Dealing with losses after a winning streak

After a fantastic string of results I lost $600 yesterday.

I played quite badly. I convinced myself that one guy was a big bluffer and got creamed by him a couple of times when he had big hands. I pushed too hard to win pots I had no business being in. I saw too many flop and tried to outplay people who couldnt be outplayed. All round, it was a bad day at the office.

I'll describe the two WORST HANDS OF THE DAY and I'll leave you to wonder how I ever hope to win at this game. They are pretty bad.

(1)

I open for $12 in mid-position with A9, folded to the loose-aggressive 'bluffer' in the BB, who re-pops to $36. I call.

Flop comes A74 with 2 diamonds (of which I have none). He bets $36, I call. My thoughts are that my Ace could be good here, its only a small bet, lets see what he does on the turn.

Turn is an offsuit 10. He bets $108. I think "OK, you must have an Ace. But you might not. You could have a big draw with something like KQ diamonds. Fuck it: all-in $335."

He calls and I lose to his AK.

(2) I cant bring myself to go into the details, but basically I raise and call his limp-reraise with 44. Then I call down two small bets and a big one on the river and get shown a full house.


After I won $2500 in 9 days (21 hours) I thought I had a God-given right to win. Looks like I have been taught a lesson there. I must go back to playing well.

After a great streak its easy to think that all you have to do is sit down and you will win a buy-in. What I need to remember is that winning just one buy-in every 8 hours of play is a great result ($50 per hour = $35000 per year for me). I had been spoiled by my streak. I must get back to playing well, picking my spots carefully and playing winning poker.

I lost at least $500 more than I should have done today. As Mike Caro says, "the money you dont lose spends just as easily as the money you win".