I’ve been having a rough patch with my Tournament Poker for the last month or so. It’s been a bit of a struggle mentally because during September and October this year I was making cash every week – to the point where it looked like Poker might be a viable extra income stream for me. I’ve been trying to self-reflect a bit to see if I might be doing something different or if a big Leak has managed to sneak into my game but there is nothing obvious. What I am dealing with is Variance…
You could sum Variance up as “You Win Some You Lose Some” but it’s a little bit more than that. Sometimes you can have a Winning Run like I did in September and October or go on a Losing Streak like I have for the last month. You’re not doing anything particularly different, that’s just the luck of the game and Variance plays it’s part to string a few Wins or Losses together in a row. It can play with your Mindset and make you Overconfident or Doubting your ability and that is the real struggle with overcoming Variance.
The Logical part of my brain knows that I just need to buckle down, stay focused on playing good Poker and the results will eventually turn around. However, it’s never that easy. I’m often compelled to play hands a little bit differently during a Losing Streak. Maybe I am a bit more Risk Averse with my Hand Selection, maybe I avoid Bluffing so much, or maybe I become impatient and am too Aggressive with my Bet Sizing on a marginal hand. Regardless, I find it helps to have an awareness of when you are dealing with Variance and understand how you are emotionally responding to that Variance.
A month ago I was thinking that a trip to Las Vegas was looming in my near term future but today it’s looking very distant. I’ll keep grinding though and hopefully my game will even itself out soon. I still have a nice little bank of profit and feel like I am getting better each time I play so in the long run I’m still confident. How about you? Have you been frustrated by an extended Losing Streak? Did you quit, and if you didn’t how did you break your bad run?
