The key skill

[Pyso]

Firstly, if you're regularly beating a game you don't have much to worry about. It is normal you will lose sometimes. The problems start when you let a losing sequence affect your overall decision making, or you think general muppety thoughts about how unlucky you are. It doesn't really matter if your unlucky claims are true or not because those thoughts will never help increase your winning chances.

If you regularly beat a cash game you're gonna be pretty intense about the maths but there is undoubtedly a feel element to the game. If you think you have lost the balance between the two I would step out of cash and play a few tournaments. Have some fun playing purely feel poker and see where that takes you. This might give you more faith in your reading skills and improve your cash game. I agree with CF, the pot odds are shit if you're beat.

I always like your replies Mantis, you talk a lot of good sense. Going down the tourney route for a while is an excellent idea.

[kinboshi]

How about looking at spots when you 'know' you're ahead and making the most value from them, whilst avoiding the situations when you 'know' you're behind or getting out as cheaply as possible.

There's so much easy money at DTD in the games we play, that there's always a better spot than one where you think/know you're behind.  Of course, if the hand's played in such a way that the pot odds and the chance that you're beating the opponents range dictate a call, then it'd be wrong to fold.

[Pyso]

How about looking at spots when you 'know' you're ahead and making the most value from them, whilst avoiding the situations when you 'know' you're behind or getting out as cheaply as possible.

There's so much easy money at DTD in the games we play, that there's always a better spot than one where you think/know you're behind.  Of course, if the hand's played in such a way that the pot odds and the chance that you're beating the opponents range dictate a call, then it'd be wrong to fold.

Confuscus say: "be patient!"

[poonjoe]

[/quote]
 the short run is so long that it feels like the long run to most people.
[/quote]

Says it all

[Rod]

I have found myself in the same situation you describe here on a fair number of occasions, most of us have I am sure. I don't know what the answer is, but I agree with the posters who have said you should take a break. In my case even though I may have run badly for a while I often make this worse by playing badly and trying to play too long to get back to even on a given day. This will, more often than not, result in further losses. Knowing when to leave the game is a very important skill in itself.

I also like running back through the hands I have played to see how often I have really been unlucky and how often I have lost money due to poor play.

Some things you can try are:-

1) Play tighter and try to get a few winning sessions even if you are not taking advantage of every +EV situation it should help improve your confidence as you will start to win again. I tend to combien this with very short sessions (no more than 30 minutes) as you should be able to retain good concerntration for this time. Try this for a week and the results often put themselves right and your normal style of play just returns naturally.

2) Drop down the levels for a short period of time for the same reason as above.

3) Post the hands and get some feedback on them

But normally you CAN just play through it, as long as you are playing well things will turn around quickly enough as you will make better decisions than your opponents.

[Pyso]

I have found myself in the same situation you describe here on a fair number of occasions, most of us have I am sure. I don't know what the answer is, but I agree with the posters who have said you should take a break. In my case even though I may have run badly for a while I often make this worse by playing badly and trying to play too long to get back to even on a given day. This will, more often than not, result in further losses. Knowing when to leave the game is a very important skill in itself.

I also like running back through the hands I have played to see how often I have really been unlucky and how often I have lost money due to poor play.

Some things you can try are:-

1) Play tighter and try to get a few winning sessions even if you are not taking advantage of every +EV situation it should help improve your confidence as you will start to win again. I tend to combien this with very short sessions (no more than 30 minutes) as you should be able to retain good concerntration for this time. Try this for a week and the results often put themselves right and your normal style of play just returns naturally.

2) Drop down the levels for a short period of time for the same reason as above.

3) Post the hands and get some feedback on them

But normally you CAN just play through it, as long as you are playing well things will turn around quickly enough as you will make better decisions than your opponents.

Thanks for the reply, 'tis sound advice. I honestly feel I'm playing ok so I'm carrying on for a little while. I know my attitude has to be good and I felt I proved that to myself last night after having some idiot crack my aces calling a near pot bet on three streets with only a gutshot..I just laughed it off and continued to play solid poker. I didn't come home thinking I'd butchered any hands so that must be a good sign. This is opposite to a few weeks ago where I was making some mistakes and posted them for all to see..lol

The notion of taking a break is interesting - as if by not playing you can't get unlucky. Taking a break makes sense if you are tired, bored, fed up or de-motivated. While I still feel good, I shall carry on - but a potential break is only just round the corner!!

[poonjoe]

Know Thyself!

All this money management and session management stuff is easily as tough to do well at as the playing side.

One thing I would chip in with is that its very easy to kid yourself that you are happy and don't need a break. You need time away to be able to assess how things are going and what you can change. So you need to build breaks into yr schedule.