How do I turn around a losing streak

[y2ktim]

I've only been playing for 9 months, low buy in tourneys only. At first I had some beginners luck, but variance seems to have been my enemy for months with only the odd respite. it seems like the more I read on poker the worse my results. I've had so many bad beats that I came to conclude that I am the world's unluckiest person. Been tracking how many times I've lost hands that I have had a statistical 88 - 92 percent chance of winning. Ove the past month I've lost about 56% of them. I've raised 5 and even 10x BB with big pairs and been called by crap that connects. When I fold I would make my hand when I chase I never do.

Yet I never seem to be able to do the same in return. Also it seems when I have the nuts, nobody else a decent hand so i don't get paid off. Yet when I have almost the nuts, some one has it. Set over set, boat over boat, etc. Usually I've been player uber tight (Helmuth's top 10), adding other pairs, suited connectors and suited aces from late position. But then I tilt and play any crap because I've been rivered by any crap. But I never get the fun of winning with crap. Or I became a calling station after being bluffed and shown the cards.

My confidence is gone and my game is gone. I'm afraid to raise , when I'm in I either fold when i shouldn't or cling to any piece of the flop I get cause I so desperately want to win a hand and feel they are bullying me. I bluff at the wrong times and totally misread everbody at the table.

I've read the psych of losing and the downward spiral. But even with time outs I can't seem to get the confidence and my game together. I go in expecting to lose. I feel like I have absolutely no skill despite my readings and even less luck.

Its gotten so bad that I feel like the plankton the fish feed on and it seems like the height of ambition is to gecome as good as the fish. I feel like I am the abslote worse poker player on earth.

Have any of you been in this pit and how did you get out?

Thanks
Tim

[Ivory]

yes, fortunately mine only lasted 4-5 days, just play your a game and you'll be fine. and your not the worst player ever he's playing against me right now and went all in on a flush draw to crack my top 2 pair i got mad then told him i'm glad im playing against him

heres my post when i started my losing streak
http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...ic.php?t=17876

[drmcboy]

1) Keep playing good poker. I don't believe your 56 % number, but if it's correct, it won't last.

2) If you look through the forum, you'll see a lot of these posts. Honestly, I think you're at the spot where most people quit. Downswings are painful. Eliminating the last 1-2 BIG leaks in your game is painful. Most people can't take it. It's a hard way to make an easy living, as they say.

3) There are enough succeful players on the loose/tight sides of the fence that I'm convinced either way is workable. I'm even more convinced that someone who can play either way (meaning you can raise AT in MP one orbit, and fold AJ in the same spot 15 minutes later) based on the table, chip stacks, image, etc. is better off. I'll tell you that my last really painful swing was what caused me to loosen up my game, and I've never looked back.

4) Recognize that when you play uber tight, most of the time people are not going to play back without a mongo hand, which is why you're running into set over set type spots, and why people always fold when you have the nuts - no one plays second pair or TPWK against a tight opp.

5) Take a break. Here's what scares me " I go in expecting to lose". If that is your mindset, you aren't going to play good poker. We all do it sometimes, but this is a form of tilt and you need to turn off the PC until the urge to play (which is the urge and belief you can win, no one is excited about losing a tourney) comes back. If it never comes back, why would you WANT to play?

6) You're tracking everytime your AA gets cracked by KTo - are you tracking every time your AA BEATS KTo? Keeping track of bad beats is an awful idea. Keeping track of ONLY bad beats is an even worse idea. I really recommend you tear up that paper or delete that file.

[y2ktim]

Thanks for the feedback. How long of a break does it take to slough off a defeatest attitude? Also are their poker coaches one can work with to find and plug the last of the leaks.?

The number is correct so I'm waitng for variance give me the mother of all runs. These variances didn't bother me as much in blackjack because I had a good run right after I learned to count cards so I had positive feedback right away, whereas everything went down the tubes after I read Sklansky, Harrington, etc. Partly because I would go on tilt when people didn't play by the book and busted me in the process. I guess its handling that factor, which doesn't exist in BJ as the dealer is a robot and the other players are irrelivant.

At least BJ card counting gives me a head for calculating odds.

[ChezJ]

why would you want your opponents to play by the book? if they did, you'd have no edge over them.

[bigredhoss]

4) Recognize that when you play uber tight, most of the time people are not going to play back without a mongo hand, which is why you're running into set over set type spots, and why people always fold when you have the nuts - no one plays second pair or TPWK against a tight opp.

might want to add an asterik to this one...it might be right in some places but I think playing at the lower limits you shouldn't worry about your table image too much or try to adjust your play based on it, most of the fishes won't notice the difference.

4) Recognize that when you play uber tight, most of the time people are not going to play back without a mongo hand, which is why you're running into set over set type spots, and why people always fold when you have the nuts - no one plays second pair or TPWK against a tight opp.

might want to add an asterik to this one...it might be right in some places but I think playing at the lower limits you shouldn't worry about your table image too much or try to adjust your play based on it, most of the fishes won't notice the difference.

BS. This is what I did yesterday:

I decided I had a horrible run of cards and I didn't play a hand for a while. When I did play a hand nobody would call me down to the end.

So I raised from MP, two callers. I had Q6o. This is limit btw.
Flop comes ace high. Someone bets. I raise. Both call. I have no piece.
Turn is a blank. I bet. Both call.
River comes a blank. I bet. Both call. I turn over ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. While one turns over middle pair and one turns over top pair aces.

In two hands I get AJo. I raise from MP. One guy calls. Not the one of the two in the hand.
Flop is jack high. I bet. He INSTANTLY calls me. Not the "fast" call, but the call that INDICATES that he put his software into CALL ANY mode. He checked that checkmark.
I bet the turn. INSTANT CALL.
I bet the river. INSTANT CALL. I show AJ and he mucks.

I mean I'd probably get less if I didn't try this "advertising" play, but the Q6o was definitely losing me money. Although I now know that people are WATCHING how I play. I didn't show down a hand the entire time because everyone folded to my bets on the river. Q6o was the first one I showed. This was on the lowest stakes on pokerroom.