Week 2 update....

Week 2 started off with some promise, but I had two really awful days back to back that kind of got me in a funk as far as my poker confidence goes. I ended up having a losing week, but it wasn't near as bad as it seemed in my mind. I felt like I would never win again and I was on my way to going broke, but that obviously wasn't true. I took a couple of days off and played some golf and just tried to regroup my thoughts.

A quick side note about running bad: It is very hard to overcome the inevitable downswings that happen in poker just due to the nature of the game and the variance involved. If you are a winning player (big if in most cases) eventually you will be able to overcome any variance that gets thrown your way. However, it can be extremely dangerous to ever let variance affect your confidence and cause you to alter your winning style. In my opinion, playing bad and having low confidence in what you are doing is at the heart of just about every extended losing streak. This low confidence usually stems from some kind of negative variance you've experienced. I think it is very important that the instant you realize you are suffering from low confidence and/or not playing your best you take a step back to collect your thoughts and work on getting it fixed a.s.a.p. Sometimes it is amazing how long it takes you to realize that you aren't playing your best. Low confidence and playing bad can creep into your game so subtly that even the most self-aware person doesn't realize it is happening until a lot of damage has been done. I think this is something that a lot of poker players struggle with. It isn't ever fun to tell yourself that you are playing bad and actually quit playing or spend time on fixing your leaks before you play again. For some players it seems almost impossible for them to have enough discipline to stop playing even when they KNOW they aren't playing their best. I think these are the players that tend to have the longest losing streaks or "run bad" more than other players.

In short what I am trying to say is that the next time you think you are just destined to "run bad" or you have been the victim of too much negative variance recently I think you should examine your own psyche and recent play before you start whining about how unlucky you are. Basically, I think people would be much better off and have shorter downswings if they started taking more responsibility for their results. This type of thinking fits well with one of my favorite truths in life..."you make your own luck".

Sorry for going off on that rant, but I just wanted to get that off my chest. During week 2 I ended up winning $246 playing hold'em online, lost $1,200 playing live, lost $550 playing online tourneys, and lost $850 playing PLO online.

Online: -$1154
Live: -$1200
Total: -$2354

I am already 4 days into my week 3 and I have played quite a bit, but ran a little below expectation (1.83 BB/100). The good news is that I am crushing the little bit of the 5/10 that I have played and running poor at 2/4 and 3/6. So far I am up $4,126 this week in just over 20 hours of play.

So far I am up about $6200 since the start of this 7 week challenge which is well below what I think I should have made. However, it isn't such a bad thing to "run bad" and make over $6K in 2.5 weeks. I feel like I am on the verge of busting out of my "slump" and running hot for a week or two to get back on pace. If I can just run hot for a week or two I can make some serious money playing 8 tables. It sure is gonna be fun when that does happen! Wish me luck (not that I'll need it).