Downswings VS Playing Poorly.

Time isn't a good judge of sample size, number of hands of cash played or tournaments or sit n goes played is all that matters. I used to play like 200 SnGs/day on Stars, so a losing month was pretty bad, and probably meant I needed to tweak my game. Someone playing 10 tourneys a week could lose for 5 years and it could still be purely runbad.

Friendly hint, use of paragraphs make posts MUCH easier to read.

Creepy Jackalope said:

Friendly hint, use of paragraphs make posts MUCH easier to read.

Click to expand...

This, man that is hard to read.

In any particular night I may tighten up somewhat after several "bad beats", but I almost always loosen up again. But I also start each night (or really try to) fresh.
Some nights ya just can't win.

you can't control variance, if you're going in the pot with good odds and lose it , be a man and deal with it because it's the correct play and you'll win in the long run.
Learn from experience of your bad plays and review yourself of how you play and how 'should' you play, so you will make the correct play the next time.

Sorry about the format guys. I CNP'd it from one of my blogs that I had previously written.

Variance is inevitable and yes there are short-term "bad" winning players because of it's existence. I also know based upon long term samples that good players are long term winning players. What I have noticed is a lot of players will blame variance for their losses. Or they will blame other players, blame the sites they play on etc.YES variance exists and we've all had our run-ins with it and will continue to encounter variance. There's a huge difference between variance & playing poorly. I'm talking about long term losing players.Often they are missing the larger picture, that is themselves. They are not analyzing their HH's, stats, and are not recognizing that it is the leaks in their game that is preventing them from being a profitable player. Just keep blaming the variance monster.

I think the biggest problem for players that blame variance is they have an understanding of it there for they naturally think it makes them a good player.

The problem for 60% of the losing players is probably lack of understanding of timing in tournaments, control in cash games, lack of discipline and falling in love with good hands and totally neglecting the importance of position and their observational responsibility to be aware of their own image and table dynamics, range and all aspects that largely effect your win rate if you dont pay attention to those components.

Example of a bad player..

oh man im so unlucky I lost to A8, in a 3-bet pot, and 'this player' they called the 3-bet out of position with QQ with 3 callers ignoring the ace on the flop .

I dont know how long of "running bad" to be considered a downswing. I do know that when you are playing well and getting a string of bad results, especially in cash games, you can start to modify your game and make things worse by playing to loose or tight. For tourney what i usually do is reflect on the spots I may have missed, or how I busted out. For ex. If I was 10bb on the button and moved in with AKs and the BB calls with AQo and I bust, O well. I made the right play, I got unlucky, move on.... Sometimes you cant control the outcome.

I think people feel that way. Like oh should have not went all in there, or min raise, or whatever, which isn't necessarily the best play. If you make +ev moves you will get +ev results. If you are making some good, lot of marginal and some bad plays your results are going to vary. In the long run it will be -ev.

Practice and studying helps to make you better and give you the edge... just an opinion.