Now this is getting out of hand...

[ImBetterDude]

So as you may know, I've been running horrendously bad. Best hands preflop don't prevail postflop. Worst hands preflop don't improve postflop. Best hands postflop get sucked out on turn/river. It's infuriating because it has been happening with such regularity as of the last 2 days.

The latest trend I've encountered is getting f'ed in the proverbial A by Jack Queen. I know the hand blows, but I'm not about to fold it preflop for a limp. I'm just not, at least not in the first couple levels. In the last 10 SNG's I've busted out 4 times with this hand, and all 4 it was by flopping either a monster hand or a monster draw.

SO, today, I decide to fold preflop when a player from early doubles the blinds. I held the J Q of spades, and I wasn't abou to let that damn hand bust me again. I seriously had paranoid feelings that FTP was testing me, or out to get me, or SOMETHING, and that I wasn't going to bite.

Of course the flop comes 10 K A spades.

I'm not even kidding when I say this: I think the creative control behind FTP has decided that I need to lose, and has changed the RNG to counter my needs. I shit you not. I'm not one of those paranoid assholes that posts after losing one hand to a bad beat...I've played LOTS and LOTS of online poker, and the amount of beats I've endured recently just can't be explained by statistics. I mean, I might be on the 1 in 1,000,000 case that rides the negative variance to the extreme for 40 tournaments, but somehow I just doubt that.

[doubleup]

I think you have "recently been experiencing some poorer-than-average results due to variance." AKA downswing. You just need to take a step back and look at how you're playing. Modifying your play (playing QJs) is something that you shouldn't be doing if while being a winning player you usually play QJ decently. If QJ, or any hand for that matter, had always been a problem for you, laying down QJ in this spot would be a good step to reduce variance and get you back on the right track. Evaluate your play and the main thing you shouldn't do is change the things that worked for you while you're a winning player. Hopefully this makes sense. If not, perhaps it's time to invest in the Poker Mindset, as referenced above. I'm currently reading this and oddly enough I just read the chapter on this particular subject.

[ImBetterDude]

That's precisely what I have done, and the VERY FIRST time I choose to lay the hand down, I would have flopped the Royal.

Super tilt.

[doubleup]

Alternatively if you are on tilt, had played the hand and received no action...I'm sure that would have sent you steaming as well. Just play your normal game and eventually this phase will end.

[ImBetterDude]

Quick update...

Got down to $50, and haven't budged. Bouncing between $35 and $60, and while I've gone deep and ITM a couple times, I've just had crushing defeats when I'm between 60% and 80% preflop. It's so disheartening. I also seem to be on the shit end of 65% of coinflips, and when I do win 'em the chips don't do me any good because of how poorly I run late game.

So...it's been a week, and I can't even make headway playing solid poker at the $2 level. It's kind unsettling. On my descent from $150 to $75, playing $5 games, I definitely let tilt affect my play. I was getting screwed left and right and it was driving me insane. However, when I got to $75, I slowed down and vowed to just play $2 SNG's until I bounced up to $100...and that hasn't happened. The only differences between a week ago and now is that I'm playing far less frequently (at these takes there is little/no motivation) and I'm playing at smaller stakes and facing more donkish plays. However, I think I''ve actually continued to be -EV. I just can't find any good breaks.

I think FTP is dead set on tilting the odds against my favor to force me to make a deposit. Whatever the reason, whether it's mathematical or conspiracy, I'm damned sick of the rotten luck and that it's happening either when I'm just off the bubble or immediately when the bubble breaks. I mean seriously, enough is enough.

[Chevin]

So all this run-bad you are clearly upset about has taken place over a single week

I'm sure you're running bad. I'm sure you're tilting ta tits off too.

[CroMagnon]

[ImBetterDude]

Ok, somehow managed to turn my remaining $40 into $110...lots of late finishes but no big cashes. Now my suckouts are happening in the late stages of MTTs and SNGs, which is almost MORE frusterating because I can smell the money at that point.

Most recently, 150 man MTT and we're at the final table. I'm 7 of 9 with 16,000, in the SB with AA. Big stack has around 70,000, and is obviously a copmlete donkey who luckboxed his way into chip lead. Only one player is good at the table, a guy I've played with before..."Floppy McNutts". Top 99% on FTP and plays almost exclusively $10 and under. Impressive. Anyway, the guy on the BTN is a real asshole who seemingly believes the only possible moves are POT raise, or FOLD. Because of his stack, his pot raises obviously commit him to the hand, and nobody has stood up to him. Of course he raises pot on my SB (around 4500) and I just raise all in, feeling like he'll call out of a bruised ego. Sure enough he does, showing A 7.

We split the pot, both having broadway.

I am confident that with 35,000 I would have rolled over this table, and after 3 hours of playing I was very unsatisfied with this result. Sure enough, I can't find a spot to gain chips and end up losing with A 6 against someone's 33 which hits a set on the flop. Out in 6th for like 8X my buy in.

My life as a low stakes recreational poker player is quite frusterating at this point, but I'm thankful that I haven't busted. $2 poker is far less appealing than $5 and $10, but one has to adhere to what the BR can handle, running bad = lower stake playing. Once I get to $150 again I'll bump it to $5 again, but will drop again to $2 if I drop back into double digits.

[Zenjo]

[ImBetterDude]

Yeah, $2 games have just become WAAAAY too frusterating, so with my remaining $100 I'm just going to play $5 SNG's, up to 2 tables. Nothing else until I either reach $200 or bust.

[ImBetterDude]

So the newest phase in my frusterating run of cards is that FTP is allowing me to go quite deep in tournaments, only to get KO'ed visciously right before I can land a good score. I've probably cashed in 50% of the MTT's I've played in over the past week, and none of them I have been able to get a solid cash. After 2-4 hours of playing in the same tournament, it's exceedingly frusterating to just walk away with 3-6X your buy in when you are so close to the big money...especially at a time that a healthy cash would resotre my BR and confidence.

I feel sometimes like FTP is trying its hardest to Tilt me. I just played in a 250 man tournament and got 8th, and being this is like the 5th tournament out of 8 that I've gone deep only to be smited so damn close to my goal (...and it was when I got 10 J to push all in over my PFR with A A, only to beat me) I immediately went and steamed off about 25% of my BR playing turbo SNG's.

I'm just going to cool off and wait until Saturday, when I play in a 100 seat guarantee for the FTOPS #8 that I satellited into. It would be a huge boost to my esteem to turn 300 FTP's into a $350 tournament seat and a chance at winning $300,000. I think the field will be weak, and it's a pretty fast structure so if I can catch some decent hands (...and of course if they HOLD UP) I think it won't be so difficult. Wish me luck.

[Harlequin99]

Have you read "Sit 'n Go Strategy" by Colin Moshman? I have just started to play Sit 'n Gos after reading this book and I am absolutely crushing the $10 and $20 games on Crpyto. Definitely worth a read if you have not already or if you have read it then a reread might help you ensure you are making optimally. It has several very interesting topics like raising High Blind Limpers and "Stop and Go" raises that would have taken me a long time to work out for myself.

Also, if you are a winning player at $5 it would be +EV for you to boost your bankroll from your bank balance and continue to play them than to drop down a level.

Hope things start running better for you soon!

[ImBetterDude]

Wish I could boost my roll, but I have been playing seriously at the $5 level since college, and haven't had a solid job that would allow me to just let my BR grow. I graduated and had a good job for a few months, my BR grew, and right when I started playing $10 games with $600 in my BR, I lost my job and had to withdraw a hefty amount and drop back to $2 MTT's and $5 SNG's. Over the last couple months I've needed to periodically withdraw to use the extra $$$ for practical purposes.

I had a very successful interview at a telecom sales company today so hopefully I'll be employed soon and can just leave my BR the hell alone for awhlie and let it slowly grow. I've been so curious to see how I fare at higher limits, and while I'll be playing far less upon becoming employed, I will eventually be able to test myself in the months/years to come at more significant limits as my BR permits.

For NOW, I'm stuck with a measely $100, which doesn't allow me many big money opportunities. Just the endless low limit SNG grind, and the occasional low buy in minefield.

Thanks for the literature tip, I'll look for Moshman's book the next time I'm at Barnes and Noble.