When Poker Doesn't Go Your Way

Hey everyone!! I finally been thinking about the past 6 or 7 weeks since I went through my misfortune of what they call a downswing. First off, what really is a downswing? To most, people think they are running terrible, getting sucked out on, losing flips, etc etc. Not that i'm say that I don't have this downswing like others because I really feel like I do day in and day out. Believe me when I say it....I run bad. But I put in tons of volume, so i'm gonna have tons of swings all over the place. What I have been thinking about over this reflection of what has happened is it isn't any different than what I go through over the past 3-4 months, and those months I had winning results. I think over this period of stretch, my game changed to the point of tilt. All the bad beats, suck outs, flips that I couldn't win, overpairs vs underpairs that lost all in pf and overpairs in 3b pots that couldn't win. and draws that I couldn't get there with really got to me. I started getting it in a bit lighter, calling 3bets a little more, cold calling raises, getting aggressive in all the wrong spots led to my disaster. I didn't really think about all this before my last few days I left to go to California.

Basically my winning month in September turned into even stevens. I think I ended up winning like $350 for the month, which was unfortunate because I was having my best month in September, up almost $3k. Than I carried over my same game into October and still ended up losing for the month. Granted, I only played 2 week worth of hands, but still managed to put in almost 100k hands and lost about $800 for the month.

So what has changed since then? Not much I guess besides working on my game. I basically am starting back at basics. Trying to regroup and do what I did months ago and working on each aspect of the game while acquiring new knowledge of things. So when poker doesn't go how you expect, you have to think about what your doing. Like I said get back to basics, discuss hands, what videos, read a poker book or two. I've been trying in whatever small spare time I have, but I've been watching a few vids and trying to find time to get on the poker forums.

Since my parents left back to Thailand which was November 9th, I started grinding again. Since I started back up, I'm pretty much still trying to get my game going. It seems a little better, but basically I'm close to break even for the month which sucks, but better than losing tons of BI's. I'm only play 50NL at the moment and hopefully start back up at 100nl soon. I just need to get back in the groove and start winning again. If I don't, then I'm gonna have to reevaluate myself and poker.

If has been one rough ride and when you keep losing or breaking even, the best thing to do is just play your A game and don't change anything or play differently because you can go on tilt really fast. You might not even notice until it's too late. It took me 3 weeks to notice and it wasn't pretty. I still deal with the issue on a daily basis, but it is getting better. I feel a lot better and not so upset about my sessions and life. Maybe taking the past 3 weeks off is something I needed. We will have to see how the rest of my year ends because as of now, SNE is not looking like it will be in my cards for next year unless I have some huge heater coming up.

Since I rely on poker to take care of my family, moving up just doesn't seem like the best thing to do and risking my bankroll right now is not what I can do. I'm going to continue on improving and move back on up!!

Hope everyone else is running better than me!!! Good Luck!!

Jeff

Still on a break

I haven't had a lot of time to think about poker the past few weeks since my parents flew from Thailand to California and now to Florida. I've been taking care of all there errands and needs and spending time with them as much as I can since I don't really see them too much. I guess in a way its been a good thing and a bad thing. The good thing meaning that I probably needed a break from poker since I haven't been playing so well or running well. The bad thing meaning I haven't had any time to work on my game, not get any hands in, and not making any money. My parents will be leaving on November 9th which is next week, so hopefully after that, I will be able to log in a ton of hands and hours.

On a side note, I filled out an application for Team Pokerstars Online Pro a few weeks back when I left to California. I'm not sure what the qualifications were, but they sent me a form to fill out which I thought was really awesome to do. It's something that I really want to do and accomplish and hopefully (i'm crossing my fingers) will get. With a family to take care of, I really hope for this since I love the game of poker, especially online. I have a lot to work on.

I've been thinking about my super downswing over the course of this and have to say that it's been soul crushing. I thought that I was over this, this meaning tilt. I've had a great 3-4 months of poker before this and I was almost tiltless if that is the right word for this. Even when I was running bad, I still tried to play solid and more solid. I still booked winning sessions/break even sessions when I ran felt like I ran bad. With that said, since September 20th, I pretty much went on an epic slide down the mountain. When I ran bad, I just started playing worse. Paying off river bets to light, turn bets, all ins, and getting it in on the flop with the worse of it. I think it had a lot to do with losing a few sessions back to back. When you loss 3-4 buy-ins over consecutive sessions, it can really mess with you mind. I mean, I can't blame myself for running terrible because I did...but who doesn't right? I had quite a bit of coolers, I think more than my average downswing. Overpairs vs Underpairs, smaller sets over bigger sets, bigger sets vs smaller sets only to get quaded,etc etc blah blah we heard it all before. I think though, when you are downswinging pretty hard, you have to keep focus and continue to..like I said play you A+++ game. More easier said that done but you really have to. Sometimes you have to get back to basics and fundamentals. Whatever can help you through catastrophic events like this. For some, that may be the solution, but to others it might be taking a few days off and head to the beach or just do nothing and watch TV and movies. Maybe even work on your game and study more which I haven't done at all.

Well, one more week to go before I get back to poker. My parents having been staying with me since last week and it will be sad to see them head back to Thailand. At least they finally have seen my 2 babies finally, 14 months later...haha I will be continuing to help them with anything the want, mostly shopping because my mother loves to shop, oh and also eat like 7 times a day and go to walmart as well. It's been nice though and they have helped out a ton and since I moved to Florida into my new home, they have added some new life to the house which I am gracious for.

With that said, I still hope SNE is in my cards next year and I hope all the best to everyone out there. Better than me. Until then....

Jeff