Thoughts on Chris Ferguson's $0-$20K Challenge

[buck22]

Later that day.....opponent has trips 6+ times that i know of, quads, flush over flush TWICE!!!, degectedly sit down an hour later, 2 hands!!!! and im done, AcQc vs 4h8s 3xraise preflop then all in on flop 4c 7c 7x, miss as the favourite flip, then next hand KK vs 88 all in preflop, 4 2 8. Sorry but in over 16000 im down 24 buyins, this just isnt right, ive been playing so well, and been a favourite or coinflip 95% of the time. Have decided to change site cos just not feeling that this kind of run is legitimate. So pissed off cos this is the reason im withdrawing, very dissappointing. Starting up again on ipoker and hopefully things will pick up, damn it htis just isnt cricket!

[VA Poker]

Buck22,

From your posts I gather that you are predominantly a cash game player. When you switch to Ipoker, maybe you should try to play some tournaments and sit n go's. The reason I say this is that a horrible run like you've been on inevitably impacts your play in a negative manner. That is why temporarily switching formats may be beneficial to you. As you know, tournament poker and cash games require a much different strategy. Therefore, when you are competing in tournaments, your recent bad run will be less likely to effect your play. Also, I've heard you tell many of these "rigged" conspiracy theorists that instead of complaining its rigged they should analyze their own play. I'm not trying to critisize your play in the least as I would have no basis to do so. I'm just saying you should analyze your play really thoroughly and atleast open up to the idea that your unlucky streak has caused some sort of leak in your game that has enabled the streak further. Again, I'm not trying to critisize your play, but you have admitted that you used to be one of these "rigged" guys until you worked hard to improve your game, I'd hate to see you digress. I played live poker for over 10 years before I played one hand online and I can assure you that horrible runs like yours happen live as well as online. They are usually a little more severe online because the style of play online leads to much higher variance which means runs of luck in both directions. If you are 100 BB deep live and all the money gets in it is almost certainly set over set or AAv.KK. Online 200BB pots are much more normal and because of that even solid players like yourself have to put thier whole stack in with a much wider range, leading to more variance and violent swings at times. Anyway, good luck on Ipoker, hope things turn around for you.