So my losing streak continues...

[hazelblue]

Well, in the past two weeks, I've dropped not only my bankroll, but about 13 SnGs...winning a really unimportant one. The ones I lose are the $2 SnGs.
Anyone have a losing streak like this?

And what do you do to overcome it?

I decided to take 500lb gorilla's advice about risking no more than 2% of your bankroll per day when playing.

I miss winning...

[vqc]

No worries bud, 13 SNGs happen. It happens to the best of us. Now, what can you do to make things better? HOpefully youve been tracking where youve finished and have kept a database of hands.

Look at where you've been finishing. Lots of bubbles? Alot of 4th place finishes? Maybe you're OVER aggressive on the bubble? Maybe you're not aggressive enough, and you end up blinding oout, or pushing out of frustration?

Look at your your poker tracker or poker office hand selection. Are you overbetting your draws and leaking chips? Are you not letting go of your middle pair? When someone bets to you, are you folding too much? Not enough?

[hazelblue]

http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...ic.php?t=11019

[hazelblue]

The number of SnGs I have lost is now close to eighteen within the past two weeks.
Let's see how high this number goes...

[Sed]

can anyone say tilting....

[hazelblue]

I'm not tilting. In fact, as soon as I got busted out because someone called my all-in on a straight draw (when I flop top two pair) and knocked me out one position out of the money (for yet another time AGAIN), I quickly turned off any poker software and quit for the day.

My streak continues...18 and counting.

[Estrop]

The first thing a person on tilt must realise, is that they are on tilt. If you won't accept that, you'll never help yourself.

Second, are you SURE you are playing perfect poker. I lost 13 $5 SnGs in a row thinking I was playing perfectly. After going back and looking at my play, I realised that I wasn't.

Go look at your play, see what YOU are doing wrong.

[hazelblue]

I WASN'T on tilt when I posted the message.
I WAS on tilt when someone called my all-in and ended up wining on the river for a third time in a day, knocking me out of the money yet again.
Instead of playing again, I opted to quit playing for money for the day.


Now I'm just damned irritated.

I do everything right. I raise to isolate. I avoid getting pot-committed.
I steal blinds. I read people's plays. And 90% of the time, I'm right.
I stlll losing because of nasty beats, or being blinded to death.
I guess I should mention that I've been playing at Pacific (and freerolls at Absolute).

Sorry if I sound bitchy. It's not directed at any of you.

[dalecooper]

First of all: no poker player is ever doing everything right. Most pros are still working on their game. You may think you're playing perfectly, but there are always things you can do to improve.

Second: luck is still a factor, regardless. It would be no big deal for a very good SnG player to finish out of the money in ten in a row. After more than that many losses, though, I would start looking for leaks in your game. At some point you have to conclude it's not JUST bad luck that's causing your problems. Sometimes just one small leak could be the difference between finishing in the money or on the bubble. Go back to #1 if you can't pin it all on bad luck.

Third: if you're being blinded out often you are definitely doing something wrong. SnGs are largely about aggression. You have to make timely blind steals whether you're getting good cards or not. I'm not a great SnG player, but I can usually get to the money spots just by stealing blinds here and there, regardless of my cards.

[Staresy]

Hazel Blue,

Post a couple of full hand histories on the HH section and let us take a look and see if there's anything we can help you out with....

[hazelblue]

Here's one that cost me a freeroll spot at Absolute Poker. Third hand in the freeroll.

Heroine posts big blind. (1500 in chips)(Jh 2h).
SB posts blind. (2200 in chips).

It gets folded to the SB. He raises to 5bb. I reraise him to 10bb because I thought he was trying to blind-steal again. He calls.
Flop comes out 10d Jh Jc. He checks to me. I push all-in. He calls.
He catches a runner-runner flush and knocks me out of the tournament.
He flips over 3d 4d.
I did read him right. Unfortunately, he won.
This has been happening a lot recently. I make good reads. And end up losing.


So I'm up to 19 now.
This SURELY can't continue.

[DavSimon]

You say 18 and counting, but it is not very clear to me if that is 18 consecutive losses or 6 losses a ITM finish....6 losses and ITM finish and 6 losses. Either way it is not good but 18 consecutive losses is far worse than a generally losing record. Essentially you are giving us data without and context....how many SnGs have you played this year...or this month. I have gone on a 9 consecutive SnG losing streak, recently I went on a 7 SnG losing streak.....you would be shocked to know the number of SnGs I have "lost" or place out of the money in this year.....but it all has to do with context.

[hazelblue]

It's time for me to do some soul-searching and see what the hell is REALLY going on.

I've lost every freeroll I've entered in the past 11 days except one WSOP freeroll qualifier.
That's an average of about 1 free roll a day, including two today.
I lost 10 SnGs on Sunday (but won 2).
I lost 2 SnGs yesterday, and lost two freerolls today.

95% of the time, I bust out because of bad beats.
I lost three because of being 'blinded to death' (in other words, running out of good hands and having my raises and steals called with marginal hands).
And two because of really stupid decisions.
The few others are when I push all-in on a hand and I bust out because of
someone with pocket pair or someone with a worse hand wins.
Uck.
The past few losses have been ONE position out of the money.
The freerolls...with the exception of one freeroll I won, I'm lucky to place in the top 50%, but nowhere near the money.

I took a two week break in mid-April after having my hands cracked on Pacific, which is where I usually play.

[Schmitty]

10 in one day seems like a lot. Especially if you kept losing. Seems like you must be playing out of aggrevation and frustration.

[hazelblue]

Not really playing out of frustration. It IS Pacific, after all.
Fortunately, I ended my losing streak.

I played in the $10NL ring games and won back the majority of my buy-ins, so I'm about back where I started.

Thank you for all the posts.

I think I'll take a break and then have a go at it sometime this weekend.
I should probably lay off the freerolls for a bit.

[Staresy]

Hazelblue

The HH you've posted does look like a horrible beat. But why don't you get a full table history, i.e. every hand you played in one SnG and let people take a look and give you some pointers.

As for the freeroll issue, I wouldn't even worry about them.

Firstly, they are free to enter! so you are not losing your BR by playing them.

Secondly, they are inherently a lottery, especially for the first 30 mins to an hour.

18 SnG's in a row OTM sounds somewhat worrying tho. Seriously, stick a full, complete SnG HH on here and let people take a look. People do take the time to read it and give useful comments.

[DavSimon]

Pacific does not offer the ability to download hand histories, you have to view them from you account in thier proprietary viewer. She will have to open an account at a different website for us to analyze a whole SnG.
Freerolls should be considered practice and an opportunity to win something for nothing but a time investment. Often they are populated by individuals who have no way to deposit funds into a poker account (very young player) or people who simply want to try tournament poker for the first time without risking any money. The play is generally wild and erratic - you really should not include them in your winning/losing statistics.

[arkana]

Hazelblue the same thing (although not quite as bad) happened to me a couple of weeks ago. Here is what I did:

-Confirm that I busted out on a bad beat, but then looked at how bad the beat was ie AK vs QT is not such a bad beat.

-Looked over my HHs (I too was sure I was not on tilt).
The interesting things I noticed was that even though I was busting out due to bad beats I was making mistakes in other hands ie weak betting because of a lack of confidence etc which was costing me chips and this led to me having to put my tourney life on one hand.

-Found a way to drop the "the world hates me attitude" and get a winning attitude back. (I actually won the first SNG I played after fixing my attitude).
Focus on something in your life that you are really successful in as a sort of positive reinforcement.

Poker is a one tough game. Now is the time to prove you can handle the pressure.

I am currently on a upswing and boy does it feel good.

EDIT: I have played on Pacific before and I can tell you that due to the quality of players the variance will be very high. Try playing for a while on a site like PS where the variance will be less.

[arkana]

Pacific does not offer the ability to download hand histories, you have to view them from you account in thier proprietary viewer. She will have to open an account at a different website for us to analyze a whole SnG.
Freerolls should be considered practice and an opportunity to win something for nothing but a time investment. Often they are populated by individuals who have no way to deposit funds into a poker account (very young player) or people who simply want to try tournament poker for the first time without risking any money. The play is generally wild and erratic - you really should not include them in your winning/losing statistics.

There is hand history capture tool available for Pacific on the PokerTracker website (its a seperate app). I havent used it though...

[hazelblue]

Pacific is a pain to try and get hand histories from.
So, for everyone's sake, I think I'm going to start from square one and go from there.

Thanks for the tip about the freerolls.
I play a bit of them not for the money as much as to practice getting better.

The last few SnGs I finished just outside the money. Very frustrating.

But. I refuse to give up. I think winning some of my buy-ins back helped, as well as you guys responding to my post.
I also realise that most of my losses..well...it IS poker after all.
Sucks going in on AKo only to be beat up by AA. Or pocket 88 only to lose to pocket KK.
So thanks.

[jdubs]

Hazel,

I understand where u are coming from. I am in a downswing right now, and can identify with your position. I finished 2nd and 3rd in two out of my last 3 SnGs and played very well, but I am still down overall in the last two weeks or so. I guess in this situation, we have to just keep on playing smart, and not worry. (though my last loss was because of real boneheaded play, but I dont dont want to get into that ..lol) . Bad beats will come, and stretches of no cards to work with will come, but belief that you know how to play well (confidence), and keeping your play smart, will pay off in the long run, at least I keep telling myself that...haha.

JD