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In the last couple of days I've had a really horrible spell of luck. I've just really been getting beat on bull$hit over and over again. I've been playing almost every day for the last month and a half and have only had 2 losing days prior to this and they weren't nearly as bad as today and yesterday. I usually don't lose much money and downswings are brief, mainly because disciplined post-flop play.Now the kinds of beats of been taking (and I'm elaborating not for sympathy, but because it relates to my question) involve in most cases having the best hand until the river. I've also had the unbelievably bad luck of having KK run into AA 4 times in one day (i'm not exaggerating). Most of the time when I do have the best high pair I'll lose to a set (usually on the turn or river...)I've been able to stop whenever I get to the point where I want to strangle someone to death, but every time I calm down and go back to playing the same crap starts up again.I'm not looking for people to tell me it'll turn around. I'm sure it will. What I want to know from some of the more experienced players who have gone through these really bad spells to give me a few mistakes that may start to arise in my game (which has been winning 4+ BB/100 since I started with 50 bucks up until I broke 1k shortly before this 150 BB downsing started). I know that I'm a winning player and I would appreciate it if some of you could highlight the biggest mistakes that can occur when your facing what seems like pre-ordained punishment/torture from the poker gods.I'm taking a break for now and rereading a few chapters in my books, but I know I won't be able to stay away from the game for more than a few hours since reading about poker always makes me want to play poker.[/u]

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Maybe you need to find a way to take a longer break.I lost a crap load over a week or two period after a long winning period. I took a week or two off. It seemed to help. Having a couple bad days is not the end of the world man. Maybe wrto will respond, I seem to remember him being down a lot for a period of time, and he came through if I remember correctly. He would be the man to talk to, I think.

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the same thing has just occurred to me and it seems as if the world is out to get you and no matter how disciplined to play u will get outdrawn but it will end eventually u and i hope but let the fishes suck out on you and bust u with bs thats poker and welcome to the string of bad beats

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yeah, I know it's not the end of the world. It's really hard not to get pissed off when absolutely rediculous $hit is happening. I'm still a few hundred dollars above my bankroll, but I was on the verge of being able to move up to 2/4 so it has me a little pissed. I just want to make sure I don't start doing stupid things which will prolong this torture. I don't start my new job till monday and I just moved (no friends up here yet) so I don't have much else to do till then but play poker.

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A problem to be on the look out for is that you start playing scared. You start thinking you're going to get drawn out on so you become afraid to raise. or bet to protect your hand. Or you assumeworst case scenario, (the other guy has the nuts) and fold.If you are truly a winning player you have to believe in yourself and your style of play and continue on, as that is how you will win.I lost a considerable amount at the end of March due to not being able to fully focus on my playing. I was tired and just playing for the diversion from work. Big mistake. But I learned from it and will not make that mistake again.Good Luck

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I'm feeling ya, brother...been going through the same thing recently.What I decided to do, at least for a couple of days was play until i won a pot and could step away from the table with more than i sat down with...even if it was just a few dollars.I did this a couple of times and it worked wonders on my confidence. Might not be for everyone, but seemed to snap me out of a slump.

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i totally agree with rock crawler....you shud always be confident when u play and always play ur style....i know what he means when he says u dont raise your hands or fold thinkin the other guy has it since it has happend to me.....i overcame it by taking a few days off and watching a lot of the poker videos ive got.....i only watch the pros play and i pick up on them and go back to the table with confidence....make sure u take a break and go back with confidence and dont change ur style....that helped me a lot.....actually when i was down....i started limping in with good hands and just dint do the rite things when they were supposd to be done and that cost me more!.....as long as ur confident and stick to ur style...u shud be ok.....hope things turn around for ya bro....good luck...schemr

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I usually try to mix up the types of games I play. I only play Hold'em but find that I can make money at Live low limit (2/4, 3/6 & 4/8) cash games as well as online sit and go's and online heads up games. Whenever I run into a bad streak on one, I move to another to rebuild my bankroll and confidence. Plus, it has the added bonus of keeping me sharp and all three. Psychologically, it helps me refocus and forget about the previous type of game where I lost. Then I can play confidently and rebound.Try to mix it up...works great for me!

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I had a session like this Sunday and in the past I usually would move down in limits to get some confidence back. I tried something different yesterday. I moved up to the 1/2 NL games from my usual level of $.50/$1.00 and had fairly good results. Well, I moved back down to the $1.00 today and felt more confident and the bets didn't seem as intimidating to call either after facing much bogger ones at the 1/2 tables. i'm not sure if this would work for you, but it gave me the confidence I needed to call with more marginal type hands I had been mucking before and to be more aggresssive to protect a hand where as before i may have given someone a card on the turn for too cheap.

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A problem to be on the look out for is that you start playing scared. You start thinking you're going to get drawn out on so you become afraid to raise. or bet to protect your hand. Or you assumeworst case scenario, (the other guy has the nuts) and fold.If you are truly a winning player you have to believe in yourself and your style of play and continue on, as that is how you will win.I lost a considerable amount at the end of March due to not being able to fully focus on my playing. I was tired and just playing for the diversion from work. Big mistake. But I learned from it and will not make that mistake again.Good Luck
I just read this post, and agree 100% with it. Scared money is dead money. And that is so true. People can smell fear by the tone of your bets and will often try and knock you off a hand if you aren't playing it aggressively. Play your big hands aggressively to the river and fold when you know you are beat. Dont chase when you dont have the pot odds and try and change gears at a table when your table image is becoming too easy to read.
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I agree with rockcrawler as well, and bad beats are just part of the game(although KK against AA 4 times in one day really sux...lol). I also I think that you should really look at your play the last couple of days objectively. Prior to this, you had really been playing well and had been making money consistantly. I've noticed that when I do well over an extended period of time that sometimes my play becomes a little complacent because I'm so certain that I'm going to win the pot. I wouldn't worry about the AA, KK hands, but go over the other hands and verify that all the calls and raises you made were actually good calls and raises. Would you have made the same plays a month ago? Sometimes small leaks infiltrate your game without you knowing it, :shock: especially when you have been winning consistantly. Review your hand history and compare or think over some the hands you've played. I know you said that you probably couldn't take a break from it, but it might be good to take two or three days off to do something else and come back fresh. Good luck and I hope your game turns around! :club:

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I was reading an article written by Brett Jungblut today, and he talked about how when he's not confident in his game and losing money, he'll drop down to a level where he is absolutely positive he can crush the competition (he made it sound fairly drastic in change). That way he gains confidence in his game as opposed to it being a drop to accomodate bankroll.Granted, online this will likely increase the number of bad beats taken, but if you're playing, say, .01/.02 NL on PokerStars, you'd lose perhaps the max buy in of $5, and at the very least blow off some steam/build up confidence. Or play money sit 'n go's are fun when you raise every time you're dealt a spade. Feels good to deal out some of those bad beats. :-)

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It happens to everyone, if you can when you've just taken a bad beat stand up and walk around for a few seconds, you can deep breathe say goosefraba or whatever but I always find if I take this few second break I can get it out of my system and focus on my next hand more and how im going to play it.also trying to minimise the loss helps well for example saying well I just lost $100 so what did I get out of it? If you learn something out of it it's all helping to becoming a better player and the small loss will only result in more gains.

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I have to say, I have mixed feelings about dropping down a few levels. You are playing far less quality competition in this drop down in levels and plays you make there will not work at the higher levels. I think you are setting yourself up for even more frustration by mixing your level of play too much. Maybe for a few hours try it, but you dont want to come back up and feel like the bets are much bigger than you remembered since you have been playing much lower blinds. Does this make sense?

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