Short term concerns
Poker players often describe the word “variance” as something like “I got screwed by that river card.” To them, it only means a change in their luck, usually for the worse.
Read what Steve Selbrede reminds us about variance with cash games in particular.
Cash Game Strategy: Understanding Variance
Great article thank you for posting it.
The difficulty for new players are the two most common short term problems that derail us as poker players.
hands played (time) and
bankroll.
Often new players will believe that 1000 hands is significant it is not nor is 10000 hands and for a segment of players 100,000 hands will not be significant.
That can often crush bankrolls. Even the old great players like Doyle Brunson and others had to borrow money to continue to play at times. They had a saying for it "getting broke" which means running "bad" beyond their bankrolls.
While the math is comforting in the long term, getting to the long term is often the difficulty.
Many stories of young
online poker wizards begins with "I turned $50 into a large amount began losing and realized I needed to play better."
So my point.
For those of you languishing in the no foldem holdem basement of poker who fall back every time you step up. Work on your skills and keep sledge hammering that variance wall until it breaks. It will break one day but remember 500 hands a day means 1000 days to 500000 hands. Half the way to the excepted variance neutrality number of 1 million hands.
Hope this helps