


If it makes you feel better, i always looked up to you since you owned my guts at broodwar about a zillion to nothing, then you started poker later than me, played about as much, and climbed up the limits much faster. You may feel that you are not moving up, but for a while there you were moving up incredibly fast. If you look at it over the long run, your results have been exceptionally good even with the losing streak included. So stick with it, because if you do, these people don't stand a chance against you.

And remember nietzsche; “What does not destroy me, makes me stronger.”

Thanks for the kind words guys.