Losing...

I had thought I was a winning player, but lately I have been doing poorly over a fairly large sample. I'm not sure if I should attribute it to swings, or if my game just isn't where I thought it was. Perhaps I should give some more information.

My first experience with online poker was pretty strange. I kind of luckboxed from 50 bucks up to ~500, without really playing particularly well over the course of about a week. I lost a few hands, went on tilt, and dropped down to about 200 all in the course of a day. That's when I realized that there was a whole wealth of information about poker that I had little to no understanding of.

I watched a ton of videos, read a bunch of articles, pored through the hand history threads religiously, and tried to understand the game as well as I could. (I still do this). In any case, I began to play much better, and understood things like BR management. It paid off. I played at an appropriate level, had an okay winrate, and everything was well in the world. I was running about 6ptbb/100 over about 20k hands.

I stopped playing for about all of April and most of May for school/personal reasons. I began playing again about middle of May, and I have done very poorly since. I averaged -8ptbb/100 over my last 10k hands. I am not a phenomenal player by any means, but I really only play about 3 tables at a time, and I try to focus on getting reads and making the best decisions I can, so I am very unhappy/worried about this recent downswing.

What do you guys do if you have a 16 BI downswing over a largeish sample? I admit I have not improved much since April, but I don't think I've been playing worse either. What steps should I take to try to become and stay a winning player?

I know it may seem like it, but 10k hands isn't a big sample. What's the best advice I can give you to become a winning player? Post some of the hands in the forum during your last 10k stretch and ask for advice.

Originally Posted by Juked07

I had thought I was a winning player, but lately I have been doing poorly over a fairly large sample. I'm not sure if I should attribute it to swings, or if my game just isn't where I thought it was. Perhaps I should give some more information.

My first experience with online poker was pretty strange. I kind of luckboxed from 50 bucks up to ~500, without really playing particularly well over the course of about a week. I lost a few hands, went on tilt, and dropped down to about 200 all in the course of a day. That's when I realized that there was a whole wealth of information about poker that I had little to no understanding of.

I watched a ton of videos, read a bunch of articles, pored through the hand history threads religiously, and tried to understand the game as well as I could. (I still do this). In any case, I began to play much better, and understood things like BR management. It paid off. I played at an appropriate level, had an okay winrate, and everything was well in the world. I was running about 6ptbb/100 over about 20k hands.

I stopped playing for about all of April and most of May for school/personal reasons. I began playing again about middle of May, and I have done very poorly since. I averaged -8ptbb/100 over my last 10k hands. I am not a phenomenal player by any means, but I really only play about 3 tables at a time, and I try to focus on getting reads and making the best decisions I can, so I am very unhappy/worried about this recent downswing.

What do you guys do if you have a 16 BI downswing over a largeish sample? I admit I have not improved much since April, but I don't think I've been playing worse either. What steps should I take to try to become and stay a winning player?

The first thing that pops out of your post: "Tilting $300 away in a day..."

You then went right to something else. Hang-on, STOP RIGHT HERE!

The first thing you have to focus on is how you react to these swings. It's never about the swings, results, up, downs, bad beats, good beats... it's all about how you REACT TO THOSE SITUATIONS!!!

That should be the first thing you focus on improving!

What did I say to myself, or out-loud, after he hit his 1-outer? How did that make me play the next 100 hands? Did I keep focusing on the "what-ifs?" Was I focusing on the total donkey on my right... the psycho aggro. on my left... and the weak calling station in between? Was I focused on how bad THEY play vs. my own decisions? My decisions are the only things that matter... and the REACTIONS after those decisions are even more important.

Yes... improve your technical skills, but put as much energy (if not more) into how you choose to REACT and WHAT YOU CHOOSE TO FOCUS ON DURING THE SESSION.

You'll never see your new future until you stop looking at your cards...

Stay focused,
Dayne

You've almost certainly gotten worse, even if you dont think so. Its crazy how fast you get rusty at this game.

move down to 1 or 2 tables.

use your extra time to serach through poker tracker and post some of your hands from that 10K.