losing self-confidence

I know this has been discussed before, but I need guidance. What do you do when you're in a long slump and start losing your self-confidence? That is my problem now. It seems like every move I make is wrong; I fold rags and they hit-- I play good hands and rags crush me. I know that variance play a large part in poker, but how does one handle the mental aspects of a long term slump? We have great players here and I value their advice highly. So, if you can, please tell me how to handle the loss of focus and confidence when faced with a long term slump. Any advice is appreciated.

Just from a quick reading it sounds like you're becoming a little too results oriented in your focus. All you can do is focus on making good decisions each hand and let the results come. Understand that's easier said than done.

I hit a bad stretch awhile back and I chose to drop a level to regain confidence. The competition was weaker so I was able to make better decisions, which led to better results. I also spent time focusing on my game. Working on leaks and my own psychology at the table. I've since moved back up and results are far superior to before.

Definitely work on being less results orientated.

When a hand goes wrong (or right) analyse it after the session. Look to see if you played it properly, i.e you play it 1000 times do you show a profit or a loss? Rather than how did this particular instance go.

Secondly put swings into context. 10K hand downswings are nothing. How long does it take you to play 10K? If its a week than you might be on a DS for a week or two. If its a month then.... if its 2 months then .... if its a day then....

You have to look at swings in terms of hands rather than how many times you have been to bed.

It is difficult when you keep losing but if you analyse the hands and see that you didn't make a mistake then eventually things will even out. If it turns out you played the hand badly, then you are on your way to learning to play it better.


GL

Since you are keeping track of whats happening in your slump you need to step back and analyze your play. If you are playing scared and overcompensating then you have to get back to basics. Take a break read some poker articles. You will find your luck changes when you plug your leaks.

I often will lookup a completely different game to play to chang my flow. Switch to limit in a new game like stud hi lo or badugi. Often that will make a big difference when I retun to the no limit game.

"I fold rags and they hit" - good for you. Don't ever let a flop you didn't see affect your mental state. You throw garbage out - you don't sift through it later to find a half-eaten eclaire. Stand by that decision and don't fret. Sure, lousy starting hands would win if you played them every time... just often enough to ensure you go broke.

Conversely, make sure you raise enough on your strong hands to clear out the rags. If you're going against multiple players at once, you're going to lose to a lot of draws and suckouts. Make 'em pay to see the turn and river on their straight and flush draws or their middle or bottom pairs. And as the others suggested, know that your solid play will eventually be rewarded as your hands increase and the law of large numbers takes over.

And don't resort to Enzyte, no matter how confident Bob looks. Good luck!

If you're truly having a "long-term slump" then it's entirely possible, even likely, that you are a long-term losing player. Probably not what you want to hear, but it needs to be said. All too often people are happy thinking that their wins are purely down to their maginficent poker skills and their losses are down to the evil luck monster, but this is not always true.

Anyway, some tips.

- Increase your study : playing ratio. By studying more (a) you will tend to learn more than playing with a lack of confidence and (b) you will gain more confidence that the moves you are making are actually the right moves.

- Remember poker is a long-run game. I dunno how long your "long-term slump" has lasted but any sample less than 100k hands is pretty meaningless.

- You don't "fold rags and they hit". (a) You only remember the times they do hit which leads to skewed recall and you thinking it happens far more often than it does, and (b) as above poker is a long-run game and doing stuff like limping with 94o UTG because the last two times you had 94 the flop came 994 is a long-run losing proposition.

- Take a break. If all else fails, just sever from poker for a while. You can either continue to study or just take as long as you think you need completely offfrom poker, as you prefer

- Play a different game. If you play MTTs, try cash. If you play NLHE, try PLO. Obviously if you play say $50NL and have never played PLO before I don't recommend you jump into $50PLO, but move down a bit and try a new game. Strangely, the less you know about a game type, the less stressful playing it tends to be and the more there is to learn about a game, the more enjoyable the learning process tends to be.

1. Forget about results
2. Drop stakes
3. Play ABC poker
4. Take a break
5. Take time over game/table selection
6. In cash observe table before joining
7. negative thinking brings negative results
8. study/analyse/learn from hands played
9. Keep notes
10. Be happy in your work or change jobs

Excellent ideas posted already.

A short break from poker improvement to self improvement may help also.

Try reading a book or 2 related to self confidence, winning, overcoming adversity or reaching personal goals. A longer read by several different authors should help.

One's self confidence is a very personal thing. Improving it may help your poker game and who knows what else!

first of all i take a break, analyze my game via ptr3, read some articles here and there. dont think about the game as a hole, but analyze it hand by hand. don't play scared, just because you lost 3 times in a row with AA does not mean it will happen every time. yesterday i had a bad swing, lost 11 buyins, lost with AA all in preflop vs KK, and all in preflop vs AJ when he hit 4 cards to a straith, took 2 hours break, seen a movies, came back and won most of it back and today i am ready to rumble again.

I don't really have any advice for you, but when this happens to me it's usually in just one game. When it happens I always think, "I'm at odds with the table". It has nothing to do with my playing. (No fair laughing). I can't imagine what I would do if this were a constant thing. To me this has nothing to do with variance but just one game.

bad runs are a part of the game,i notice many of mine have come when my bankroll is healthy and have had some good finishes so probably have come overconfident and not so focussed

tbh, I've told a lot of ppl the same advice a lot of the time. But I just looked at my last 50k hands and I'm really starting to believe it's all BS! I've been on here for 3 years, I've bought books, I've watched every video I can get my hands on. I've played what everything says is a "good game" and all I see is downswing.

Last summer I took over 4 months off from poker entirely. I hoped that it would give me a better perspective for when I came back. It did, but didn't work. I'm just about done with this damn game. At least the last 40K hands of my graph are where I really buckled down and tried to play the best poker I could and here is how I was rewarded...

Attached Images

50K hands graph.JPG (59.6 KB, 154 views)

We always tell people not to worry about downswings. And while that's true if the person has a solid background of proven winnings and they are carefully examining their game for signs of tilt and leaks, I think we also encourage a lot of losing players to just keep losing. Which I guess isn't a bad thing.

Look at the top players. Ivy, Durrrr, Antonius. They lose a 200k pot and they're like *blank*. Psychological resilience is a very underestimated skill in poker, and it's also one you have to work on.
A year ago I could go tiliting off money 1-2 hours after I suffered a bad beat. Nowadays I don't tilt more than 1 minute after one.
Take the example of the super-soldier they brainwash with violent footage to make him emotionless, it's kind of the same for bad beats. The more you suffer, the less you care.

yeah the same thing happens to me but i think that sometimes its just the cards u get dealt not the way u played the hands

I appreciate all the helpful advice. Thanks for your responses and I will try to put them into practice. I definitely needed another person's input; it helps put things into perspective. Again, thanks to all.

i donno what the best thing to say to you would be besides the more u play the more chances u have of a bad beat or bad run and ive been playing for years (lol) but also u said i fold rags and thay hit and play big cards and get crushed by rags i donno why those rags would stand out to u soo much unless your where about to use them that hand lol 1 brush it off 2 remember what happened that hand and think hard about each hand u play even pre flop so u can use those rags next time / you dont allways have to call with big cards if you think it will hert your overall outcome of chips
p.s. moo

Maybe the hardest advice to accept is just "walk away". Don't play for a month (cold turkey), hopefully when you return you'll enjoy the "game" again. Think of it as a "mental" reset! I had to due this twice in the last two years. My game hasn't improved that much when I returned but I'm enjoying the "game" again and accepting that the variance is part of the "game"!

The Poker Mindset.

Read up. It might help.

And some people simply need to walk away. This game is not for everyone to play seriously. There are a lot of people who think "I can do it" and end up losing a lot... paying very heavy price for ignoring their huge "downswing". It is definitely a fine line. When does it become immoral to encourage people back to the table? I know everyone is the captain of their own ship... but that doesn't make it right? right?

Stix

if you DO take a poker break i would recommend brushing up on your skills b4 u jump back in a big game read a book stay connected to poker sites or even write down some tips for your self when the month is over

fwiw, this one always works for me. For various reasons I play mostly cash, and when I'm finding it mentally/emotionally tough to keep hanging in, a one or two week period of sticking to SnGs or donking around at PLO helps.

There is a ton of good advice in this post. We have to remember that it is a game of skill with some luck. So analyze to make sure you made the corrrect move. Just do not let it get you down when the other guy's luck kicks in. I have lost count of how many time I have had AA preflop gone all in and received two callers and got drawn out on. Or the number of times I flopped top set and the person tried to buy id with an all in push and drew out to the str8 or 4 flush me.

We all have slump times, just don't let have a negative effect on your game. Remember, we all have to count on the poker gods at some point to make it to the final table.

Dictionary.com's Luck definition
1.the force that seems to operate for good or ill in a person's life, as in shaping circumstances, events, or opportunities

I wish we who consider ourselves poker players can let go of this word luck. There is no luck there is only variance. Either your roll and your mind can deal with variance or it cannot. If you are can't afford to lose and you do... if the stakes are too high (physically or mentally) please please please walk away my friend.

Stix

Absolutely the perfect answer right here.

I feel the same way right now. So i switched to play money and kicking some serious butt. For some reason that helps me alot. U should give it a try. Try and work your way to king of the hill It will better your game

i dont think thats true i worked my way from 0 - 30 million in like 2-3weeks and u just get past the donkey tards to then play against some kinda decent players if u wanna play properly try like cent tables on ft or somethin

even 0.01 and 0.02cent tables the players play better than at the 25/50k play chips

Just play 10 step ones on merge at the same time. Don't think just react with the best situational bet. Don't know if it will help any but if you can get 10 out of 10 you can certainly beat donks.

Ring games?
I'd be interested to see your winnings/losses in relationship to your position. IE, how much you are up or down UTG, in the BB, SB, Button, cutoff, etc.

I wouldn't look at folding rags as a mistake. What would have happened to them IF you played them is absolutely of no consequence. I guess in theory, getting hit with a bad beat should be the same - if you made the right decision, you're on target. Can't control the cards. I dunno - does this help at all? I don't want to waste your time.

I am not a Poker Prof, but I will tell you what worked for me:

"small ball of course"...(Look up Daniel N.)

Now to go along with "small ball", try this trick every once in a while:

you have: A/K off
Flop comes 2 7 9 rainbow.....

Bet something like 177, 277, 577....smaller the better.

What you are doing is 2 things:
1) Controling the betting ( hopefully)
2) stating "If you can beat my "7" giver....

This will limit bad beats and maximize quick steals.

As with any "Tip" i, or anyone, provides....Please use at your own RISK.

Good Luck
Curty 3.0

Maybe this works at 2nl....but at higher stakes people don't care that you're betting 1.77 to try to represent that you have a 7. I've never in my life paid attention to that, and I would bet that most regs don't either. How exactly does that limit bad beats anyways?

I will, however, agree that cbetting with your AK is fine. The board is dry and you will probably get people to float you, but at low stakes I think they fold enough anyways to make it profitable. Actually at low stakes its profitable to just bet bet bet and put the pressure on....

I'm not really sure why you're losing self-confidence if this is the case. I'm sure that you are smart enough to know that you didn't do anything wrong if you get sucked out on. Just keep playing and realize that luck will turn around. Getting unlucky shouldn't make you lose confidence in your ability.

I think your goal has to be playing for fun and for perfection. If you manage to focus totally on your game without fearing to lose you're on the right track... For me breaks, offline playing and listening to music + trying to avoid mistakes and systemmatically training to avoid them helps a lot to keep me from tilitng and losing my self-confidence