Most disheartening type of loss

If there's a trend to how my losing days go, it's this.

I still cannot go mentally unaffected by a string of bad beats. (e.g. AK vs. KJ suited. I hit A he hits flush draw. All in and I lose; or I have KK, he has TJos, he flops a J and shoves, then lands another J on the river.)

After losing 3 (3 is usually the magic number for me) in a row like that, I get extremely paranoid. I feel like I am always gonna lose no matter what. So I either quit for the day, or there's no way I will play even halfway decent.

For example, after losing a few consecutive all ins to suckouts, I am afraid to bet like I should. Let's say I make top pair on the flop and I bet. Villain calls and when the 3rd same-suit card hits on the turn and he checks, I am afraid to bet again. Then the 4th same-suit card hits and he checks again, I have to check, and I find out he made his flush with 55 in his hand even though if I bet strongly on the turn he would probably fold. I assume that he made his flush on the turn when he didn't make it until the river and I lose at showdown.

If I am running good or running normally (i.e. occasional suckouts but along reasonably rates - less than 75%) I would bet the turn, but when playing defeated, I don't have the guts to and I fold to almost all aggression.

I just cannot clear that mental hurdle. Rationally I understand that each hand SHOULD be mutually independent, but in reality I cannot play them as they were during bad runs.

Anyone else have this mental block?

This is something that you get over with experience. You have to understand that this kind of thing is going to happen from time to time. I lost set over set 3 times in one day not too long ago. I took a break for a few hours to regroup and won all of my money back in the same day. If you are playing scared it is the same as playing drunk. You cant expect to play your best in those situations. Do whatever it is you need to do to get yourself untilted before you play again. Variance is a part of poker. You just have to be patient and play good poker.

I could have written this post, probably every single one of us has experienced this at some point or another, I certainly still have this problem all the time.

The very few times that I've been able to play an MTT with zero or very little fear of bad beats all the way through, I've made it to the FT and/or won so this is definitely one of my biggest leaks.

Are you sure you're playing properly rolled? How many buy-ins do you have for the limits your playing?

One thing about tilt or getting off your game in general. If you just give yourself a temporary change of scenery, then you can most likely come back and play fine again. You just need to shake the current state of mind. So stopping after you hit your 2 or 3 beats, then going and watching a movie, hang out with friends for a bit, go for a run or swim. Give yourself a couple of hours and then try and go back. It tends to work for me well.

It's not just a matter of how many buyins you have. When you don't make the decisions you know you should, you're playing too high at that moment no matter how many buyins you have.

That poker online. You will see many unbelievable bad beats you cant imagine. For live poker, statistics really plays out. Mostly hands that are ahead, mostly wins.
Try to play at the lowest stake and observe if you are still experiencing terrible bad beats all the time. If yes, then its time to shift.

If your'e playing scared youre playing over your head

If you are playing with scared money then that will always hold you back. If you make the right play and lose that's just poker you move on to the next game. Scared money will also put you on tilt very quickly if you lose a few buy ins, so as other people have said play within your bank roll..20 min for cash 100+ for tourney's.

I don’t play scared normally. I mean during the runs where everything goes villains’ way I get paranoid because irrationally I feel like luck is 100% against me at the moment. My mind cannot process how unlikely it was that the villains were able to complete flush or gutshot str draws almost every time. I know I need to overcome that kind of “woe is me” thinking, but it’s very hard.

dont wory i to get bad beat with hands like AA KK QQ many times loose ... just need be pacient and concentring on game and all gona bee ok

blueskies said:

I don’t play scared normally. I mean during the runs where everything goes villains’ way I get paranoid because irrationally I feel like luck is 100% against me at the moment. My mind cannot process how unlikely it was that the villains were able to complete flush or gutshot str draws almost every time. I know I need to overcome that kind of “woe is me” thinking, but it’s very hard.

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You have to treat every hand independently and make the decision based on the current hand. If you start thinking what happened the last time you played the hand you are living in the past and that will lead to the wrong decision and will contribute towards you tilting.

All you can do is make the right decision the actual result is irrelevant..

For example if you have a 60/40 advantage and made the same decision every time you would still lose 40 times but you would still be in profit over the long term. You could lose 20 times in a row but that's poker so stick to making the right decisions and don't worry about the result.

If you struggle with mental issues you could consider reading the books "The Mental Game of Poker" part 1 and 2, written by Jared Tendler.
Very good books in how to deal with all kinds of mental game issue like tilt or confidence or running bad, etc

Good luck.. The mental part in poker is not easy and underestimated by many people imo.

Monstering folded hands is my pet peeve.

"I'm gonna fold these pocket 4s because I just got 4 betted against the wall."

*Flops a set*

Jay65 said:

Monstering folded hands is my pet peeve.

"I'm gonna fold these pocket 4s because I just got 4 betted against the wall."

*Flops a set*

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I have read elsewhere on here that most sites keep shuffling cards even after starting hands are dealt. This means that the flop, turn, river cards that are going to be dealt will change by the millisecond or whatever clock speed the system is running at.

just take it as a part of the game, obviously when is happenning in short period is hard to assimilated but just think is poker and those things happens,

i just lost holding queens in a mtt remaining 400 players and a villain with a slightly bigger stack than mine pays like 3 blinds to a shortstack player going allin before us, so i decided to 3bet him (some of them just like to gamble so no way) the flop is dry, like 2-3-7 rainbow the villain goes allin (knowing him as fish) i didn´t care about putting him on a set actually my concern was something like him having 2-3 but i thought he had A-7, so i decided to pay and shoved too

it happened that his hole cards were 6-7, but the river gave him a 6 and he won

but as i say, don´t think too much on it just keep playing your best game till things put all together again and you start winning

Propane Goat said:

This means that the flop, turn, river cards that are going to be dealt will change by the millisecond or whatever clock speed the system is running at.

Click to expand...

I don't think internal clock speed and system clock milliseconds are still being used in shuffling algorithms after the Planet Poker debacle in '99.

It was one of those days. Destroyed in the stock market lately and it carried over. I just decided to quit rather than keep playing.

AdKd vs. Ac5c. I raise UTG, and BB calls. Fop is 8c9cTc. He chks I chk. Turn is Ah. He chks again and I chk. Turn is 9h. He bets a little more than pot and I call.

Other hand, villain keeps raising to 7xbb so I came over the top when I finally had a hand with AQoff, and he calls with 67 and hits trip 7s. Even if I shoved with AA he would have won. (Against a tight player I would have just called)

It's basically the only kinds of hands that go to showdown that I lose, so I guess I can't be that upset since there's not much I can do about it.

I raised with KK UTG. The guy calls frm BB with Q2os and flops trips.

Another guy raises with AK, same fish calls frm SB with 73 and calls down to river where he makes 7 high gutshot str. The other guy flopped an Ace.

Quadruples up just like that.

I mean how do these guys do it?
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Quitting. No way to defeat luck.

Completely out of your control. These kinds of hands are mind boggling.

It is funny since i just play the freerolls now for a while i make stupid bets and go all in with throw away cards just too see what will come out of it. Sometimes there are situations where i have good cards and know that the player betting is a tight player and i go all in just to see the cards..

So yes i´m playing as a donkey on purpose and study what plays works and wich don´t

i have played for one month now and there are so many times i thought i had the winning hand and lost to the winning hand. I feel that´s just the way it is. You can have a ströng hand and play it the right way and still loose.

I love playing and i will still loose some of my strongest hand to some donk that goes all in with a 4 6 as hole cards : )