losing streak- what do u do to turn things around

well, im in a slump, 4 cosecutive days of losing, my bankroll has gone from $260 to $193 in that time and im playing like crap.
it seems like im not getting any cards, and when i do get cards, the board isnt helping at all. it doesnt help that the other players will call anything and play it right down the river.
and to make matters worse, when i do hold marginal hands like bottom pair or middle pair with an a or k overcard that i know the other players have i throw it away and bang, right on cue, my set comes along on the turn and river, leaving me with a hand full of nothing which i know i would have won with. its enough to make a man cry.
what do u guys do to reverse this situation, i think illtake a few days off playing, i usually play about 2 hrs a night, i think i might be burning out. ill do something else in the meantime. but its so hard when u win which i was doing and now im a loser.....
at least im still ahead

A good start would be not to double post.. :roll:

First, that is not a big losing streak, but rather looks like a normal swing assuming that you are not playing micro limits. I take a couple days or week off. Play xbox, read a book whatever you did before you starting playing. Come back fresh and play your game.

If you downloaded hand histories, and you want to get real serious, study them and post them to see where you went wrong. Don't chase your loses by moving up in limits because there is a chance you will only compound your problem.

First, that is not a big losing streak, but rather looks like a normal swing assuming that you are not playing micro limits. I take a couple days or week off. Play xbox, read a book whatever you did before you starting playing. Come back fresh and play your game.

If you downloaded hand histories, and you want to get real serious, study them and post them to see where you went wrong. Don't chase your loses by moving up in limits because there is a chance you will only compound your problem.

There are couple of things you could do:

1. Check pokertracker for any hands you've lost a substantial amount of money in and replay them all. This should calm you down a little if you know you made the right decisions for each play but lost simply due to bad rivers. Or if you notice a mistake, now you know and you can fix it for next time.

2. Go watch poker on TV it usually calms me down a lot and after watching it, it hypes me up and makes me want to play poker and good poker at that.

3. Watch a movie, go out, hang out with your friends.

4-days isnt much at 2-hours a day. However, losing/winning streaks is more an indicator if your strategy is good/bad. Personally, I would guess that you should play about 500-1000+ hands. If you are experiencing losses after that, then you probably not on a losing streak (rather its bad playing).

If I'm on a losing streak, usually i'll take a day off and then play a live game. For me, it's relaxing going down to Foxwoods and playing for a few hours, and I find myself playing better. Then when I start playing online again, the "mood" usually carries over.

-Josh