I don't know what to do!!!

[flexor]

I play 16 Turbo on PS.

And I'm just sick of that amount of bad beats!!!

It's really increadible!

I've played for about 15 games for the last couple of days, and ALL OF THEM I LOST!!!

Here are some examples:
1. I have TT
Another playes has TJ
The board: 2QJ55

2. I have KK
The player: AT
The board: A98J2

3. I have AA
The player: 24 (!!!)
The board: 294QJ

How can that be so many times???
I also have some question:
1. what was your biggest losing streak?
2. how to go emotionally through this kind of bad beats?
3. how to improve ROI after those streaks?
4. Is it OK to go all-in with hands like AJ, AQ, AK (not suited) after the 4th level of the game?
5. How many games should be played so I could take my ROI seriously?

[taipan168]

Hi and welcome to FTR! It's good to have you here, thank you for delurking. First of all, the best way to get advice is to post the specific hands or entire tourneys (trimmed) and we will take a look.

Here are some examples:
1. I have TT
Another playes has TJ
The board: 2QJ55

You were 65/35 favourite, therefore 1 time in 3 you lose. It happens.

2. I have KK
The player: AT
The board: A98J2

This time you were 70/30 favourite, but still about 1 time in 3.5 you lose.

3. I have AA
The player: 24 (!!!)
The board: 294QJ

Assuming you got it all in preflop, on this one you're a monster favourite here, 85/15 - but 15% of the time you will still lose unfortunately . But this is why you need to post the hand - if you tried to get tricky by just limping your AA and the BB with 42o flopped two pair - then it wasn't a bad beat, it was bad play by you.

1. what was your biggest losing streak?

11 OOTM

2. how to go emotionally through this kind of bad beats?

You just have to get over it. If you feel you can't play your best because you're all steamed up after these bad beats then STOP. Keeping on playing when you're on tilt is a sure way to lose even more money

3. how to improve ROI after those streaks?

Keep on playing your best game, post hands, take advice, exchange HHs, there's nothing else you can do.

4. Is it OK to go all-in with hands like AJ, AQ, AK (not suited) after the 4th level of the game?

Situation dependent - post hands and we'll take a look.

5. How many games should be played so I could take my ROI seriously?

They say you need thousands of games to determine your long-term sustianable ROI but 500 is probably enough to give you a rough indication whether you are a winning player or not.

[Da GOAT]

dont play turbos if you cant handle it.


i not gonna read the examples you gave coz they dont matter. i presume you got allin when you are ahead!!! which is all you can ask for.

[TLR]

1. Biggest losing streak - dont remember exactly, I think it was 1 3rd place in 15 games, moneywise I was on a 1.3K downswing playing mainly $16 and $27 turbos.

2. You need to learn to accept them as part of the game and not let them affect your decisions. One of the biggest leaks you can have is letting bad beats affect your future hands, I can't tell you how many times you will see in this forum/hear player reasoning they limped KK from MP because 'KK does not win' - find themselves in 5 way pot and get all upset with Q8 hits his two pair.
If you can't handle the bad beat stop playing after you got one and return only after you cooled off.
If you feel you lost your confidence move down a level until you regain it - there is no shame in moving down

3. Poker is a game of swings, sooner or later there will come a time when you will hit all those 3 outers and 6 outers and get into a winning streak (ofcourse by then you will attribute it to your great game skill and not to statistical swings), so if you are a good player your roll will increase over time

4. It depends - sometimes it is correct to push JTo, sometimes it is correct to fold AQs, post some hands

5. I would go with Taipan's 500 figure

[Dice Man]

It's probably a good thing (for you) that your suffering a downswing. It's going to happen again, many times. You'll have to learn to play through it.

I know from my experience, constantly looking at your ROI/ITM can be demorilising when your running bad.

I would recommend reviewing your ROI only after completing x amount of tourney's.

Maybe set a target of 500 played, treat your downswing's/upswing's exactly the same, this will help you to play your A game when running bad, and avoid tilting.

After 500/1000+ you will see that you suffered a few brutal downswing's but still managed to show a healthy ROI (hopefully).

You should then be able to see that these swings are just variance and will stop you questioning whether or not your a winning player when running bad.

Basically, you need to suffer like this.

[gingerwizard]

I was having the most demoralising downswing ever like a week and a half ago. When playing turbos the bad beats/bad calls can be really soul destroying. I had like 1 3rd in 15 turbos and when I reviewed all the HHs apart from the odd badly played hand costing me a few chips I pushed good spots and got sucked out on or ran into a monster everytime. I'm not saying I was playing perfect or even that I know what playing perfect is, but I was learning nothing in the turbos.

Instead of just grinding out this downswing ive moved back to the standard speed SNGs and tried to really focus on getting reads and trying to play good tight/aggressive poker. I find the extra time at each blind level suits my game and gives me a bigger edge over my opponents. It is also enabling me more time to practise getting reads and to practise pulling moves. (e.g. im experimenting with raising my BB anytime the SB or weak button limps.)

I was not enjoying the turbos and I find that there is no point doing something you hate. Now that Ive moved I'm enjoying poker again. Sure winning helps but Ive found that even when ive had my Aces cracked as happened on saturday with 97o, I still enjoyed the tourny up to that point cos I got to play more than 2 or three hands.

If your skin is thick and your push/fold poker solid and you want to play sngs that maximise your potential earnings then turbos are your friend. Maybe ill go back to them if i feel ive improved enough.

To sum a long post up: Yes downswings in turbos are inevitable but you don't HAVE to just play through it (Although thats the only way to end the actual downswing). If it'll help your confidence try mixing in some slower sngs or some ring for a bit, or taking a few days off. If you are not enjoying it don't do it. Not enjoying poker just makes the bad beats seem that much worse.

[jimmy44]

Just adding some few pointers that help me.

When I'm on a down swing I'll review all my HH and post some hands here, where I see what move I should have made or that I've played well and I get some of my confidence back.
One month and half ago I was on a 11 out of the money swing in $6.5 stars and by doing the above I managed to double my $6.5 profit. When I started the $16s (3 weeks ago) I lost the first 6 SNGs with 3 bad beats (KK/A5, AA/JT and AK/AQ) and now I'm with a %11 ROI with 20 tourneys.

Actually, I must say that I'm hangry when I do a bad play and I try not to be with a bad beat, as the bad beats will not affect your ROI (every will have the same number on the long run) on the long run, but the bad plays will!

The most important thing is to know that bad beats will happen, knowing that your a 80% favorite on a hand still means that you'll loose 20 out of 100 hands. What I do is I think: good I lost one, now I'll loose only 19 more and then I'll win 80 in a row