My head hurts

TacT

I've been earning a successful living from cash table games since last March at this stage and have been placing in most stt's and a couple of mtt's here and there.

March has been the first month since I embarked on this full-time fiasco in a year that I have not found myself in the money. Meaning I haven't lost anything but I have not won anything either. I have the funds to tide me over and such is life but I'm quite upset with myself and my game at present. My best week to date has seen me make over €1k but I'm heavily down at present. A break is in order alright and has been projected but I'm wondering if there's something I'm missing in all this.

I guess my poker game sums itself up as a cash game grinder who has been happy with earning a little at a time that amounts to enough to live off at the end of each month up until now. This March is the first month in well over a year that I have not found myself comfortably in profit. Yes, I am up but unfortunately it's up by circa €70 for the month in total, which was usually between €1.5K+ and more often circa the €2k mark.

At the end of last year I made a decision that I would play full-time solely for income and I enforced it as of start January but have been doing so since last March. I feel like I'm fighting some sort of psychological battle more than anything but I was wondering what any other frequent cash game players might have to say about the matter because at present I'm rather depressed more than anything with how this month has gone. I've since forced myself onto a week long break to put things back into perspective and get my game sorted back into win mode.

Obviously variance has to kick you in the arse at some stage but this is more than variance, I'm not sure it's the fact that I've been playing for x amount of time or something else because usually my game doesn't leave any room for error and it's impossible to be down at the end of the month if I've followed the 50+ base rules that I layed out for myself so many moons ago.

F.A.O all cash game players, what do you do at the end of a month of running bad?

Do you reckon I'm just getting too involved or is there something I'm missing here? I've been so successful for so long but right now, I feel like the king of fish, has my confidence just taken a hammering or what?

all comments appreciated, I'm disgusted, angry and in a state of shock with how things went for a month

I play .50/1 mostly, some .25/.50 and dabble 1/2 and 1.5/3 on occasion, WTF is happening to me, I'm used to seeing circa €2k at the end of each month and I'm currently looking at a profit of €100 HELPEEEEEE

Lafortezza

If you had similar break-even months for April and May would you be in a bad way financially? If so I'd suspect that you're not sufficiently bankrolled to cope with the combination of playing and running badly.

Do you have a seperate amount of money set aside from your poker money that you use to cover living expenses?

Do you use Pokertracker? Maybe spend a day or so analyzing your play on that for March compared to your profitable months. Maybe you're doing someting blatant that is causing the downswing.

You could take a break totally from poker for a couple of weeks if you can afford to financially. You could change the games you play, switch to Omaha, or STTs only or something.
Hope things pick up for you though, keep is informed!

TacT

If I had similar break even months for April and May I wouldn't be in a bad way financially but I would be looking at a reduced Summer holiday come July as a worst case scenario.

I have a seperate amount of money set aside to cover living expenses. I don't use pokertracker so maybe it is time I started doing so, in order to get some more insight into the problem.

I am going to take a break for a week odd atm. I can afford to take a month long break and do some other work to generate income in the meantime, which is something I'm also contemplating.

A change of game could well be in order now that you mention it. Cash games are where I do best though, so, maybe I should concentrate on improving my stt/mtt play and see how much I can make playing stt's only next month. HU play is the weakest part of my game and I'm not too hot when it's short handed either.

Will report back sometime in April and let you know how it's going, in the meantime, it's off to the swimming pool and out for drinks later on to celebrate the gf's birthday, enough of the damn cards

peeko

If you are going to get poker tracker someone posted this before:

http://www.pokerpromotions.net/

Hectorjelly

TacT wrote:

F.A.O all cash game players, what do you do at the end of a month of running bad?

Im not sure its possible to run bad for a month at those levels. I think you need to rethink your approach to cash games.

Usually I would assume that you have problems with discipline and patience, but from the little I rememeber of your play I doubt this is true. If you had pokertracker I could look at your stats, or failing that maybe you should post up a selection of big pots that you played.

MrPillowTalk

playing online cash and not having poker tracker is like racing motorbikes for a living and not buying a helmet, very dangerous.

take a break for a couple of weeks usually what I do if Im running cold will give you a fresh outlook on your return.

RoundTower

I'm not trying to make a living out of poker, so it doesn't affect me so badly, but I'm in a similar bad run. Since about the last week of January I'm down a good 5 figures. I was running really hot at the start of January, but nowhere near enough to make up for that. I moved down in stakes (most of the time) and am playing much less, mostly because I've been busy at college.

I gave poker a break for two weeks a while back. It didn't really have the effect I'd hoped for and my results didn't pick up when I came back. I'm now on a semi-enforced break again until mid May when my finals are over. I'm playing about one night a week, and posting quite a bit here and on two plus two.

After that I'll go back to playing three or four times a week and expect to just gradually dig my way out of a hole. Ideally I'll win a big MTT or run ridiculously good for a week. Maybe I'll be broke by July. But I expect it'll be somewhere in between. A week or two of good results and I'll feel like the best player in the world again.

TacT

Hectorjelly wrote:

Im not sure its possible to run bad for a month at those levels. I think you need to rethink your approach to cash games.

Usually I would assume that you have problems with discipline and patience, but from the little I rememeber of your play I doubt this is true. If you had pokertracker I could look at your stats, or failing that maybe you should post up a selection of big pots that you played.

I'm certain that I simply wasn't as disciplined and patient as I usually am at the tables. I also agree that it's not possible to run bad for a month at those levels either and that the fault lies with me, my game and frame of mind. I was horribly unlucky in several big pots that I played but I have gone back over them and identified what I should or could have done differently in them also.

My solution is going to be to re-tighten up the belt another couple of notches and see how things go, not to mention getting pokertracker installed and getting more detailed records for my play.

Lafortezza

How many hours per week do you typically play?
How many tables would you play at one time?

It could be that you've been grinding for so many months now that you play on autopilot and miss out on value bets, marginal calls and proper folds.

TacT

It depends how the week goes really but it's usually around the 30 mark and gets up to 40 on occasion. 3 tables at a time.

FastMachine

Take a week or two off. If you've been running that bad for a month you need to clear your head and get rid of the negative attitude to poker that surely you're experiencing at this stage.
This will also give you time to examine your game and find out where you've been leaking cash. Have you loosened up considerably? Are you calling too many raises oop with hands other than pp's and AK/AQ? Are you bluffing too much?
Are you making the same mistake(s) hour after hour, day after day, week after week - that's the cause of your downswing right there.

Come back fresh after a break and say to yourself "I'm starting from scratch now. I'm going to play my best from here on, better than I've ever played before".
That looks like psycho-babble, but if you think like a winner you're more likely to play like a winner. I often tell myself this kind of stuff if ,for example, I start off a session badly, or run into a 2 buyin or greater downswing. Post up some hands where things or you can pm me them if you like and let's see where you're going wrong.