Posted by Dr Fro 9:21 AM
Junell wrote me a while back about how much cash he was winning in LA, Party Poker, and at home. At the time, I lost a couple times in a row.

Junell later wrote me talking about a recent string of losing sessions; at the time, I was on cloud 9, after winning in my first attempt in Dallas and winning again in Graham.

Then, I got pounded at Party Poker and he went to Planck/Gary's tournament and won first place.

It does go to show how cyclical poker can be. It is so important to keep this in perspective, because I have to admit that sometimes I lose that perspective. If you know you are good. If you know you have a positive EV. If you can look back at your records and prove to yourself that you win consistently in the long run, you have to keep those losses in perspective. When I lose perspective, it usually goes like this:

I am running hot, winning all the time. I am not only playing well, I seem to have incredible luck too. It is iterative, because my winnings give me big stacks and then my big stacks make it
a) easier to win because I can bully around smaller stacks
b) easier to weather the storm of volatility. I can go for draws with wild volatility and small +EV. I can force the scared money to fold on draws they should make but can ill afford to try.

Then, I get a little cocky and play a couple hands that I shouldn't. It is hard to say when this happens, because I play a lot of "hands that I shouldn't" as part of my image building. I lose. Since my winning streak is long and mighty, I assume that I will win it back, so I press. And lose. I press again, and lose. Now my stack & bankroll are no longer massvie, and I lose the very 2 advantages I mentioned above. Which causes further losses.

With my advantages gone and the losses stacking up (at this point, still "up" or even, just not as much), I then make the cardinal sin. I fall slightly below even for the sesson, and then become obsessed with leaving as a winner. I take risks fail. Rather than cutting my losses, I increase them.

I then hide in a poker cave for a couple weeks like a dog that has been beat. Like a dog, I eventually forgive and forget and start humping my master's let again. When I come back out, I am back to my good poker playing ways - no more pooping on the carpet.

The lesson learned is to walk away sometimes when you are losing. Some pros go on about not walking away from a game just because you are down. I disagree. The fact that you are losing could be darn luck, but now that you are losing:

1) your stack is smaller, and you have less competitive advantage
2) their stack is bigger, and they have gained competitive advantage
3) if you were winning, you would be in their head and maybe able to bully them around. but you are losing, and they will continue to take shots at you. too many shots to give you a chance of digging out of a hole
4) you may not be in the best frame of mind. I don't mean that the losses caused tilt. I mean that you sat down initially not in the best frame of mind (pre-occupied with work/spouse, tired, etc). In other words the frame of mind caused your losses, not that your losses caused your frame of mind or tilt. Thus, you can only expect to continue to lose without a change of mind

Thus, I say that if you are losing, sometimes you should just "up & leave" as we say in Texas.

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