I am playing some of the worse poker of my life right now, and I believe a lot of it has to do with my loss of confidence in my game. So much that I am beginning to think that this game really can't be beat in the long run.

I have been going through some really tough swings in the last month, taking a lot more bad beats and coolers that i could ever remember in the 2 years that I have been playing poker. Nothing just seems to be going right. And when I say nothing... I mean absolutely nothing

I have noticed that I am tilting a lot, though. Weird because back in the day, I would never tilt no matter how tough the beat was or how deep in a tournament I got. I would get right back on the horse and keep on riding, and never let that affect my game or my confidence. I don't know what happened to that guy... he's lost somewhere back in the days where I used to win money.

So I don't know what to do now, I take frequent breaks from poker so I don't overwhelm myself... But not even that seems to work. I come in ready to play with the right mindset and confidence, but after 3 or 4 bad beats and coolers right off of the bat... I just lose it, go on tilt, and manage to lose a lot of money really quickly.

What do I do?

Move down to a level that you know you can beat. I'm currently rebuilding my confidence/BR at .25/.50 NL. Yeah, it's humbling to be playing it after getting as high as 3/6 NL and 30/60 Limit, but it's something that has to be done.

Words of wisdom right there. Always play withing your roll if you are serious about poker. I always tell my friends, "Hey, if you're playing for fun and entertainment, then jump in the 5-10NL on Party, or the 15-30 at the Casino," as they sit there and make fun of me for playing 6-12live, or 2-4limit on the internet. Then, when I am constantly making a few thousand a month and they win some, lose some, eventually going busto, they still make fun of me.

I don't care what anyone says, if you want to make it in this poker game, play within your roll and build it up. If you only have $500 bucks for poker, so be it, play within your roll. If you have 10K, go play some bigger games, if you are good enough.

Were you playing within your roll? I feel that when you play out of your league, as far as $$$ goes, you tend to become less confident as well. Could this be a part of your feeling less confident, aside from losing?

I feel your pain. I'm playing a micro-limit right now to blow off steam. Regain your confidence in it. Might work.

Playing well within it. 25 buy-ins for NL ring, 500 big bets for limit. If i were playing the same limits today, I'd have 15 buy ins and 300 big bets. So I'd say pretty damm good bankroll management... maybe even too much.

either way, i've dropped to lower limits, thinking about dropping another just to see If I can gain some confidence back... if not... well then I don't lose as much. win win

But when I was playing the higher limits, I had just moved up that week, and lost 3 full buy-ins to some pretty sick beats, within an hour to be exact.

Moving up in limits and getting destroyed will definatley give your confidence a good kick to the nuts.

I've had this happen to me before and it's not pretty. I honestly don't know what the solution is, but I feel your pain. I think Cobalt's advice to drop down is probably good advice.

I've been playing very little lately because I've run so bad that my confidence got shook. The last 3 mornings I've gotten off work and cashed in a SnG. That's helped my confidence rebuild itself a little bit. I'd really like to get out to the boat sometime soon and book a good live LHE session to maybe help my confidence there.

I really think booking a good session or two could help. Maybe consider quitting before you might normally quit if you manage to get up decently early on in a session. I know it can be devastating to play a 2 hour session, get up nicely during the first hour, then get destroyed in the 2nd hour and end up losing money. Maybe quitting after that good or could be helpful.

Just my two cents, still trying to figure out how to deal with shaken confidence myself.

If you think the game can't be beat because of the rake, go play at WPEX or absolute. At those sites, poker is a zero sum game, not a negative sum game. It's nice to have a losing week, but make money because of rakeback.

300BB is nearly standard for a really good player (equipped with rakeback). Some people say, especially if you are mulitabling, to have atleast 400-500BB. But heck, 300BB is still within reason. At least you arent' trying to move up limits to "get it back." My friends have done this time and time again, donking off every chip they had to their name, leaving themselves with no roll at all. That sucks.

if you play short handed hold'em, at least for limit, I recommend going back and playing full ring. That's what I did when I donked away a lot of money and it helped me regain a lot of confidence.



I was also bored as hell tho

Post in strat to help identify where you're playing poorly. If nothing else, it's a good idea to post some quick check ups in there, plays that you think are no-brainers, just to be sure you're doing things right.

Yet this does not include the question:

Should I have folded pf?

Hero is dealt [K K

Multi tabling really has nothing to do with it if it doesnt affect your winrate.

300 is a meaningless standard that comes from hypothetical winrates, standard deviations and a risk of ruin that isnt necessarily appropriate for you.

take a break. reread some books. hang in the forums.

rinse and repeat

Take a week or so to learn a new game, and learn it well. Doing so will bring any systemic leaks you have in LHE into clearer view (because you'll have to reconsider the basic maths, generally).

This thread is Chicken Soup for the Poker Soul.

I'm sure pretty much everyone has been there at some point. It seems that every couple months I'll ask myself "Am I really a winning player or was I just lucky to make some money in the short term."

I also find myself getting lazy and over confident at times which inevitably leads to a big down swing. Multi-tabling with FCP open in one window and a TV show in another, etc. Play a short session - <1 hour - where you concentrate on completely focusing on the game. One table. Watch every player. See what kinds of reads you can get without using PT or anything else. And most importantly measure success in this session based on the number of correct decisions you make and not the outcome. If you get your money in good and get sucked out on you win not lose.

So you are saying that whether you are playing 4 tables of 3-6 or 1, you should only have 300BB? You can easily lose 200BB from mulit tabling in 2 bad sessions.

That's correct.

Multi-tabling does not change variance at all.

It will slightly reduce your win-rate due to lost concentration, but your variance remains constant. In fact, if you are a winning player, playing more hands will work to stabilize your bankroll in a slightly positive direction with the slope of that movement being your win-rate.

Holy hell, so why the FCUK am I playing with 800BB when I can just move up and make slightly more an hour, plus more rake bacK!? Thanks.

<--Dummy

It only makes your play 'riskier' if your winrate goes down as a result of it.

Otherwise playing 4 tables just brings you to the outcome that you'd inevitably get to by 1 tabling... but in 1/4 of the time.

Single vs Multi Tabling:

Variance per table stays the same
Variance per hand stays the same

Variance per Hour increase with Multitabling. By a factor equal to the number of tables you are playing

Variance of the average variance per table decreases when multitabling by a factor equal to the number of tables you are playing

that is all to say, as abbaddabbaddo said, you get the same swings, jsut in less time with Multitabling. So, more variance per hour. Your Var per hour simply increase constantly with each hand played, so 2x more with 2 tables, 6 times more with 6 tables. Variance of independent variable is additive.

The last point in bold simply says that while your total variance per hour will be higher while multitabling, the Average swing per table will not vary as much from night to night, as it does one tabling. It's how insurance uses the law of large numbers. Total Claims are tougher to predict with more insureds; yet, average claim per insured becomes increasingly easier to predict with more insureds.

Ahhh, very good to know sir. That means I am now making the jump from 2-4 to 3-6. I can get more rakeback, and if I maintain a 1.25BB/100 hands at both a 2-4 and 3-6 level, 3-6 will pay more anyway!

when poker is not fun to me anymore, I quit for a while.

I'm thinking your biggest problem is your emotional control.

You say that you lose confidence when you're losing but you play well and have confidence when you're winning... You need to learn to play well and have that same confidence all the time because you're showing tilt both ways.

Most people just think they are tilting when they lose... but if you're winning every day you're most likely tilting as well.

Like Daniel says, you can't judge your skill based on each game, you have to look at it in hours played over the long run. Not just statistically but also mentally.

One way of controlling the negative tilt is when you're having a losing session just reassure yourself that it WILL balance out, because you will end up having winning sessions/streaks eventually. As long as you play level headed and don't make bad plays because of how you're feeling.