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When You're Running Really Bad


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I've been multi-table grinding micro-stakes tournaments on Stars for quite awhile. Every once in awhile, I'll have days where (it seems) no matter what I do, I can't win. Looking at my sharkscope graph, it's a steady downhill descent on those days. I can point them out and tell a story for each one, and in almost every case, it's just 1 or 2 bad days. On those days, I'll initially stay calm, but by the end, I'm definitely steaming badly. Just when I get my roll back up to where it was (after a couple weeks of grinding), I have one of those days where I lose, essentially, 2 weeks of work in one afternoon.My question to myself is always, "Am I really playing badly today or have I just taken an inordinate number of bad beats today?" I really have to believe that I'm playing badly, but getting myself to admit it on the spot is impossible. This last time, I was sick when I was playing, and I'm guessing that it impaired my judgement, but I do remember some really bad beats too. So, to address the situation, I've decided to institute a new rule to my bankroll management:If I lose 10% of my bankroll, it's an automatic 1 hr suspension.If I lose 20% of my bankroll, I'm done for the day.Assuming that I don't eventually move up in stakes again*, I may adjust those rules to be an actual dollar amount. I went from about $350 to $176 this last time.Anyone else have any thoughts on this? *For the past two years, each fall, I restart my bankroll and grind my way back up, generally moving up in stakes along the way, topping out around the $10-$20 level tournaments, where I stop being very profitable.

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I've been multi-table grinding micro-stakes tournaments on Stars for quite awhile. Every once in awhile, I'll have days where (it seems) no matter what I do, I can't win. Looking at my sharkscope graph, it's a steady downhill descent on those days. I can point them out and tell a story for each one, and in almost every case, it's just 1 or 2 bad days. On those days, I'll initially stay calm, but by the end, I'm definitely steaming badly. Just when I get my roll back up to where it was (after a couple weeks of grinding), I have one of those days where I lose, essentially, 2 weeks of work in one afternoon.My question to myself is always, "Am I really playing badly today or have I just taken an inordinate number of bad beats today?" I really have to believe that I'm playing badly, but getting myself to admit it on the spot is impossible. This last time, I was sick when I was playing, and I'm guessing that it impaired my judgement, but I do remember some really bad beats too. So, to address the situation, I've decided to institute a new rule to my bankroll management:If I lose 10% of my bankroll, it's an automatic 1 hr suspension.If I lose 20% of my bankroll, I'm done for the day.Assuming that I don't eventually move up in stakes again*, I may adjust those rules to be an actual dollar amount. I went from about $350 to $176 this last time.Anyone else have any thoughts on this? *For the past two years, each fall, I restart my bankroll and grind my way back up, generally moving up in stakes along the way, topping out around the $10-$20 level tournaments, where I stop being very profitable.
Log off if you're sick. Log off after a bad beat. Log off if you're tired.I've prob blown more $ playing when I don't feel well than anyone.
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Log off if you're sick. Log off after a bad beat. Log off if you're tired.I've prob blown more $ playing when I don't feel well than anyone.
Log off (or take a break) if you start to berate people for their play. Keep in mind it their play could be a result of your own image. If you got "bad beat", look at the hand carefully: It might have happened because of something your "behaviour" triggered...something as simple as mis-sizing a bet or how you played a hand a few minutes ago can have a big impact on things. Also, sometimes bad beats just happen. My recent favorite is me making an FT, getting AA in the SB and having the cutoff shove their stack. I call and AA < K7s for most of my stack. C'est la vie.Self-awareness is a huge factor in poker. The ability to image-shift from hand to hand is crucial but elusive.
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Log off (or take a break) if you start to berate people for their play. Keep in mind it their play could be a result of your own image. If you got "bad beat", look at the hand carefully: It might have happened because of something your "behaviour" triggered...something as simple as mis-sizing a bet or how you played a hand a few minutes ago can have a big impact on things. Also, sometimes bad beats just happen. My recent favorite is me making an FT, getting AA in the SB and having the cutoff shove their stack. I call and AA < K7s for most of my stack. C'est la vie.Self-awareness is a huge factor in poker. The ability to image-shift from hand to hand is crucial but elusive.
Thank you very much. I hadn't thought of it that way before.In these micro-stakes tournaments, it really seems like raw aggression = -EV. I do best by often playing passively, then making large bets that look like bad bluffs. But when I was sick, I think I was probably just raising a lot of pots. I probably looked like a donkey, and was treated as such. I'm not going to go back and analyze every game, though.Thanks for your input.
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I've been multi-table grinding micro-stakes tournaments on Stars for quite awhile. Every once in awhile, I'll have days where (it seems) no matter what I do, I can't win. Looking at my sharkscope graph, it's a steady downhill descent on those days. I can point them out and tell a story for each one, and in almost every case, it's just 1 or 2 bad days. On those days, I'll initially stay calm, but by the end, I'm definitely steaming badly. Just when I get my roll back up to where it was (after a couple weeks of grinding), I have one of those days where I lose, essentially, 2 weeks of work in one afternoon.My question to myself is always, "Am I really playing badly today or have I just taken an inordinate number of bad beats today?" I really have to believe that I'm playing badly, but getting myself to admit it on the spot is impossible. This last time, I was sick when I was playing, and I'm guessing that it impaired my judgement, but I do remember some really bad beats too. So, to address the situation, I've decided to institute a new rule to my bankroll management:If I lose 10% of my bankroll, it's an automatic 1 hr suspension.If I lose 20% of my bankroll, I'm done for the day.Assuming that I don't eventually move up in stakes again*, I may adjust those rules to be an actual dollar amount. I went from about $350 to $176 this last time.Anyone else have any thoughts on this? *For the past two years, each fall, I restart my bankroll and grind my way back up, generally moving up in stakes along the way, topping out around the $10-$20 level tournaments, where I stop being very profitable.
enjoyed the read. seems like you trying to do some good work on yourself. i'd suggest you take the 10-20 roll, maybe built it twice as big next time from the smaller tournies, and switch to live 200-500dollar tournies. they gotta be solid tournies though with great structurybe some small events of a poker series or something. some casinos do offer terrible structure tournise so be wise in your choices.even if you only have the role from the online small stakees wins to play like 5 of these live tournys a year- you'd likely have a much better success chance to do some damage than playing a bunch of 10/20s online.
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enjoyed the read. seems like you trying to do some good work on yourself. i'd suggest you take the 10-20 roll, maybe built it twice as big next time from the smaller tournies, and switch to live 200-500dollar tournies. they gotta be solid tournies though with great structurybe some small events of a poker series or something. some casinos do offer terrible structure tournise so be wise in your choices.even if you only have the role from the online small stakees wins to play like 5 of these live tournys a year- you'd likely have a much better success chance to do some damage than playing a bunch of 10/20s online.
... this is the opposite of good advice.
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Thanks for all the input. All of it. It's all good.Played tonight. Got rivered 3 times on or near bubble. In spite of that, I was playing great, and I knew it. But, I hit 10%, so I took an hour. Came back later, played worse, rivered a couple players, and won it back. Break even for the night. LOLHonestly, if I could get a handle on these days, I'd probably have a lot more in my account. It seems to be the one thing that keeps me from really becoming profitable over time. I've moved up in stakes and lost money there, and while that sucks, I can handle that. As a friend of mine once said, "Winning $500 in a poker game is pretty cool, but nothing great. But losing $500 REALLY SUCKS!!!" That pretty much sums it up for me too.

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I wouldn't know, I've never run really bad.
Must be nice... I run like shit all the time. You must be the guy who beats my top set w/ a backdoor straight draw. BTW that's happened 3 times in the last two days.Edit: You must be the guy who beats my A :club: K :ts w/ A :4h K :club:2nd Edit: You must be the guy who calls a raise w/ 23 off OOP, flops a wheel draw, goes absolutely crazy and outdraws my 2 pair.
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Sounds like you have some very serious issues with steaming if you can lose two weeks worth of work in one night. I'm not a tournament guy very much, but my rule for cash games is to never lose more than I can make in the next session or easily make in two winning sessions. You'll never lose half your roll following this advice. Secondly, there is no such thing as a bad beat. The cards do not care who wins, so why should you? Just make the best decisions you're capable of, and play poker. If you have hard bankroll rules, and stick to them, you should make money if you play well. Poker is definetely a game which teaches about yourself, how to manage yourself, and knowing when you're off your game. Someone had mentioned if you berate a player's play. I feel like the 1st time I say to myself "wow, I can't believe he did that" I'm already on tilt. That simple. Tilt is very sublte.Most of this is cash game advice, but if you realize that the game will always be there tomorrow when you're clear headed, you will do much better over time. Sounds like you frustrate the shit out of yourself and make yourself work way too hard.

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Must be nice... I run like shit all the time. You must be the guy who beats my top set w/ a backdoor straight draw. BTW that's happened 3 times in the last two days.Edit: You must be the guy who beats my A :club: K :ts w/ A :4h K :club:2nd Edit: You must be the guy who calls a raise w/ 23 off OOP, flops a wheel draw, goes absolutely crazy and outdraws my 2 pair.
Holy shit, I didn't realise we'd played together before dude. That sounds just like me. Wheel draws are my favourite because I like to yell "I JUST RE-INVENTED THE WHEEL, ************" whenever I make them. It also balances my range a lot because people have to respect the J24 flop in case I have A3 or A5 or 35, that's 3 wheel draws. TRICYCLE ************!
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