More big losses, and more thoughts on luck

On Thursday I lost another $600 and Friday nearly $800 before managing to regain some composure and just about make a profit over 5 hours of play on Saturday and Sunday.

Total result for the week was a loss of $1540. On top of this, luck deserted me in the big pots too and I was down another $1000 in bad luck. This has made short work of my bankroll and it has gone down from a healthy $6k on Monday to today's level of $3.5k.

I dropped down to $1-$2 following Thursday's loss, except for one session of $2-$4 I played on Friday losing $400. During that session I had the biggest cooler of the month so far, losing with QQ v AA on a AQ2 flop, with us both having over $700 behind. I returned to $1-$2 where I promptly lost another buy-in with KK v AA and I remain at $1-$2 (certainly no higher) for the forseeable future.

I just reviewed my big losing hands and there are as many as 16 so far this month where I have put the money in the pot in a really bad situation. However, the good news is that only 3-4 of these hands were really bad, unjustifiable plays. There are a couple of marginal river calls in there that have paid off longshot hits for my opponent, but most plays have been generally not too bad.

This just goes to show how much luck there is in poker. Not only are there bad beats, but there are bad situations. I suppose the winning player is the one who wins more when on the positive end of these situations compared to the losses he suffers when on the receiving end. Sometimes, for example AA v KK in an aggressive game, there is no getting away from it and you must just accept it as part of the game. Other times, you play a marginal hand and flop an unreadable two-pair v the invisible set. On these occasions, you seem to get punished when you are already losing. You dont really, it just feels that way.

Part of the luck of the game is the timing of your luck. Its possible for someone to run badly at say $1-$2 and never win enough to progress to the higher limits. You never know; with good luck at the lower levels they could have flown through the levels and be playing $25-$50 within a year or two, picking up valuable lessons along the way before settling into a lucrative professional career.

I dont have a problem with luck, except for the fact that you cant predict its impact. You have to try and work around it. If that means moving down levels, or stagnating where you currently play then so be it. For me, that currently $1-$2. Wish me luck!!