regaining your edge

I have been having the worst 2 months of poker this year....and now i am having hard time telling if its me or when i am just being unlucky,,,what do u do when are on a bad unlucky streak and loose a large amount of ur bankroll

First, take a step back and breathe. There is nothing in poker that a little patience and focus cannot fix.

Second, tighten up your current game. Stick to premium hands and premium situations, and you should see some improvement.

You may also want to post some hand histories of a few hands you have had problems. Members can review how you played your hand and critique you on how or if you could have done things differently.

Whatever you do, don't try to gain it back all at once. If you try this, you will lose a lot of money. I also second everything the above poster said, as that will help you re-evaluate your game.

I take My time and things start to get better after a little while.If you get Your chips in with the best hand then its up to the gods after that .They will come back over to my side after a bit of torchering.

All good suggestions - also, I did two things that helped me alot on a recent downswing, one was to make a video of myself 4tabling and got some great feedback from friends; second was I had a couple of people sweat me for a couple of sessions. My confidence was shot, and both these activities helped boost me.

Have you tried sacrificing a virgin to the Poker Gods?

Good suggestions so far, but I'm surprised no one mentioned that. Probably so obvious they didn't think to mention it. And focus, focus, focus. Personally, I've noticed that I lose when I lose focus. And when I don't sacrifice.

Good luck to you. You'll get your edge back.

-Dave

that's good advice. sometimes things don't go right. from bettin on football for ages, i usually only have 1 or 2 months that make the whole season worth it for me. its not uncommon to be slightly behind after the end of october. november is usually a good month, and i usually do really well in the bowls, mainly because i've done my homework. there's only like 2 weeks in the nfl season where i'm sure i'm going to win big too...just because i've done homework. so never try to make up for a loss, your wages of sin are an investment...these things go down slightly over a period of time and go up over a period of time. knowing you have the patience to not freak out is what keeps you basically break even, or what you can really consider break even if you've lost "rake" over a period of time, and stick to your game is what keeps you in it.

i've been having a tough time with work lately, injured, lost jobs, lowered income, crap like that, this whole year. just recently, i had some mutual funds that have been autodrafting from my checking account for years...overdrafted me. my dad is a financial advisor, i told him we need to just put these drafts on hold. he disagreed until i gave him a speech about how i'm just not bankrolled for it, haha. sure, i'd like to be putting money away, but there are times when you really have to adhere to your bank. putting money somewhere i can't touch without penalty for a good while is the same as going outside of your bankroll. just stay the course and play within the rules you set for yourself to begin with

Too loose. Reduce your playable hands and play from position. I think most get caught in a rut playing a hand you have now business in, getting called and saying to yourself.....now what.

I'm hearing a lot of advice about tightening up and only playing primo hands. This advice sounds good and will almost certainly stop the bleeding in cash games but does little else to get you back on track. In tournament play it's just plain wrong.


But the problem with this sort of advice isn't so much that it's good bad, just useless. It presumes that you're current down swing is due to how tight or loose your playing when when success or failure is rarely that cut and dry. Based on the information you provided in your original post we know absolutely nothing about your style of play. Nor is it relevant.

The most important statistic in tournament play is ROI and not cashing in 20, 30 or even 40 tournaments in a row is in itself meaningless if you later cash just once for a net gain. In cash games, such losing streaks are more problematic and more indicative of a problem.

Either way, it's always more productive to explore the possibility that there's more going on than just a run of bad luck. One should never just assume that any prolonged streak of success or failure is the result of exceptional skill or lack thereof. You should always be evaluating your game reguardless of current trends.

Still, prolonged losing streaks do have a tendency to inspire doubt and lack of confidence which may not be an accurate reflection of true ability and as such canm be the cause of subsiquent poor results. If this is the case then the best advice I can give is to take a break. A week, a month, whatever it takes. Read some books, review some tournaments or sessions and when you come back, concentrate on one game at a time.

Despite conventioinal wisdom, IMO, multi tabling is a major distraction, and very few people have the ability to successfully focus on more than one or two tables at a time. Focus on one table, get to know your opponents and give yourself credit for good situational calls despite the end result. Remember that for most of us poker is entertainmentan not an investment. If your not having fun, give it up.

well.... dont do anything stupid, you'll regret it.
everyone above said to be tigher, i agree....only if it works for you.
if your a good agressive player, stay aggressive. nothing lasts forever, including bad streaks. are you a cash games player? if you are, simple answer, just go down in stakes and play different hand.
if you have been losing your money in SNG's or MTT's, perhaps think of changing to a different game format ( ring games, sng, mtt, which ever you arent playing). take a break, relax, drink a beer and go back when you feel ready.

Yeah if you have tools like pokertracker establishing a diagnosis will be much easier. Even though I'm not experienced with those programs you could get valuable advice from hand histories and statistics of your game and present them to people who use those tools more often. Posting is a good first step

We can't really tell you if it's you or variance. I'd suggest that, if you are playing ring games, you check yourself over at PTR. You will be able to see how you are really doing, and their grade cards can suggest areas that you might need to work on.

If you are feeling a bit tilted on the game you are playing, switch over to another game and start fresh. Razz is good, for me, for recalibrating, since I am not looking at the same sorts of hands, the same sorts of beats.

Another thought is to do some challenges at the FT Academy. Not only do the challenges force you to do more of the correct plays, like raising pre-flop, they will also clarify why some moves are useful. The challenges can keep you on track, or get you back on it. Caveat: the newest challenges are higher level and not as immediately fruitful.

Way to anger those Poker Gods. They don't want virgins, they want filthy harlots. Tsk.

Dang it! So *that* is what I have been doing wrong! Thanks for the tip!

-Dave

Hi there,
Well coming from my own experience,this is my story.I counted up my bank transactions and this year I have used $800 and I have 365 in my ftp account.I find that if you try to make it back at once ur gonna pay the price,it takes alot of patience and a strong determination to build a br after gettin slammed for a couple of weeks.gl ..keep ur chin up!

Take a deep breath...rexamine your game...read (or reread) a poker book written by one of the pros.
i play a lot of sngs, so when I am on a bad streak I'll step down in price. Instead of playing $10 sngs, I'll go to $5 for example.

Funny how luck will run hot and cold. However, try to notice when your cards are just crap. Push away from the table and let a little time pass and hopefully you will recapture some of that bankroll when you attack the table again. Good luck !