I hope you are not complaining about cashing in freerolls more than 1 in 4 times. freerolls are such a joke to begin with because most people playing them dont even know basic strategy which throws your game off and you end up dealing with a lot of variance. I just got through a 28 buy in downswing in my regular game. Now that was frustrating.
Lets be clear, The thread started with "
How to play through continuous bad beats", This does not sound like an idle complaint or even whining for that matter. Lets examine quickly, putting aside the obvious traps like set over set or a large stack calling your all in with 13 or more outs, lets not confuse these situations with bad beats, that contributes to the old cliche "
That's Poker" Those types of things just happen. I think Aud300 was referring to unbelievably losing in a long continuous streak to the most unlikely scenarios. I like that this question was brought to "
The Board" because I would like to hear an on point discussion and review of this. I think we are talking about being desperate in situations where you really need your hand to hold up, or when your chips are down and your hand is best and way ahead, you have to win that race in order to stay alive in the tourney. I am talking about having AA and getting called by AA and losing to a flush, or having KK and losing to a four card straight with 99. When these sort of things happen consistently over the course of 8 or 9 tourneys, it can take a toll on your game, confidence and attitude. I am not talking about losing that 1 all in hand 9 tourneys in a row.
I am talking about losing 4 or 5 hands in a row to ridiculous circumstances in the same tourney, and only to find that in the very next tourney...just when you thought it couldn't get worse....well you get the idea. This will no doubt turn into a vicious and relentless cycle if not examined, made aware of and corrected. These scenarios = playing bad, = running bad = playing bad = running bad = bad decisions = Broke!
The most common advice is to not lose your game or style of game and continue to make the correct decisions, play the best you can, get it in good and that's all you can do, and the biggie is always "if you do the correct move, over time this will prove to even itself out"
Pretty crappy advice if your in a tourney, who cares about the next tourney when you need to win the one your in.
I can recall this poker realm or rutt rather easily because I am hip deep into it now. Early in the game (starter Stack) I turn the J high Straight, with 2 callers on the large bet. The board pairs the river and I call the pot size bet as does the other player only to my surprise the river card is the one (1) outer giving me the worse hand. Ouch! Then I lose my next hand to AA with AA, and the next hand I play I am all in with a set of J's on the flop - 10 outs to the river to improve and I lose to runner runner Straight, all I can think about is how many Tourneys did I just tank in a row?
Please remember, Free roll, 1 Million dollar, or main event, it does not matter, when you are ahead, you want players with inferior hands, or who are behind to call you. Putting aside skill sets, Your good hands MUST win when they are supposed to. When you are running bad this can be overwhelming because nothing makes sense. If your ahead 90% of the time, you should win 50% of those or expect to win at least 35% of those. But to lose 4 out of 5 or in some cases 5 out of 5? The question is..."
What to do?"
1. I do not want to sound like a cop out, but the other suggestions to "Stop"...Very good advice, unless you are able to control emotions that surely put you on tilt. Me personally, I have never in my life, nor do I know of anyone whom of which has ever made a GOOD decision when angry. You have to STOP, Take your time and with diligence examine and evaluate "What just happened"
2. Understand the difference between "
Playing well, and getting lucky" Everyone who has ever had a bad run, has also dished one out at one time or another. Luck is just luck, good or bad it will always be there. That is the hardest to accept. Don't label it good or bad, just know it is there. Pros, know when they are getting lucky or as I call it, a fortunate run of good cards, and have the uncanny ability to ride it out and also know when to reel it in and make sick lay downs, which often seems like wow, why on earth would he make that call or How the hell did he know to fold there? If you don't know the difference between Playing Well & Getting Lucky ..... Well then your probably just getting lucky.
2. Discipline! When you know you are running bad, use caution, pretty much all the time. If you limp with AA, be prepared to fold if your instincts tell you to do so. If you raise big with AA pre-flop and get 5 callers....use caution and rely on your instincts. How often do I win with 1 over pair anyway? Maybe you liked your hand in the beginning, but compared to whats on the board and my assessment of player reaction, Do I still like it or do I need to see another hand? Discipline rule number 1..."
You can't make a comeback if you do not have any chips"
3. Patience! You must wait it out. Understand Step 2, you need Discipline to grasp patience. Being card dead for hours often makes mediocre hands seem like the nuts, and you always seem to get them out of position with 3 lags at the table. Have patience, Know your environment and know how your playing.
4. Aggressive. Often in this scenario playing scared is most likely going to take over your game. Or at least you may start to feel that way and we all know, playing scared is not playing well. You must know the difference between the two. In these situations, I will always try and play the button as often as I can without getting smacked. You will have to get aggressive period. You must maintain a level of confidence and project that into your table image no matter how you are feeling on the inside. If you are losing consistently at the river, well than it's best never to let it get that far. (This goes into chip management ... you have to know what your opponent is going to do, or at least sense it, if you leave him/her no choice to bang well than aggression is the thing you have to work on. We will save that for another topic.)
All in all I would love to hear other suggestions. This is a tough one to grasp because if you love this game, it's hard to stay in when your in this particular kind of rut.