Horrible play, horrible, horrible beats.... It's all feeling very very familiar. Couldn't seem to catch a cold, none of my plays seemed to work, I made mistake after mistake (or so it felt, sometimes I guess you just feel that way when things are running bad). I was able to still keep my cool after I lost a medium-sized PLO8 pot to a rivered one outer, but this just broke the camel's back....

PokerStars Game #2583318773: Omaha Hi/Lo Pot Limit ($0.50/$1.00) - 2005/09/15 - 18:26:29 (ET)
Table 'Hertzsprung' Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: aveiks ($74 in chips)
Seat 2: FelonusMonk ($101 in chips)
Seat 3: duffer57 ($31.40 in chips)
Seat 4: Fragz ($105.80 in chips)
Seat 5: johnny55555 ($132.45 in chips)
Seat 8: draco ($28.35 in chips)
Seat 9: cashcrook ($55.60 in chips)
aveiks: posts small blind $0.50
FelonusMonk: posts big blind $1
cccpdonut: sits out
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FelonusMonk [4h As Ah Ts]
duffer57: folds
Fragz: calls $1
johnny55555: folds
draco: calls $1
cashcrook: folds
aveiks: calls $0.50
FelonusMonk: raises $4 to $5
Fragz: calls $4
draco: calls $4
aveiks: calls $4
*** FLOP *** [9s Ad 9d]
aveiks: checks
FelonusMonk: checks
Fragz: bets $5
draco: folds
aveiks: folds
FelonusMonk: calls $5
*** TURN *** [9s Ad 9d]
FelonusMonk: checks
Fragz: bets $5
FelonusMonk: raises $5 to $10
Fragz: raises $5 to $15
FelonusMonk: calls $5
*** RIVER *** [9s Ad 9d Qd]
FelonusMonk: bets $57.10
duffer57 said, "hey fragz ur ever play at prairie lakes or tangleridge"
Fragz: raises $23.70 to $80.80 and is all-in
FelonusMonk: calls $18.90 and is all-in
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Fragz: shows [9c Qs 9h Kc] (HI: four of a kind, Nines)
Fragz said, "nope"
FelonusMonk: shows [4h As Ah Ts] (HI: a full house, Aces full of Nines)
Fragz collected $209 from pot
No low hand qualified
duffer57 said, "nh"
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $212 | Rake $3
Board [9s Ad 9d Qd Jh]
Seat 1: aveiks (small blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 2: FelonusMonk (big blind) showed [4h As Ah Ts] and lost with HI: a full house, Aces full of Nines
Seat 3: duffer57 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: Fragz showed [9c Qs 9h Kc] and won ($209) with HI: four of a kind, Nines
Seat 5: johnny55555 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: draco folded on the Flop
Seat 9: cashcrook (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)


The guy then leaves about 2 hands later. Great. Who the hell calls 99QK in EP to a raise in PLO8???

The rhythms of poker are very odd. These days, my weeks and months seem to have been blending into a fairly familiar pattern; this month has totally mirrored July, great start, up tons and with a great hourly rate, then a long string of very similar sessions where I seem to play poorly, hit no hands, AND lose tons when I make a hand. Extremely disheartening, but I REALLY want to be playing at the moment because I've been enjoying poker in the last month or so, invigorated and excited about it again, but once more this run is eroding my interest and my hunger for the game.

I still feel like I want to play but, well, I'm sure everyone is sympathetic with the frustration of wanting to hit the tables each night but coming off the session badly beaten up. It's just that this pattern seems to have been very repititive for 3 months + now, and I feel like (with all the stresses of work and life) it's one more hassle and stress I can't be done with, hence I didn't play many hours in July and, especially, August. So I'm a bit annoyed that I've run into a horror run so soon in August once I've got back in the saddle. Any constructive ideas as to what I can do about it? I suppose just play through the rut and hope that the flopped quads-over-boats and river one outers will end soon, but, well, I guess I'm just feeling very disheartened at the moment. I would rather not sour my feelings about a game I've played and that has been a large part of my life for years now, as well as providing the majority of my income this year, and risk getting stuck in a mental rut with this. It HAS only been three bad sessions now, and I realise that that's nothing, but I just feel there's something "wrong" with my attitude at present - losses either wash over me without much interest, or drive me half crazy with annoyance; maybe I've always been like that, I don't really know, I think perhaps so, I'm just at a bit of a low ebb. Taking a break isn't an answer though, as I've taken any number of short breaks in the last couple of months, sometimes for a good week or so, and still feel things are pretty much "the same" on my return.

I guess a rambling and nebulous variety of thoughts, and partly with a pang of emotion from having come off another session that was "that" bad, but perhaps people recognise themselves a little bit in this, or have some constructive suggestions. Not looking for sympathy or to whine (well, maybe a little bit), but just wondering how I can "re-energise" my game'; probably just play on as normal I suppose. Anyway, it's been a disheartening three days indeed. The malaise which I'd assumed had lifted (which lead to me playing less, earning less and quitting my journal) feels like it's back in action and I just hope it doesn't put me off putting the hours in.

Monk
xxxxx

PS I should stress I've been a winning player for the last three months, although at about 2/3 of my normal rate, if this post gave you another impression; the swings have been pretty brutal though (this month up 3k in 16 hours, now down to 1.5k after 22)

Unfortunately this game is always more fun when you are winning. As much as everyone says that “I play because I enjoy the game” playing well and not winning isn’t enjoyable.

Even though you said that you want to keep playing I would take some time off. Not a lot, just a couple of days of or a week. When I am running bad I start to expect to run bad and the smallest baby suck out will set me off. To some extent it sounds like that is happening to you. If I take a couple of days off the when I get back the sucks outs don’t phase me and I can start enjoying the game again.

Another thing that helps me is switching games esp. to a game that I am not as good at. When I do that I focus on improving me game instead of how much poker like to mess with your head. I just had an O8 session where I got stacked 4 times and was > 2/3 favorite on all the hands and in one case I had the guy drawing to runner runner. Since then I have been playing HE and have really been enjoying it. More importantly I am now looking forward to playing O8 again.

Kuso, you need to take up conselling. Your answer to my "problem" is so incisively acute that "hitting the nail on the head" should now be renamed "doing a Kuso". Gooper has some excellent advice as well.

Basically, my problem is justice - the whole idea is so deeply grained into my soul that it becomes part of poker playing. Every last fibre of my being (especially given my personal life, yeah, you need to be here to appreciate the irony) realises that everything you said is quite right and it's utterly wrong for me to throw so much personal feeling into the results of my omaha game. I sat down twice this last session and realised that I was the THIRD best PLO8 player at the table ($200). That's right, THIRD best, without argument, and I knew it. Below $1k buyins, that's not happened before. I am ashamed i tried to do silly things to try to establish my cleverness. Time for me to "suck it up" and realise that making $2-4k a month without lifting a finger is no longer a walk in the park.

As you said, it's time I danced with the one that brung me, and stopped ignoring the fact that life, and poker, is situational. Sometimes people lose. And, overwhlemingly, I win the size of people's BRs in a few weeks, even sometimes in a session. Bad beats will continue to happen. I will continue to feel robbed, and yes, I will continue to whine. But from now on, I hereby promise not to complain about two-bit losses and silliness, and finally start playing online with a better attitude to the game. Just have to work out how!

Time I stuck this no-nonsense attitude to answering strategic posts to my attitude to playing poker.

Cheers, fellas! You're both on the right line, bigtime!

Monk
xxxxx

I personally have no problems with whining and biitching posts about bad beats... just be prepared for references about how you sound like MKs Vegas tranny whore.


On a more serious note, the International Moment(s) of Poker Zen:

An article on "success" and "failure" by Gigabet:




For deeper reading, the 2+2 thread that inspired a lengthy response that became the above article:




The actual lengthy response that became the above article:




In case it's not obvious, I am a big Gigabet fanboy. His HHs on a big SnG (posted by ship_it_tome) were a real lesson in poker for me.


Anyway, Monk, I've personally watched you take about 2 large from the party 100 and 200 tables in the past couple of weeks, and i fully expect to see it happen again (most likely sooner rather than later).

Cheers!

Yeah, I just think that sometimes perhaps I don't have the right attitude to the game and that's perhaps something I need to work on. The main thing that holds me back (I think) from playing bigger games and actually making a very good living, rather than just a (significant) amount of spending money at omaha is not my ability (I think!) but my attitude and mindset. This is something I (and anyone else who sometimes feels like this!) probably need to work on.

I'm a bit busy this weekend but will have a look at those articles in time. Whether it'll help, I dunno mainly because I can't quite put my finger on what my "problem" is or what I'm asking - I guess it might just be the fact that I sometimes get too involved in the game (because I like it so much) and thus can't emotionally distance myself from wins and losses. I think I feel a little bit like every serious player feels every so often, and it's probably no big thing. One good session will probably cure it, albeit in the short term.

Certainly, however, my attitude to the game is something I need to work on -at the end of 2004 I set myself some "goals" for this year, perhaps next year I should work on some ideas to progress my game, and perhaps I'll think about what those ideas might be in the next couple of months.

Thanks peeps.

Monk
xxxxx

Four losing sessions in a row now.... a bit more than $200 tonight (although I did get scammed by a disconnect cheater, and stacked by a guy in PLO8 who had 3 outs to a scoop!). Have had a few of these lately where I win solidly for a while, then get absolutely screwed for a number of sessions in a row with a "this time surely i'll win" attitude. Very trying. Dipped a mile below $2k now, and with lots to do in the next week or so, I'm looking at the bizarre situation of having won enough money for this to be a well above average month within 8 days, only to finish 22 days later with my third stinker in a row . Hopefully things'll turn good soon.

Monk
xxxxx