Poker Articles

I’ve seen a number of threads recently asking some variation of the generic question, "How do I stop this terrible run I'm on?"  It’s not a new concept.  The question is as old as PocketFives.com, online poker, RGP, underground card rooms in NYC, Texas road gamblers, riverboat draw games on the mighty Mississipi....you name it.  People have always had bad runs of cards and times where they weren’t playing well, two unique problems that almost always go hand-in-hand.  Bad beats and cold decks almost always trigger a loss of focus.  Losing focus causes you to miss opportunities to chip up, which means that the next bad beat or cold deck hits you harder.  It’s a vicious circle that drives good and bad players alike to go broke and quit.

So, I’ve spent over 125 words up to this point and haven’t started to address the question.  Well, come to think of it, I did start.  The first thing to keep in mind is that this isn’t a new concept.  We all go through this.  It’s part of the game.  It’s easy for us to see the insane runs that some of the top online pros seem to be on and think it’s always that way for them, and wonder “why can’t it be that way for me?”  That’s a false impression that is crucial to dispel in order for you to break out of your slumps.  We remember the daily threads about Hattrick8810 or Tmay420 making final tables and winning tournaments.  Nobody’s posting about the two-week periods where they went 0-for-30 in MTT cashes.

The mathematics of variance is important to understand, especially for MTT players.  Let’s say that you’re twice as good as the average player in the tournaments you play.  The average MTT pays out to the top 10% of the field.  If you’re twice as good, your expectation might be to cash 20% of the time.  I will grant that this is overly simplistic and perhaps not all that accurate, as the most successful MTT players aren’t those who cash the most often, but are the ones who go deepest the times they do cash.  One win makes you more money than nine 9th-place finishes or 50 cashes in the first payout level.  But my point is this: if you have a 20% expectation of cashing, a streak where you don’t cash 20 or 30 tournaments in a row is still quite normal within a large sample size, especially if you’re playing to win rather than just make the money (which we all should be).  It happens, and the better you can accept it and move on, the easier it will be for you to play your best each time you register, because you’ll be comfortable with the fact that every day is a new day.

It’s also critical to be able to refresh your batteries and take a break.  No matter how much you love to do something, and how good you are at it, repetition will dull your edge.  As the most extreme example I can think of, 80s porn star Jerry Butler wrote a book about how much damage that profession did to him personally, and how much he eventually hated having sex with some of the most beautiful, hottest women in the world.  Every guy has had fantasies about insane 3-ways with Tori Wells and Ginger Lynn (every guy my age, anyway, fill in other names for other generations or orientations), but the guy living that life wanted to kill himself.  Hell, after coming to grips with that revelation, it’s easy to see where playing poker every day would be tedious, and tedium is a major roadblock to being your best.  The best way to break through is to get away from the game completely.  I understand that this might not be possible for some of you, either because you’ve got bills to pay and you’re grinding out a living, or just because you’re hopelessly addicted to the game.  For those of you, there’s another way.

If you live, eat, and breathe poker, and can’t imagine a day without it even though you’re getting killed at the tables, do whatever you can to broaden your horizons.  For example:

- Spend some time studying your hand histories.  Talk to whoever will listen, and get some insight as to mistakes you may be making.  The Hand Advice section of P5s is a great place to do that, but if you’re shy about showing the world what an idiot you are and don’t want to post, it’s OK.  Just read through that forum’s archive.  Your eyes will be opened to your own flaws through the mistakes of others.

- Take up other games and puzzles to exercise your mind.  TJ Cloutier is such a crossword fiend that he’s been seeing filling in words during tournament breaks.  I became a Sudoku junkie about a year ago, and I believe that it’s made my thinking and logic clearer.  Strategies and reasoning from other card and board games, especially chess, backgammon, bridge and rummy variations, translate very well to poker.

- Read books, article, blogs, etc. about poker, especially by authors whom you know have different approaches to the game than you do.  If you’re a “feel” player, read Sklansky.  If you’re a math guy, read “Kill Phil” or Doyle Brunson’s No Limit approach in “Super/System”.  Even if you choose to discount their ideas in terms of your own play, it is NEVER a bad idea to learn and understand how other people consider the decision-making process in poker.

- Stop playing your regular game, start playing other poker games, and learn them the right way.  Personally, this is my #1 tip for busting out of a slump.  The vast majority of P5ers, and today’s players in general, only know Hold’em.  Pick up a book or two and learn Stud, Omaha, split-pot games, Triple Draw, Razz, Badugi, etc.  Get simulation or instructional software (the Wilson titles are all excellent)…it’s a far better way to learn the game correctly rather than just diving into micro-limit play online.  If you tried to learn from a .01/.02 Omaha 8/b game, you’d think that you should play every hand and it’s all just about luck.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Once you have some exposure to other games, you’ll gain a new understanding of your specialty. 

Finally, be totally honest with yourself about how you play, and what you want to gain out of poker.  But that’s a topic for next time...