5 replies to this topic

[blackjak]

I'm wondering if anyone has experienced this type of run online. I've been mentally fatigued from online poker the last 2 months due to an unusual number of bad beats on 4 different sites. A lot of ppl will say well maybe you're just not good enough. Here's a little history of my online play over 16 months. I'm still up overall. I've lost more the last 2 months then I did my first 6 months of playing when I had no clue what I was doing. Examples from just last night.I had KQ vs 77...flop QQ7I had QJ vs 88...flop QQ8I had 55 vs J6...flop J56...turn J...river 6This has been close to the norm for the last 2 months. It's just not adding up. Any advice? Should I take a break? Should I try another card room like pokerroom.com? I love the game, but the integrity just doesn't seem to hold up. I consider myself a good player, but not a great player. I shouldn't lose as much as I did my first 6 months (when I had no clue) in 2 months.

[copernicus]

blackjak said:

I shouldn't lose as much as I did my first 6 months (when I had no clue) in 2 months.

Why should you, in particular, be exempt from the laws of probability? One out of 100 expert players who can earn 1-2 bb/hr will face a 2 YEAR losing streak (maybe a little shorter online because of the number of hands per hour).Bad beats are only one cause of losses, and probably a relatively minor one. Get poker tracker and really look at your play. What is your calling % pre flop? What % of hands do you win at showdown? How often do rabbits catch your AA, KKs and did you bet them weakly?

[rog]

Dude...those are all coin flips. I know you lost spectacularily and early (on the flop), so they really stand out, but each of those hands you're going to lose half the time, and a loss is a loss wether you're outdrawn by trips on the river, or a boat on the flop. Forget about it.Rog

[blackjak]

You are absolutely right...those hands were coin flips. Besides, I can't recall a hand on tv where one guy flops trips and the other has a boat. We've seen poker on TV for 2 years now. Maybe we have, I had 2 of them within 15 min. I've played limited poker in the casino. I've probably seen 150 hands and the best hand I've been dealt is 1010. It wasn't all that common for middle pair to win a pot with 3 way action called down to the river. You never see that online with 3 way action called down to the river. OK once in a great while maybe. It just seems odd. I will say that out of those 150 hands, I can recall having 2 pair 3 times and losing to a higher 2 pair all 3 times...just like online all the time. What I failed to mention is another disturbing trend. When I'm all in preflop heads up trying to double up as a 72% fav, I'm losing about half of these hands for 2 months straight. Those are not coin flips.Poker Tracker doesn't really track hands vs other hands does it? That's the stat I need to see. How many times do I win AKo vs AQo or AJo vs A5o? That's what I care about. Does Poker Tracker have that feature? I don't recall that it does.

[Greentvdinner]

It's funny that you should mention Pokerroom because I left Pokerroom for the very reason you have posted, too many bad beats. Now I think I have improved very much in the past year so that may explain why I am doing better but I definitly did better when I left Pokerroom. Now I am not saying Pokerroom is not legit but maybe just the change of scenery along with the books I read helped me to see success. If you're looking for a get rich quick scheme, I imagine only 1% or less make huge money on line. I am slowly and surely winning by sticking to the games that I am good at ($2 - $5 Sng in holdem and Omaha High/low).Bad beats. I've seen plenty of them both at the tables and on line. Thats poker. If they come in droves like they did you, I would say you should sit out for a while to try to shake it off.Best of luck at the games.

[Smasharoo]

I'm wondering if anyone has experienced this type of run online. I've been mentally fatigued from online poker the last 2 months due to an unusual number of bad beats on 4 different sites. A lot of ppl will say well maybe you're just not good enough. Here's a little history of my online play over 16 months. I'm still up overall. I've lost more the last 2 months then I did my first 6 months of playing when I had no clue what I was doing. Examples from just last night.I had KQ vs 77...flop QQ7I had QJ vs 88...flop QQ8I had 55 vs J6...flop J56...turn J...river 6This has been close to the norm for the last 2 months. It's just not adding up. Any advice? Should I take a break? Should I try another card room like pokerroom.com? I love the game, but the integrity just doesn't seem to hold up. I consider myself a good player, but not a great player. I shouldn't lose as much as I did my first 6 months (when I had no clue) in 2 months.I'm going to give you some advice you're not going to take and explain why I think you should. IN about another year you'll realzie I was right and say "Damn, I should have listened to Smash earlier."Keep playing and play AGGRESIVELY.There are two ways people end up loosing more money than they should when they experience a lot of second best hands. One is that they tilt and start playing crazily loose. I think evevryone instinctively understands this and intelectually knows how to correct it. If that's your problem when you honestly think about your reactions, then stop playing for a while.The other way people lose money after a series of second best hands seems to happen a lot more frequently to educated good players.It's not playing agressively ENOUGH because of fearing losing a lot of money to a bad beat. They become passive particularly pre-flop and stop doing correct things like raising KQo on the button or capping with AK to a three-bet. They also stop checkraising top pair on the flop and let people draw cheaply to gutshots and two pair and all maner of other cheese that ends up leading to more bad beats and them winning smaller pots.My advice to you to get over the funk of being dealt a lot of bad beats is to drop down in limits and play hyper-agressively for a few days. You' might loose a little money, but you'll feel a lot better and realize that bad beats are really good things that make you money long term.Don't adjust your game tighter, which will be your almost irrestible instinct. Continue to push and play agressively and look at long term and not short term results.Good luck.