Ok, I am willing to accept any form of feedback including personal insults, and I am not insinuating that there is anything wrong with the site itself, but in the past month or so I cannot seem to win a hand.
Mid-way through September I was riding high, having increased my chips from ~7m to 18+m since mid-July and having finished in the top 2 in 60% of the 54 medium-stakes SnGs I had played. My ranking was (and still is, to be fair) about 270.
Since then I have played 15k-20k hands and I have been a losing player overall. I finished outside the top half in 6 out of 10 SnGs after only doing so in 4 of the previous 54. I have lost at 2k/4k ring, lost in low-stakes SnGs, medium-stakes MTTs and everything in between (all of which I had consistently won at before). I haven’t noticeably changed my game, although frustration has crept in. When I get a good hand, it gets cracked, and when I “play poker” with decent hands it seems like my opponent has always gotten extremely lucky and come from behind to beat me, regardless of whether or not I bet aggressively. What can I do to turn it around? I have stopped playing for a week here and there out of sheer frustration, but when I come back the exact same thing happens. Now that the site let’s you replay older hands, maybe I will analyze them and see if I can figure anything out.
Unfortunately, without any hand histories, there’s not a lot to offer. Play tighter, bet thinner for value, don’t be afraid to get bluffed in really marginal spots without a read. It’s okay to lay down 2p/sets/straights in certain situations.
Joe you are a good player…streaks happen, both ways, keep on keeping on. Sometimes I move from SnG to MTT or ring games just a thought. Always appreciate your input.
4 years ago, when the site much smaller, I have a long (min 2 month) when seamed every second hand 93…
Some may remember, never complained about it to RP. I think I made a world record.
I started to play them, was painfull…
Experiance
I think, “you” need to play 2-3 hour for not to loose, this time frame give you approx 2 good hand with big pot, keep you on the top.Short in and out of the table just make you loose.
Thanks for the responses! I was going to post some hand history (It would be cool to see more of that on these forums), but when I looked back it just seems like any unlucky streak of bad beats. Also, I may have been playing looser than usual. It seems like when I get more confident, leaks appear in my game because I think I can outplay people when I have marginal hands or bluff people (which almost never works on this site even if you know how to run logical a bluff).
I called in position with KQo, which is already too loose for me. Then I flop top pair with an all-club board. The original raiser shoves, which is effectively a pot-sized bet. I decide to call, which is pretty loose, stupid even, but I figure he has the Ace of clubs and no pair. When he turns over 55 with no club, I think, whoa I am not so stupid after all, I am 90% to win, and then he catches runner runner. This kind of hand has happened to me all the time. If the pot ever gets big, I start out ahead and end up losing. That’s poker is all anyone can say.
I will also take the opportunity to point out that 7 of my top 8 “best hands” occurred 7+ months ago, so I had 7 straight flushes+ in my first 30k hands and 1 in my next 100k…
I think you should not compare yourself to low stake rooms… ofc your play is changed…
If you have 18 mill, you should go higher stake and you see less calls/bets with 55…
I play one tournament every day, the American League tournament at 9 PM. About a month ago I had a very good run when I made the money consistently and even finished in first place twice in only a few days, but ever since I have been on a streak of bad luck where I don’t get good hands and when I do get something like two pair I walk into a set. So I haven’t been doing well in the tournaments for the past month and my chip count and rank have been slowly going down. I guess it is just bad luck because I am not playing any differently to my knowledge. It happens.
Runs of luck, good or bad, are just part of the game. When I hit a bad streak, I play down a level or two and just grind through it. This can let you lose less during your bad streaks and win more during your hot streaks.
I’m 4 weeks into a losing streak just as Joe describes. I play 3 to 4 hours a day except on weekends I play less. I mix it up with MT, SNG, and Ring but mostly Ring. I have been doing this more to change my luck than anything. I start out losing and continue to lose until I get sick of losing and leave the table. I have been playin 1000/500, 200/400, and 50/100 so it is not as much bingo players, etc. as competition. I have had some luck at Freeroll finishing in the money a couple of times during this period but the Ring( where you can really lose some chips) games are a different story. I feel better just know that others have been on these extended losing streaks too.
In to my 5th week of losing-- not much fun playing everyday and losing— I’m playing the same stakes and the same way that got me to 1.7 million and now I’m at 1 million. Of course, it is free chips but no one and I mean no one wants to play any game where they continuously lose. Think I’ll play Spider Solitaire are something else. Good luck to you all
Losing streaks get shorter the better you play. Likewise, if you are a bad player the streak could go on for weeks.
For the long streaks I suggest learning more about the game. One great way of learning is to find a good tutorial on YouTube. I like this series: Learn How To Play Texas Hold'em Poker - YouTube
Get better and you won’t have to blame the dealer, Replay Poker, or your mother-in-law. When you start to get good you will know instantly when you made a mistake. You may win that hand, but you will know you played it wrong. See the videos.
Good players lose less than bad players when they get unlucky and win more than bad players when they get lucky. Therefore in a sense luck favors skill. That’s why hold em is a skill game even though luck is involved
Joe I might agree with your comment if we were playing a game were the chips are not free. Perhaps at the level you play the players play as if it is real money and do not bet a 2/7 or 8/5 or even an A/2. You see, the problem is I can play very well but lose to that player that just won having bet a 2/7. In the long run I’ll do better than him. But the next hand I lose to a different guy that bet a 8/5 and then I lose the next hand to a different guy that bet a 3/9. See, there are 9 players at the table being lucky at different times. Not good but lucky. Joe, if I was in a hand with you and trying to evaluate what you are holding, I’m not going to think you are betting and did not fold 2/7 unsuited. Joe, I agree that poker is a skill game with luck but in a free chip game the luck can be first and the skill taking a back seat.
Somewhere I posted 45 hands I played in a Multi table game- it was 45 hands because I ran out of money. Now please look at those hands and tell me what I should have played and what I should have folded. These hands are typical of my multiple week losing streak.
I hear you eddie. I have been really frustrated with terrible players getting lucky recently. For example I was eliminated in two consecutive 25k and 50k tournaments by players calling big bets on the flop with nothing (no pair no draw) and then getting lucky on the turn or river. But 45 hands just isn’t a large sample size. You can play perfectly for several hundred or even thousand hands and still get unlucky But if the sample is getting large (1000+) and you are still losing, than maybe your strategy isn’t working well at beating your opponents (and by opponents I DON’T MEAN GOOD PLAYERS, I MEAN REPLAY PLAYERS). Against good players you can make bluffs and put them under pressure, but bad players don’t think enough to try that stuff against.
For example if you are playing against ME in a raised pot and you have a flush on the river and the board is 7274J, you can be pretty sure that I am not holding 72 because I am not an idiot who calls raises with 72, but for the average Replay player, you have to consider that they could have just about anything, and you have to be very strong to play for your whole stack. There are other ways to take advantage. You can make very big raises with very strong hands preflop because you will get a lot of bad calls, and statistically speaking, your hand will be much stronger than your opponents, which will pay off as long as you are aware of when they get lucky and when they don’t (i.e., if they become aggressive it is time to run).
I posted the 45 hands as an example of my playing style. As the sample shows I fold the low probability hands. I’m now staying in to see the flop with no raises-- Not playing as much though because I’ m losing interest- still losing however.
