Joined: Feb '11
Location: United States
Age: 50 (M)
Posts: 4
Today is the first day in almost a week that I played online......and after 22 hours my winnings total -0.67 less my starting bankroll. I equate my "haul" to that of a scratch ticket win..... the 1 that nets the scratcher another free ticket. There are people eating dinner at the buffets turning more of a profit than me....just by having their kids fill out the keno slips..... Some of the high-points during my counter productive session were: flopping a straight flush and losing.....numerous counterfeited hands.........AA and KK holding up maybe 30-40% of the time.. On 4 different occasions in one rush tournament, I lost with AA & KK to JJ ....4 TIMES ( 3 of the 4 were quads) Standard issue, .really, for online poker... I worked my way from step 1 SnG (ultimate bet, which i won entry to via freeroll)..all the way to step 6. I should have taken a break from the step(s) tourneys and resumed with a more focused, relaxed ,and rested state of mind and body ....but my thoughts were, " you're running good...why stop now .....keep the momentum going",....the end result was placing 6th (out of 9) when my set of 10's were felled by running cards to make a flush... No anger ,no hate ,no negative feelings came (nor come) to fruition, just as long as when my chips go in and the cards turn over that,my hand be ahead....i have no regrets when i've done all i can do, leading with 2 cards to come.....but lately, prior to the outcome of my showdowns , a physical feeling of unease and self doubt takes over.Now my focus shifts, in the blink of an eye , solely on the negative outcome and fear of losing. In my head i know i'm going to lose. 2 seconds later....BOOM !! my premonition,or my hunch,(what ever it is ) has happened . Can positive & negative mental states determine whether or not a computer server spits out the card(s) that helps you or hurts you? Are certain types of players and their styles of play programmed into the server along with other data such as tenure, amounts and frequency of deposits and withdraws, is there a matrix that the players fall into......Is it really that complex?? The host site itself profits whether players win or lose. So motive to create or produce certain results for financial gain is eliminated. Rather than being planted firmly between my shoulders and 3 or so feet above my ass, my head is not in its right place.......Rational thoughts have given way to conspiracies and profiing, Doyle's Super System has been replaced by Ludlum's Bourne Identitly. My ass ,is officially, my helmet!!! Maybe the truth that i'm running from is that I am just not good at Poker. Thanks for reading and to sum it up....I suck
lol, nice post one of the best I have read on the forum, apart from the bong bit!,lol,,, one thing about the negative feeling you get reminded me about something I and most players do probably and that was count the opponents outs and sure enough if come the river I said to myself ha only a 7 or whatever beats me, bang it would hit, obviously I dont do that now rather look for cards to improve what ever I have, kay sara,, gl at te tables
Joined: Nov '09
Location: Canada
Age: 55 (M)
Posts: 2387
I know the feeling, yesterday at the same table KK in the space of 4 hands got busted both times, first by AA and then by TT hitting trips on the turn. After that I closed down and did other things and did not try poker again, no use playing when you are steaming!
Joined: Nov '09
Location: Poland
Age: 35 (M)
Posts: 1189
Cool Story Bro! ~ It was needed here. I think you really need to work on your mindset first if you want to play Poker... Even by playing good some Poker Pros have months when they are loosing... that's Poker. Atm I have a little downswing -15BI (5BI lost by stupidy) and can't do nothing about it. Everyone react same... they are mad after loosing better hand. You need to remember you can only play to be better before going AI after it you can't do anything. You know u played good if you have better hand and that's what u need to know. In longrun your play will give profits. Check most of players who give bad beats they are loosing players... and because their bad game we can get any profits... without them there is no us. Simple.
Joined: Mar '10
Location: Greece
Age: 54 (M)
Posts: 505
Very nice emotional post from a man who seems to have mastered the art of putting two words together and suddenly have everybody's attention... It's just that so few people can do this especially in forums, that I found this post almost as coming from a book or something
As for saying my two cents worth, you don't mention the stakes that you're playing which for me is crucial. Yeah, I really believe that the game is somehow NOT NORMAL in low & very low stakes (but not that anyone has something against YOU personally, it's just that the community cards tend to create a lot of action that many times favors the one that went in the hand with the weaker cards). Go open any FullTilt SnG of $5 or below and while watching the players just count the times AQ will lose to a A-x, or a 70% will be beaten from a 30%. I'm serious, just watch and see what I'm talking about.
To sum it up, donk play and miracle runner runner catches are strongly favored in low stakes, which makes the weak player boost his ego with "yeah, I'm good at poker" feelings and come again and again and deposit some bucks and make some good rake for the room and keep the traffic high... Don't worry, no one will carry for the rest of his life a 98% vs 2% bad beat if it was on a $3.30 Sit N Go, even if it was really cruel.
On the other hand, on higher stake ring games, tourneys and SnG I believe that you have to deal just with the normal variance. Yes, 1 in 5 (or maybe 2 in 5) your Aces will get cracked but it's nothing unusual and I find no conspiracy theory behind it... or maybe it's just me
Anyway, the only thing you should worry about is improving your game, read books, study poker sessions (FTP academy, Pokerstars Intellipoker Cardrunners clips and many other sites get the job done) and have conversations with people more experienced than you that have some good advice to give you. That's what I do... And if you'd like have a read on "The poker mindset" by Ian Taylor and Matthew Hilger, a book that can give you a really different perspective in seeing poker overall
Joined: Oct '10
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 37 (M)
Posts: 66
Posted by ILI_002: Very nice emotional post from a man who seems to have mastered the art of putting two words together and suddenly have everybody's attention... It's just that so few people can do this especially in forums, that I found this post almost as coming from a book or something
As for saying my two cents worth, you don't mention the stakes that you're playing which for me is crucial. Yeah, I really believe that the game is somehow NOT NORMAL in low & very low stakes (but not that anyone has something against YOU personally, it's just that the community cards tend to create a lot of action that many times favors the one that went in the hand with the weaker cards). Go open any FullTilt SnG of $5 or below and while watching the players just count the times AQ will lose to a A-x, or a 70% will be beaten from a 30%. I'm serious, just watch and see what I'm talking about.
To sum it up, donk play and miracle runner runner catches are strongly favored in low stakes, which makes the weak player boost his ego with "yeah, I'm good at poker" feelings and come again and again and deposit some bucks and make some good rake for the room and keep the traffic high... Don't worry, no one will carry for the rest of his life a 98% vs 2% bad beat if it was on a $3.30 Sit N Go, even if it was really cruel.
On the other hand, on higher stake ring games, tourneys and SnG I believe that you have to deal just with the normal variance. Yes, 1 in 5 (or maybe 2 in 5) your Aces will get cracked but it's nothing unusual and I find no conspiracy theory behind it... or maybe it's just me
Anyway, the only thing you should worry about is improving your game, read books, study poker sessions (FTP academy, Pokerstars Intellipoker Cardrunners clips and many other sites get the job done) and have conversations with people more experienced than you that have some good advice to give you. That's what I do... And if you'd like have a read on "The poker mindset" by Ian Taylor and Matthew Hilger, a book that can give you a really different perspective in seeing poker overall
Saludos!
Areally good answer for a really good post. We all recive bad beats. At least I do haha quite often. But after each poker session I analyze each hand in the replayer, and I see the strenght of my hand against the opponent. If I realized that was a good way to play my cards the bad feeling dissapear even if I have lost money in that hand. Create a profitable gameplay and stick to it.
Joined: Jan '11
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 78 (M)
Posts: 93
It is an all-too-common phenomenon that the best hand pre-flop invariably loses to a straight or flush draw in low stakes SNG's or MTT's. Move up a level, play less hands, trust your instinct when to shove if you perceive a bluff situation in front of you. Making a profit is cyclical, good sessions and bad ones, overall if you trust your game strategy you will conquer those negative thoughts in the long run, think of the long term not how many bad beats you have suffered lately. As Steve Davis (snooker player) once said to me "Play as if the tourney means everything to you, but at the same time, relax, play with the freedom of knowing it really means nothing at all if you can't enjoy it"
Joined: Feb '11
Location: Philippines
Age: 43 (M)
Posts: 228
Posted by vr2ualFELT: Some of the high-points during my counter productive session were: flopping a straight flush and losing.....
thats sick man... but what can you do, right?
i'm new to online poker but i've been dealt with terrible bad beats already. i mean the kind that will keep you shaking your head for half an hour..the only thing that keeps me from losing my cool and losing focus is that i know i did what i had to do in that situation.
whether you feel something's wrong with the site and how their cards are dealt, you still have to remember that the decisions made on the table still comes from you and that guy from the other side of the world. it you feel you made the right play and still got beaten, just think that the other guy just made a hell of a gamble.
the one with the better mindset always wins in the end...you just had one of those days..
but what can you do, right?
