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Old 08-06-09, 04:21 PM
VA Poker VA Poker is offline
 
Join Date: Apr 2009
Posts: 76
Sorry man, sounds brutal. If I were you I would give it more than a few days off. Almost 100% of the time we run as bad as you are runnning now, it has a negative impact on our play, which only compounds the problem and makes it that much more difficult to win. We start to overprotect hands and think that our J high flush is beaten by a bigger flush even though we are using both our hole cards. Basically just playing scared because we know we can't possibly win a pot. At that point, the dealer and ourselves become our biggest opponents, and we lose sight of our actual opponents.

If I were you, I'd stay away until I was just dying to come back. The first few days off you will probably just be happy to be away from the grind. Eventually, however, your hunger for the game will come back whether it be in 6 days or 2 weeks. The best strategy is just to wait until that desire comes back, you won't play your best until it does and you can't put a timeframe on when it will happen.

A lot of winning players assume that anytime they sit down at a table it is +EV, because they are overall winners. They think for winning players, more hands ALWAYS equals more profit. This, in my opinion, is very untrue. Anytime you sit at a table tired, uninterested, tilted, drunk, etc. your EV is probably negative, even if you usually win at 25bb/100H. So people force themselves to play thinking it will mean more money in the longrun. What they are really doing is just digging holes that they are going to have to patch up with their winning sessions. I'm self employed and my business doesn't take up more than 4 or 5 hours a day so I try to put in about 4 or 5 hours a day playing poker as well, both for enjoyment and to supplement my income. I am certainly +EV at the stakes I play, but if I don't feel up to playing even in the slightest bit, I just don't play. I only play when I'm really dying to play(which is almost everyday) because I know my "A" game is the only one I can really count on winning with.

Anyway, I hope you go back to playing at a time that suits you and you go in with a clear head knowing you can't run bad forever. Keep us posted, I've enjoyed hearing about your progress.

Ps. I forgot to mention this but its and important point. I read your last post where you said that you got $600 back of your losses, then lost all that back again. That is really not a good way to think about it, right now you are thinking about it as if you are in the hole 2k and you need to get it back somehow. You need to let go of that 2K downswing and realize that wherever your roll is now, thats where it is. Players often do that in certain games, they are down 2-3 buyins and they frantically try to get them back. I once heard that everytime the cards are being shuffled, you are even, your roll is exactly where it is and you can't do anything about the past. I try to remember that in every losing session.

Last edited by VA Poker; 08-06-09 at 04:28 PM.