How to Stop a Losing Streak Before it Starts
When we poker players use that term, we never talk about the good times. We use the term "variance" to talk about our losing streaks. That's because "variance" sounds better than saying we're losing a lot. The term even implies that we have no control over our losing. We blame it on some metaphysical event, like a ghost floating money away from our bankroll, instead of our own actions.But I believe losing streaks aren't out of our control. Poker players rankle when you suggest that losing streaks are their fault. That's pretty understandable. If you're a good player (and you probably are, if you're reading articles like this one designed to improve your play), losing streaks almost always happen with a bad beat or two or three or four or...OK, you get the idea.
Your straight loses to a full house. Your flopped flush gets four-flushed. Your top pair loses to two pair. And all of it happens on the river. The damn river!
OK, so the bad beat happens, and then another one happens, and that sucks.
But it gets worse when we get inpatient, start playing too many hands, refuse to fold top pair and we play and play and play to get unstuck. That's not variance. That's bad poker. Here are a few tips on keeping the losses down to a few bad beats and preventing it from turning into a serious losing streak.
• Play tighter - Variance, otherwise known as The Bitch, loves to throw us a ton of tough decisions when times are tough. So keep those decisions as easy as possible. Play premium hands and hands in position. Bet your good hands strong. If you don't flop it, don't play it, and if the board looks threatening, be careful. You may have to pitch your top two pair if there's a straight out there. You may have to pitch your flush if the board is paired. You pay have to pitch your top pair if the guy bets big on the river - he probably has a set.
Some would call this weak poker. I am not advocating that you play this way all the time. In fact, when you're running good, you'd be foolish to play this passive. But we're not talking about playing optimum poker right now. We're talking about burning off a bad streak and getting your confidence back, and making good, solid decisions is the best way to do that.
• Make a great lay down - Nothing makes me relax and puts me back in a good frame of mind than making a good lay down instead of pushing all in. If you're mind is telling you you're beat, believe it. You'll feel better even if you don't know you made the right decision.
• "Surely this can't happen again" - Don't fall for that mantra. Yes, it can. Every hand is different, and when you're running bad, you can almost count on it happening.
• Just play the game - Yes, play tighter, but make sure you're still playing the game. If you have A-A, you should raise, even if it's been cracked the last five times. Try to play as correctly as you can during a bad streak. That will help you dig out of it.
• Play shorter sessions - You're more likely to tilt when you're on a bad streak. So play shorter, more focused sessions that will help you avoid tilting.
• When you feel bad, log off before it gets worse - Remember, you're more likely to tilt when you're running bad, so if you lose a hand and start to feel it bubble up, quit right away. We lose most of our money when we're tilting and can't make the lay downs that save us the extra bets.
• Talk to yourself - OK, try to do it under your breath, so your spouse doesn't think that stupid poker game is making you nuts. But I stopped my last losing streak just a few days ago after I called a hand down to the nibbles of my stack with top pair. I stood back and asked myself, "Pokerpeaker, what the HELL are you doing?" It's almost as if another person was admonishing me. It settled me down.
"Yeah, Self, I was playing poorly."
"Thanks for stopping me from losing a lot of money."
Pokerworks.com
Deutsches Poker
Poker Français
Póquer en español
Poker in Italiano
Magyar Póker
Hrvatski Poker
Dutch Poker
Brasileiro Poker