TrueFriend

I dont know what is going on. Right now I am playing in BetVictor NL20. No matter what I do I lose. People are playing so aggressive and well. What is the point of calling without the nuts, when opponents always show a better hand? Why do you want to steal the blinds, when your opponents 3-bet you all day long and you have to fold. If you don´t fold, you completely miss the flop and when they cbet, you just have to fold. If you float, they will bet again, and you have to fold on the turn. I am outplayed left and right. No matter what I have, I have to fold or raise/call with the worst hand. I just feel like I am wasting my time playing poker. I have watched a lot of videos lately, and I feel that I understand the fundamentals okay. I do not fool around by 3-betting 58o or raising 9To from the MP. I play solid hands preflop, and post flop I play aggressive with good hands, I do not bluff often, and when I do I always have some equity. I feel like I should not bet at all withour super strong hands because I always get called by better hands. Looks like small overpair (like 88) always get called by 99-TT, and with good top pair somebody always has a top pair with better kicker or better than a pair.

This is not a downswing. It is not that I am running bad, it is just that all the other players are playing so well. Is this really like this these days? Are the bad players gone, and is the only regulars left? Am I just too bad to win in NL20?

Last Post 8 years ago by

Jon-PokerVIP

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"and is the only regulars left?"

NO! Can't speak for NL20 but from what we see in all Jon's coaching videos, the fish swim all the way up the stakes!

It blows to be feeling like that. Take a break, move down, change site, get back to basics, and inject some logic. Good luck!

If the reason is really, superior skill of your opponents there's a bunch of very simple things that you can do. Move down limits, study more, change the poker room for a softer one, spend more time on table selection etc. etc.

Here's the thing. With poker being a game of very small edges where variance plays a huge role every player will run into those periods of time when you can't seem to win a pot. It's just the nature of the game. Now you have choices. You can quit, you can change your approach to the game and deemphasize winning for example, you can also wallow in your misfortune. Or you can take an alternative approach and as

@jongordon84 suggests inject some logic and realize that there's only one variable that you can actually control in all this - your win rate. Every second you spend on feeling sorry for yourself is a second you could be spending on improving your skill which will, in turn, decrease the frequency and severity of downswings (which, again, are inevitable). We're all humans and emotional reactions are natural so you might want to deal with that by taking a break or trying to increase your self-awareness through meditation, but ultimately it all comes down to increasing your win rate being an answer for everything.

(bad) Variance can present itself in many ways. Some days you get money all-in and get sucked out on. Some days you run your kings into aces and your sets into higher sets. Sometimes it's boards running out terribly so you can't get full value out of 55 on A5678. It can be running the bottom of your range (bluffs) into opponents top of range. It could be not getting a big hand for hours and it could be getting tons of huge hands and having nobody give you action.

It's kind of a sad thought to think that it's all normal variance but it gets better when you realize that you get the good side of it as well.

If you're feeling like this it's often good to take a break. Maybe study some hands, watch some videos or maybe do something that's completely unrelated to poker and take your mind off it. Maybe break for an hour, maybe for 2 weeks, everyone's unique in what they need.

Did you just move up recently ?
When I did and I first saw 25NL, people were 3 betting me left, right and center, it was extremely bewildering.
I would just drop down to 10 NL, and play ABC poker for a good while.

What is your poker history

@TrueFriend ???

I read the first bit and thought you was maybe in denial but then you said it's not a downswing and people are just playing well. This to me could be the key to your success...having no ego!

Once we realise people are playing better than us it is much easier to make a plan of action and get shit done. So you already listed a few issues...list some more then find ways to react to these. Maybe step down in stakes, cut down the amount of tables you are playing or just play some more hands. Maybe you just sat down and ran into the best players in those games getting dealt the best hands for an hour or 2...it is possible!

The games are deffs still beatable and will just come down to a bit of studying and adjusting. Post some hands up maybe? Best place to do it would be Here

I think more than any other game, this game can play tricks with your mind.
You can't win every hand, you will have bad beats, people go heaters and just have it every time.
It's very frustrating but if your not making mistakes - IT WILL TURN AROUND.
It's important to enjoy what your doing but be realistic, variance is a real pain the arse when it's not going our way

What would Andy Murray do if he started to lose all his matches?

Hire professionals
Train Harder
Sort his mindset
Outwork everybody

GO

I am actually vulnerable to desperation tilt, and when it gets bad enough, injecting logic become super difficult. I should read the mental game of poker again, and I would recommend that book to others as well. I do not mind if I get sucked out, but when I make mistakes I get really frustrated. I am happy that I found Pokersnowie, it is a very cool tool to break the tilt and put your game back together. When your error rate drops back to 1-5 I am pretty confident that I am ready to play again. When I am tilted, it goes up to 10-20, which is a good sign that something must be done. Still, it has been a little shock to see how "good" the players are in the limits as low as NL25. I watched couple of NL25 games in Party Poker, and I saw not a single open limp, only raising and 3 and 4-betting. NL10 and NL25 in Unibet is easy, but I was looking for some deals. Unfortunately I could not get one to Unibet, so I have been looking for a new site. Looks like I am going to back to Unibet now. In general, I wont play in the sites where the huds are allowed, because there are much more good players in these sites.

Well, right now things are going well again, and I did not need to go down in stakes. I have my money stuck in ACR, but I will play the bonus until I generate 400 dollars of rake and then I can cashout and more my bankroll to skypoker where I got a deal.

Jon-PokerVIP you asked about my backround, I missed the question before but I will answer to that question now. I have played my first hand in 2006. I have no gambler in me, I have never done any sport betting or lottery or stuff like that. Instead of that, my attidute to poker is more like that it is an investment, like running an enterprise or putting your money in stock market. I have been playing something like 5 years, but I got several years of break before I started with free 10 euros in Unibet in the end of last year.. After couple of months of playing I got 800e and now I have been taking the game more seriously than before, because I believe that there is potential to good income. I hope that I can play at least in semi professional level in the future, but there are a lot of things I have to improve, especially in the mental game.

There are several good videos in this site, and I am very grateful because of that. Very good learning material.

I have been thinking about opening "poker video blog" where I can put some recorded sessions. I have not recorded anything just yet, but I have been thinking about it. Maybe something like 20-30 minutes would be a good lenght. I think it would more funnier than posting hands on the forum.

TrueFriend: I have been thinking about opening "poker video blog" where I can put some recorded sessions. I have not recorded anything just yet, but I have been thinking about it. Maybe something like 20-30 minutes would be a good lenght. I think it would more funnier than posting hands on the forum.

Sounds sick!

@Grocker6 does this in his blog and keeps them to 10 minutes long so it is easier for people to reply more frequently.

V buzzing to see more people doing this! Why wait? GOGOGOGOGO

I notice there isn't any mention of sample size in the OP.

I never really understood what variance was like until I started playing Zoom and had a huge database . Anything less than 150-200K hands, and I wouldn't be worrying at all. I've gone on 120K break even stretchs in the micro stakes as a confirmed 7bb/100+ winner in a 7 figure sample. It can happen a lot more frequently than you believe.

I've experienced all the emotions, and feelings you're describing, and it can seem like the other players are a lot better than they deserve credit for. But if you're sure that you belong at your stakes then it will turn around.

It's so important to keep your chin up as well, if you start to let it affect your play things can snowball out of control pretty quickly. I've been through that as well, and it wasn't nice. Just keep working, and stay motivated. Remember, it's supposed to be fun!

By the way, does anyone know any good, free recording software for win10? I have tried camstudio but it is very unreliable and I can have successful recordings of only 2-3 mins. I have tried to change the video format from .avi to .mp4 but i did not help.

I have recently moved up to the 20nl micro gaming games that you mention and all of the above are probably true but in addition the games have certainly got a lot tougher! I last played them about 12 months ago and they were miles weaker! What you absolutely must do now is table select and for me more importantly be selective in the time you play! If you are playing regular tables at 2pm in the afternoon on a weekday you might as well not bother! Just full to the brim of the same 8 tabling very good regs! Where as I have been playing at 9pm onwards and there is chips flying all over! Give it a try you will defo see a big difference!

TrueFriend: By the way, does anyone know any good, free recording software for win10? I have tried camstudio but it is very unreliable and I can have successful recordings of only 2-3 mins. I have tried to change the video format from .avi to .mp4 but i did not help.

Hey buddy I have just sent you my logins for the one I use. Very simple and easy to use - Just save as HD Video File and easy game. Hope it helps.

Jef147: I have recently moved up to the 20nl micro gaming games that you mention and all of the above are probably true but in addition the games have certainly got a lot tougher! I last played them about 12 months ago and they were miles weaker! What you absolutely must do now is table select and for me more importantly be selective in the time you play! If you are playing regular tables at 2pm in the afternoon on a weekday you might as well not bother! Just full to the brim of the same 8 tabling very good regs! Where as I have been playing at 9pm onwards and there is chips flying all over! Give it a try you will defo see a big difference!

Yeh later on the games will always be better due to a few reasons

- People who work are now home.
- People are bored.
- Will be often multi tasking whilst playing.
- Just trying to spin up rolls.
- Often tired.
- Sometimes drunk.

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