Humility vs. Cockiness...related to downswings?

[RHCNNN]

I'm having a reoccuring problem where I'll go on nice streaks and then lose half (sometimes all) of it back in a very short period of time.

Although there are some bad beats, I can't honestly say they're the cause of downswings. In this past downswing I lost all the profits I made in 2 first place SnGs, & 9 heads up wins. I lost the profit in one hour of straight losses at heads up. The first loss was a bad beat, but the next ones after that were just me trying to get my money back, and moving up to bigger games to do so (plus some second-best hands that looked good). Also when people would suck out on me, I'd play them in rematches thinking I will win it back because I'm better than them.

WRONG! I just completely got my ass kicked today and I need to put an end to this. I cancel out so much of my profit in these quick but deadly streaks. And looking back I can't help but admit sometimes I get a little too cocky after a good winning streak.

Have any of you ever noticed that you get cocky after you're running good and start playing a little more stupidly? or is it just my dumb ass?

[BobbySalami]

well, being the noob I still am, as soon as I hit a nice streak I seem to think I know the game in and out and then start making many stupid mistakes...

Recently I go on a nice streak....get cocky...loose 80% of those winnings, remember that I am still a noob and suck and need to play good poker, and then I go on a nice streak again....

with a few bad beats thrown in its taking forever to build my BR, but Ill eventually learn the discipline of playing how I am supposed to

[CrunchyNuts]

Winning can cause tilt too. I know one of my biggest problems is recognizing when winning is causing me to get all excited and stepping away until the mind is back to normal.

[Estrop]

Yeah. When your winning you have to make sure your still playing exactly the same, as to not starting loosening up, or assuming.. "he can't have the flush, I'm bill fillmaff".

Also, moving up to win it all back is very bad. Don't let winning or loosing effect where you play or how you play, unless you've made comfortably move up stakes of course.

[DimitriT]

Winning can cause tilt too. I know one of my biggest problems is recognizing when winning is causing me to get all excited and stepping away until the mind is back to normal.

This is so true. The advice I received which helped me with this was that just because you have built up some nice wins, don't fall into the trap of valuing your money less. In other words, you need to work on maintaining the same disciplined game you've been playing all along even though you have a cushion and can afford to make mistakes.

[drmcboy]

Or move up... it's hard to play seriously for me if I'm in below my BR.