Joined: Feb '08
Location: Sweden
Age: 50 (M)
Posts: 13
Hi fellow Mobbers. I dunno if this is the right forum but i cant find a better one. Maybe you should have a forum called "Poker therapy" or something. Ill tell my story as good as i can and then get to my question. Ive been playing poker now for about 3 years. And i frankly am getting good at it. But i still struggle with some very disturbing facts and i think im a bit unsecure on this point. When the "bad days" come and NOTHING i do can make it a winning day. I have a hard time coming to grip with the fact that i am good at poker but still have the bad days and nothing i do can make it better. I mean how do the pros handle these days? I have played in some bounty tournaments were the targets (pros) have bad days and loose quick in the tournaments. But isnt the pro a pro because he or she can handle these periods better? That is MY goal. But when a bad day comes i cant do anything right. Take the good example struggeling in a MTT with 2000 stack and the blinds growing. Then i get AA and loose to a flushdraw. Did i do something wrong here? I mean i played by the book. Thats why i love micro rebuys... No seriously...
SO... my question is: What can one do to minimize the harm in the bad days? Is it good bankroll management 100%?
Joined: Nov '08
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 36 (M)
Posts: 73
bad days are a bugger, not sure how the pros handle it , but most people find this helps if it doesnt knock you out, then do it a few more times, youll wake up in a week or so and won't care about the bad beats you suffered!
Im just about to do that to myself as i just lost a very big pot in a tournament with K K to K 3
I bet 4 times bb preflop. he is in bb and calls.
flop Q 10 7
i bet pot. (roughly 1 quarter his stack) turn is 5 i bet allin. after a few seconds he calls. river 2
me ANGRY> Worse is i was chip leader, then i get dealt A Q
in my bb, very loose player, who calls any allin preflop calls in first postion.
i move allin , and low and behold he calls, with A 2
flops the two and my hand never inproves, i was out about 10 hands later with 9 8
when the flop was J 10 4 was put allin, and i called, he had 77 and neither of us hit. i had so many outs, but never seem to hit when i havet this kind of draw, does anyone else?
------------ Also i find if i cant knock my self out then switch poker site for a day or two, good to have several accounts!
Joined: May '08
Location: Germany
Age: 59 (M)
Posts: 6787
Bad days happen to all of us. But make sure that a bad run of cards/situations don't influence your game. If you notice that you start to play foolishly because of the beats, stop for the day.
Joined: Dec '08
Location: Australia
Age: 34 (M)
Posts: 42
Recognize when you're not playing your A game and that's when you should take a break. There is a lot of interesting material I believe on the psychology of Poker and how to deal with bad days.
Joined: Oct '08
Location: Germany
Age: 49 (M)
Posts: 2025
[quote]: If you're TAG go LAG. If you're LAG go TAG
im no pro but this is the way i play in tournys if i have bad days. sometimes i dont get cards nor do i hit anything on the board for rounds, then i start playin LAG. or i preflop bluff with raises and prey i avoid cashgames anyways.
Joined: May '08
Location: Netherlands
Age: 53 (M)
Posts: 6197
I am no pro but i never change style cos of a bad day. I know bad days / bad streaks happen and its all about not goin on tilt so not loosing more. Just play ur abc poker the streak will turn.
Joined: Feb '08
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 54 (M)
Posts: 342
Posted by doomdy: I am no pro but i never change style cos of a bad day. I know bad days / bad streaks happen and its all about not goin on tilt so not loosing more. Just play ur abc poker the streak will turn.
Very easy to say very difficult to do
I'm no pro either but I believe that bad days aren't a big deal for the pros - its the bad weeks, months and even years that they have real problems with.
Me I have bad days and I find them a problem, I try to keep a level headed and play my normal game, but after 5 suck outs in a row costing me maybe 4 buyins , I will start to do things I know isn't good solid poker.
Only solution for me is to stop playing for the day.
These pros make a living while playing poker so they have excellent ability in handling those type of days. It's very different from us who are mostly playing just for fun & win extra cash so for sure it's a little bit for us to handle them. But we are all learning from them so little by little it will come.
Joined: Aug '08
Location: Australia
Age: 51 (M)
Posts: 1418
the main thing to remember when your going through a rough patch is to minimize your loses, you shouldnt change your style of play if its a good style, many players lose the whole bankrolls when one of these days hit as they try to buy their way out of it, thats where the word TILT comes from, either have a break or go down a couple of limits, remember there are many forms of luck when it comes to poker, (cards,flops,action when you have the nuts,and so on) these can work for you or against you.
Joined: Dec '08
Location: Indonesia
Age: 50 (M)
Posts: 27
Bad Day or bad luck, seem like same for me. We are never when this situation will coming. I'm not a pro, but when playing i'm never bring my emotion to table. (sometimes i'm go foolish too ). We are sometimes play offline just with my friend, i tell little story here. play 5 people My pocket is 8 9 My friend bet, i'm call flop is 10 J Q I'm raise, 3 folded and 1 call turn 4 I'm bet pot, 1 call hmmm .... seem he not got very good card may be AKo/s so what make me scary ? nothing !!! If he got AK , he never just call. then in the river comes K Now i'm scary, so many card, why this card is coming ? He check, and i'm all in, he call with little smile (this smile i can never forget till now ) And shows A and K then i'm stop play for a month.
Joined: Jun '08
Location: Italy
Age: 41 (M)
Posts: 411
Bad days may happen, but they are not so frequent as you may thing guys... if you play according to your bankroll and for a sufficient long ammount of time you can turn almost evey day into a good or at least a decent one. The real problem is that when we start losing we tilt and switch to a losing style of playing and that makes us fading away....
Joined: May '08
Location: Germany
Age: 59 (M)
Posts: 6787
Posted by GamblinDemon: Bad days may happen, but they are not so frequent as you may thing guys... if you play according to your bankroll and for a sufficient long ammount of time you can turn almost evey day into a good or at least a decent one. The real problem is that when we start losing we tilt and switch to a losing style of playing and that makes us fading away....
Hmm. Antonius has lost nearly a million in one day last month, Ziigmund more than 1,5 million this month. Do these players tilt to the extrem?
Joined: May '08
Location: Netherlands
Age: 53 (M)
Posts: 6197
Posted by shokaku:
Posted by GamblinDemon: Bad days may happen, but they are not so frequent as you may thing guys... if you play according to your bankroll and for a sufficient long ammount of time you can turn almost evey day into a good or at least a decent one. The real problem is that when we start losing we tilt and switch to a losing style of playing and that makes us fading away....
Hmm. Antonius has lost nearly a million in one day last month, Ziigmund more than 1,5 million this month. Do these players tilt to the extrem?
Antonius has a BR more as 10 million they say and ziigy ziigmund euhmm... he is just crazy
------------ Nah ziigy is extremely agressiv thats scares people the most.
Joined: Mar '08
Location: Australia
Age: 49 (M)
Posts: 1158
playing like the pros and not tilting on bad days is the hardest part of poker.i use the three bad beat rule as above.get 3 winning hads and lose stop [playing for the day,hard when your a pro cauz thats your bread and butter but taking a break from thee cards is a must.you can play tooo much poker.
Joined: Aug '08
Location: Australia
Age: 51 (M)
Posts: 1418
lol, i used to use the 3 strike rule for picking up chicks at the local pub, its a good rule as your confidece cant get completly shattered, i did pick up some nice chicks as well.
Just had a bad day yesterday to. lost half of my bankroll (no not bad BRM because it was a very small bankroll ) my AA got cracked with all in preflop, my flush got cracked even a full house got cracked I mean it was a VERY bad day. still I feel it's a part of the game, some days just suck and some days rule what a boring game it would be if every day would be the same
Joined: May '08
Location: Netherlands
Age: 53 (M)
Posts: 6197
My bad days arent really bad days anymore. A bad day for me is max 50 dollars loosing but in early days when badbeated i want to win it back so i cud loose more.
So now i have not so many bad days, more days break even and more days upswing.
Ill tell my story as good as i can and then get to my question. Ive been playing 
if it doesnt knock you out, then do it a few more times, youll wake up in a week or so and won't care about the bad beats you suffered! 
K 
to K 
was put allin, and i called, he had 77 and neither of us hit. 
i had so many outs, but never seem to hit when i havet this kind of draw, does anyone else? 
)
I mean it was a VERY bad day. 
