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what do you guys do during the downswing?


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having a very rough night and just wondering what everyone else does to keep their sanity when they keep losing...I'm playing as well as I know how, I'm sticking to theory and I know I should be winning... but I CAN NOT take down a pot tonight. my showdown is 2 for 24 for the last 3 hours... and most of the time I had the better hand until the turn or river..so what does everyone do to keep from going nuts about this? I'm down 38BB right now from this ridiculous crap. I haven't tilted or done anything stupid It just seems like the poker gods don't want me to win a hand.hands like it folding around to the small blind... He completes, I'm in the big blind with A7suited and decide it's probably the best hand so I raise. the flop comes 7,4,6 rainbow... he bets at me, I raise, he calls.turn is a two.He bets, I call.Riv is king.he bets I call.He shows SEVEN ****ING TWO.not only did he complete fromt he blind... but then he called a preflop raise... I mean... I've also lost with A10, AQ, AK to A5, A2, or A9 about 8 times... i mean does the best hand ever win?

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having a very rough night and just wondering what everyone else does to keep their sanity when they keep losing...I'm playing as well as I know how, I'm sticking to theory and I know I should be winning... but I CAN NOT take down a pot tonight. my showdown is 2 for 24 for the last 3 hours... and most of the time I had the better hand until the turn or river..so what does everyone do to keep from going nuts about this? I'm down 38BB right now from this ridiculous crap. I haven't tilted or done anything stupid It just seems like the poker gods don't want me to win a hand.hands like it folding around to the small blind... He completes, I'm in the big blind with A7suited and decide it's probably the best hand so I raise. the flop comes 7,4,6 rainbow...  he bets at me, I raise, he calls.turn is a two.He bets, I call.Riv is king.he bets I call.He shows SEVEN censored TWO.not only did he complete fromt he blind... but then he called a preflop raise... I mean...  I've also lost with A10, AQ, AK to A5, A2, or A9 about 8 times... i mean does the best hand ever win?
If you took the time to post this, you can definitely take the time to get away from the game. Stop playing for a bit. Mellow out, watch tv, do whatever. You're having a losing session. Don't push it, don't go on tilt. Walk away. Tomorrow is another day. Good Luck.
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You are tilting. Step away. Take a break.Plus, you aren't playing that great of cards. Any ace isn't good. Try tightening up and only play premiums until you get back in the flow...then loosen up a bit.Don't fall in love with that ace, especially at small stakes limit.

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If you're tilting, by all means get away from the game. I personally keep myself from tilting during these times by yelling various profanities, and/or hitting my desk. If you can keep playing a solid game keep playing. If you're not sure, get out (even if it's only sitting out 1 or 2 orbits.)As for the A7 hand I like how you played it. When HU in the BB against the SB that only completes, you are almost always at least a 3-2 favorite and worthy of a raise for that alone. You also get good fold equity if you both miss when you bet on the flop. Him sucking out on the turn with his 3 outer just sucks. It happens, move onZaraP.S. I just started climbing out of a 200BB downswing at 2/4 so I feel your pain. One great 100BB day has done wonders for my morale and my bankroll.

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P.S. I just started climbing out of a 200BB downswing at 2/4 so I feel your pain.
Is that still in the range of what could possibly be considered a downswing? Isnt your bankroll supposed to only be a bit more than that to avoid going broke?
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I understand the problem and have just gone throught it myself. I don't know if I would consider it going on tilt though because I (and hopefully you) didn't let emotion get involved in my play. I play a very tight aggresive game and even when I raise before the flop with A J suited and catch 3 jacks on the flop myself and an other guy end up raising and reraising all in just to find that the guy had 10 9 suited and needed 2 cards to complete a straight or a flush, of course he ended up making the flush.This is how I reacted, I went down to lower stakes, from the $50 nl table to the $10 nl table. When things kept on happening I logged off and played some video poker untill I started hitting the cards again, then I logged back on and was doing well again.

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P.S. I just started climbing out of a 200BB downswing at 2/4 so I feel your pain.
Is that still in the range of what could possibly be considered a downswing? Isnt your bankroll supposed to only be a bit more than that to avoid going broke?
I was starting to wonder that myself. In retrospect I believe it was a combination of an upswing evening out combined with a run of suck outs that left me wondering if I was actually a winning player. I started at the beginning of March with 1000 in the 2/4 room (a little light but close enough that I should be fine.) The first 2-3 weeks I was killing the game and averaging about 7BB/100. I went from having been up about 1100 (for a 2100 bankroll, more than enough for 2/4) to up 300 (for a 1300 bankroll) over the course of a couple of weeks and an overall 1.2BB/100. After reading all of the entries from wrto and KDawg I was convinced that I was playing correctly the majority of the time and it was just a run of bad cards.As I sit here now, I've since recovered to up about 700 since I started last month and a more reasonable 2.5BB/100Zara
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I pound my fist on my desk.Already on the third one. This time though I smartened up and bought a real wood one..It hurts to hit so I try not to lose...
i almost broke a knuckle doing that one day...put a big hole in my wall though haha
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When I realize just how angry I am at losing and the fact that I'm tilting or about to tilt, I try to refocus my anger and negative energy into playing tighter. If I'm so far gone that I can't do that, I definitely step away from the game, take a walk, wash my face, grab a snack, or something to get my mind off the game. Basically, I push the poker reset button. Take care.

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Take a break. Review some hand histories. Post ones that you're not sure about. Most of all, dont get too upset about it. This is why you have 200BB or more in your bankroll. 38 is nothing...it's bound to happen.I'm going to defend the SB's actions in the hand you posted. You dont say if it's sooooted or not, but if it is, I'm playing it fom the SB when everyone folds to me. He made a mistake not raising it though. So then, your raise looks like a steal, and he's defending his blind because he has you on random cards. (should have raised again if he has you on a steal of course). Fl0pped top pair. so he bets out and calls the re-raise. The turn is the clincher. Not saying it doesn't suck for you, but I can see why he played it the way he did. You played it fine. He made some mistakes but he didn't play it like a total tool. Now if it's 7-2 offsuit, I have no idea what he was doing. I think some people try to win hands with 7-2o just to have a story to tell.

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The first thing I gotta tell you is if you feel like if you were playing live- and you might attack the guy- you need to stop. Don't wait for the blind. Just stand up, unplug your PC from the wall, and walk away.Don't walk away and do nothing though. Don't sit on MSN and chat to friends. Go do something that'll keep you away and take you time to come back. I went for a drive- to Maryland- a good 3 and a half hours from here. By the time I felt I was ready to come back, it was awhile before I could. vgg.Seriously, I've broken keyboards, cursed people out, and even hurt myself. Its too much. Shit happens- but if you honestly believe none of it is your fault you're lying to yourself. Its tilt. You're annoyed, you're not playing right no matter how hard you try.Take a break, Poker is supposed to be fun bro. If you're like me and trying to scratch a small living off of it, well it loses its fun appeal. But its still Poker. It'll be there when you get back, I promise.

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The killer thing is... that I really don't think it's my fault... I've kept myself from tilting (I did play a couple hands I wouldn't normally play cuz they were suited, but I stopped immediately cuz I was like "No you're spewing chips now like an idiot.")I would love to post some hands that I'm unsure about, but I'm not unsure about any of the hands... I would play each and every one the exact same way every time. I didn't chase cards unless I was getting the proper pot odds. I didn't self-destruct or slow-play anything big. I just played the way I've always played and ussually been succesful playing.in my 4 hour session my Showdowns won was 3 of 89... what does that tell you? It tells you that in the majority of the hands I had the better hand until the river and was obligated to call the river bet cuz there was too much in the pot... and it was never legitemite stuff I was getting beat by... It's not like I was against a guy who was chasing his flush cuz he had odds on it... no it was always that they would hit two pair, or trips, or they called all the way down with pocket 5's and hit the set on the end. It was brutal. I had AA. UTG+1 raises and I three bet, he calls.flop comes 3 J 9 with two diamonds. he bets, I raise, he three bets and I call.Turn is turn is 7 of a different suit.He bets again, I raise again, and he three bets. (now I'm thinking he's on JJ)River is JackHe checks, and I check behind him(I think the only way he would have called was if he had me beat)Which was good cuz he said he wanted to check-raise me.He flips over AJ.It's was hands like that the whole night. where I just couldn't catch a break... and yeah I know the whole schpeel about how I want to play with idiots like this who will pay me off when I have the better hand the whole time. But I really just want for pstars for once not to screw me over with all these dumb two-outers hitting nonstop.

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One of the things that your 3 out of 89 show down win tells me is that you may not be betting enough after the flop to scare away the chasers. After 7 hours I went to showdown 51 times and won 26.

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I guess I should retract my advice since I'm in a downswing right now and I'm going absolutely bonkers. I've disconnected and I'm ging to wait a couple hours before I go back. But I'm pretty upset and irate right now too. I am, however, catching flaws.

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For me I play poker because I enjoy it just as much as I enjoy making money at it. When I'm down 38BB in a single session I tend to not be enjoying it very much anymore and it's time for me to walk away. A session like that means you're either getting into the wrong pots, you've got too many fish at the table (2 or 3 is good at a full table; 5 or 6 is usually just bad new) or the table is too tough for you. In any of those situations I find it's time to take a breather and look for a better game tomorrow.You can play as well as you want but if your game selection is poor you're not going to win. If you have 9 fish + you at a table your pocket aces are still gonna get cracked 80% of the time when they all call you down to the river.We all have bad runs and the only thing you can do is walk away, analyze your play in a rational manner and see if you can take anything from the session to help you improve your game. Then you go back refreshed the next time and win 76BB. ;-)

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Yeah there are couple things I've noticed too that might be -EV in my play... like sometimes three-betting preflop with AJ or AQ.on the good news though... I took what was left of my bankroll... ($112) and withdrew it from pstars and put it back into True Poker.com ... I just really like this site for some reason... I've already doubled it to over $250 and I'm currently playing in a 273 MTT where I am sitting in 4th place in chip count out of 21 remaining.

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