This is fucking rediculous

[freechus9]

I am on the brunt of a 12 buyin losing streak after 4500 hands. Is this anything out of the ordinary? To everyone who has seen my hand histories, do you think I have hella leaks or is July not my month?

[benny999]

i've seen a few of your hands, and they seem mostly ok. at least not nearly as bad as some of the passively played hands i've seen. i think an aggressive game is bound to hit big variance, but of course relative beginners like you or i will hit more because of having more leaks and generally less experience.

i just had a ~12 buy in up swing playing 3-4 tables at a time followed immediately by a ~12 buy in downswing in june (around 25k hands total) when i thought i had a good system going and experimented with 6-9 tabling full ring on party. so at least i've had a downswing like that too, but don't know how common it is.

anyway, what has really helped is keeping a record of my worst plays. like "check/called river for 20 in 40 pot when i only beat a bluff" and summarizing that in a general list like "not block betting when i should"

another hugely beneficial thing has been playing 1 table of 4-6max. the extra time to focus on each situation- reads, table image, what the best move is, etc, is great. and playing "lag" is much more fun too (actually im mostly just raising and cbetting a lot then tag after, or pushing draws if i have a read they might fold...it's worked great - +7-8 buyins over the last 3k hands but more important is im fixing leaks)

i've read some say playing limit is a good way to improve reads and general game, but am not sure id be able to get over not controlling the bet sizes and be up for learning it.

anyone else have suggestions?

[Vrax]

Jiggus, my friend, I see from your signature that you play on Stars, which can be a nitfest even on microstakes. First suggestion may be to find easier site like Boss Network. There are plenty of donks but with ABC play you will rarely experience such a swings, I've been playing there for a year and 5 buyins loss was the biggest swing I had - when I was on extended tilt, not because of cards. Try it, it's easy money for FTR'er.

12 buyin swing can be a variance of course but as Lukie wrote in his "NL myths" thread, such a variance occurs in tough TAG tables with thinking players, not on usual microstakes donkfest where people stack off with any piece of board. It's more likely you still have big leaks that you can't pinpoint because you need a big chunk of hand histories to find it.

Lack of aggression?
Folding too much?
Getting destacked with one pair hands regularly?
Stealing too much with shitty image?
C-betting in wrong situation?

Btw.
LHE is good idea, I'm learning it too and it helped me tremendously in NL. Yes, you will not be able to protect your made hands against flushdraws and OESD's, but you will have plenty of opportunities to draw profitably, play combo draws, judge strength of hand according to board and number of opponents and playing situational poker. All good stuff, get SSH and go for it.

[a500lbgorilla]

i had a 6 buyin downswing today. So, i think you're ok.