Really startin to get worried about this losing-thing. I can't even beat the fucking 2-4 tables - which is what I've been forced to move down to - over the past few days. This has gotta end sometime...right?

Yeah, yeah, I can hear it already. "You need to evaluate your play," or "You should tighten up"...well, I've been trying to reevaluate my play, and I've tightened up to rock-level, and hey look, I'm still losing.

If anyone can manage to provide some non-cliche encouragement, I could really use it right now.

-TW

Well, I know it would cut into you N/A substance filled number of posts - but maybe take some hands from your sessions and post them. Without getting some examples of your play - I don't know how much we can give you without cliched statements.

One thing I found very enlightening when I reviewed my tournament play was to take all of the hands from a period of a half-hour and review them with others. Make an initial post with your position, the action before you and your starting cards and let us pick the ones to look at more in depth.

If that isn't to your liking, work on another game and step away from hold'em for a little while. Or step away entirely. Or keep your chin up and just play better. Say a mantra and get over it.

Maybe the problem is you are trying to "beat" the $2/$4 tables. If your win-rate is already solid at that level from past play - you have already beaten it - that is, every hand you play at $2/$4 has a certain expectation to you. If your rate per 100 hands is 2BB, then you make $.08 every hand that you get dealt - regardless of the current outcome or the current downswing.

/d

Okay, so I went into PTracker and looked at my total limit results (including 24, 36 and 510) over the entire time I've been playing "professionally", i.e. since the second week of February. Basically, trying to get a confidence booster.

PT reported that over a total of 67K hands of assorted limit, I've won $8400. "Hah!" I replied snidely, "but what have I done for me lately!?"

Then, I decided that what I really needed was some actual analysis. Ya know, see if I could pinpoint the problem. So, I flipped through various screens/filters, watched assorted green and red numbers dance before my eyes, and learned pretty much nothing. Well, other than that AA makes me money and 93o doesn't. Shocking.

Then, I went into the sessions tab, and found a screen I didn't even know existed. It shows you your BB/100 winrate by timeframe/day. Here, I think I finally found a telling statistic. First off, by day, my weekend winrate was significantly higher. That's not really shocking at all, it kinda figures that you'd get more recreational players (i.e. drunk/stoned college kids) on weekends.

BUT, here's the interesting part. When you look at my winrate/100 by time-slot, here's what you get:

12am-2am : (2.07)
2am-4am : (2.20)
4am-6am : (2.69)
6am-8am : +.22
8am-10am : +1.39
10am-12pm : +3.37
12pm-2pm : +.72
2pm-4pm : +1.79
4pm-6pm : +3.00
6pm-8pm : +2.96
8pm-10pm : +2.04
10pm-12am : +5.81

Right, I think the pattern is pretty obvious. Over the last 10 days, my sleeping habit have been pretty much fucked to the point that I've been going to sleep in the mid-morning and waking up in the evening. Most of my hours have been booked between 9 or 10 pm and 6 am.

Okay, so there's two possibilities here. (1) The above table looks like it does because I'm in a bad run right now, and have mostly played in the negative time-slots. Or, (2) I'm in a bad run because I've mostly been playing in the negative time-slots.

There's really no way of telling which is the cause and which is the effect...but I think it would certainly be worth a try to get myself back in a reasonable sleeping pattern, and go back to playing in the afternoon times. So, I'm gonna try to stay up "late" tonight...errrrr....today...so that tomorrow, I wind up waking up in the morning (for the first time in a week and a half).

Should that period be on the inside or the outside of the paranthesis thingy?

-TW

Tighty

Non cliche encouragement. Hmm. Posting hands is good, i guess. I can tell you what happened to me- i went on a pretty incredible tear and wokeup one day with a 30k+ bankroll. At that point it I had a groundbreaking epiphone- two really actually.
1) That i can NOT lose and that
2) All i do and say is right
--NOTE: I thought this sounded arrogant, but hey i was realistic. These epiphones only applied to poker.

This happens to everyone, when they make the transition from being just a decent, somehwhat rocky player to being an actual 'good' player.

There is a Ray Zee article that was posted on our very own forums that talks about this- basically that every player that makes the transition is going to have to survive the ridiculous crap he starts pulling after he makes it. Heres the link, in case you havent seen it.

http://www.twoplustwo.com/zee2.html

Im not saying for shure this is the type of thing that happened to ya, but just a thought.

The thing that made me think of it was the KJ sooooted bluff hand that you posted. Dont get me wrong though, that hand was totally tits. When you read the article youll see what i mean.

Good luck out there - its a tough racket, this one. And what are your PT #'s anyways, like VP, PFA, etc? Im curious...

Mecos,

I did read that article and found it very insightful. I went through a period a couple months back where I thought I could get away with some kinda ridiculous 25% VPIP...that was a result of two great sessions where I played looser than I should've, but kept catchin' the right cards. After that, it went right to the shitter and I realized that there's only so much you can get away with.

As far as some numbers...My VPIP hovered pretty consistantly at a bit above 18% for most of the time I've been playing. I realize this is higher than some would like, but it worked out fine for me. PFA...something like 2.5 Flop, 2.0 turn, 1.2 river. Perhaps a bit passive on the river, but it works for me, as I think I get a good bit of value by letting people bet their missed draws into me, though I will value-bet when I think it's appropriate. My preflop raise is 9.3%, and a lot of that is late-position steal/isolation raises. Overall, my winrates are:

2-4 : 1.31BB/hour (19K hands)
3-6 : 1.50BB/hour (34K hands)
5-10 : 1.02BB/hour (16K hands)

I really don't know how any of that stacks up to the other regulars...I've read at other forums that a good player should be able to manage 2BB/hour at an online table, but I sure as fuck can't do it.

Lately, and for the foreseeable future, I'm gonna try to scale back to a more back-to-basics approach. I'm shooting for a tighter 11-13% sorta VPIP, and less mucking about with LP raises/blinds-defense. When I'm running good, I think I can get away with playing some extra hands in position and playing piers-style as far as blinds defense, but I doubt any of that really adds too much to my bottom line. Since I've been in a slump, I figure I'm best off avoiding the more marginal situations until I regain some confidence.

-TW

One thing that has occured to me is the possibility that you are moving up too quickly for your mental ability. That is - while a winning $5/$10 session is always good - a losing one is detrimental. I know (or think I know) that you have (or had) enough in your bankroll for $5/$10 - but maybe you needed to spend some more time at $3/$6 before taking the leap.

Essentially, I think you are seeing a major downswing that is being caused by a number of different symptoms. Instead of having pneumonia- you might just have a cold, the flu and a sore throat all piled on top - where the symptoms will frequently overlap - but all of them cause you to feel horrible. (Bad analogy - but its what I've got so deal with it).

So you've already identified a couple of possible issues - the time frame being a major one. You've stepped back down in limits. You've reviewed your hands and think your starters could be tightened up a few percentage points.

I would give yourself some time in this new venture. Taking a few days at a lower limit to explore yourself can do wonders for your game - and I think you will come out of it for the better.

Good luck.
/d

This is getting ridiculous. I went into today calm, focused, confidant...ready to tighten up, which in theory should cut back on the variance and grind out some winners.

KK runs into AA
AA runs into Q5o who called my raise and rivers a straight
AK runs into AQ (3-outer on the river)
T9 in the BB, check in, flop is AT9 so I lose a decent bit to A9
AK finally flops top pair, runs into a set of jacks
AJ flop a jack, gets run down by a maniac with king-high until the river
Flop a straight against same manaic, who hits two pair on the turn and boats on the river
KK loses to A2, calling me down with ace-high, when an ace hits the river
Bunches of JJ and TT, with at least one overcard invariably showing up, and heavy action to go with it.
Stole the blinds twice with AA.

Yeah, that all happened over the past three hours. And it's kinda getting to me.

-TW

One small bit of advice, DON'T PLAY ON ANY SITE WITHOUT A BONUS. This way, even if you do have a horrible session or two, you'll probably make a good bit of it back with the bonus. I don't remember if you do much bonus whoring, but when you're on a bad streak, there's just something about making money while you're getting your ass kicked that makes it feel so good.
Good luck