Staying Patient While Running Bad

I guess I can be running worse (and I have), but it always seems like when you need to win everything is working against you. I guess there is something psychological about it though. It's not that you are running worse, it's just that you put more stock into each individual tournament, coin flip or bad beat. The loss just stings more because you need to win. The trick, of course, is avoiding tilt and staying patient.

I recently set up my ING account (which holds my bankroll that isn't on each site) to be drafted for my monthly insurance. Jenni came up with this idea instead of cashing everything out and paying off bills. I thought it was a great idea so I wasn't dependent on trying to hit a big score in a MTT. It would be different if I could put in the time and volume needed to overcome variance, but my playing time is limited. So instead, I figured out my ROI and determined how much volume I would need to put in playing 45 and 90 man tournaments. So it's kind of cool because I guess I can consider myself a semi-professional player in that part of my monthly income now comes from poker. Of course with that comes a little more pressure to make sure I'm not only putting in the volume, but also producing results.

So I set up the auto-draft about a week ago and I had taken a week off of playing because I was busy with wrestling. I had started running bad before the break, so I figured it would start reversing itself but it hasn't. I've had a few min cashes and I did place 2nd in a smaller buy-in 90 man, but over the last few days I'm definitely running at a loss. It isn't the worst thing in the world, but it's one of those things where I'm losing big coin flips, getting sucked out on when I shove and overall not having great starting hands. It's normal and certainly not the worst run I've had, but I'm getting acclimated to playing with the "need" for money. It's like I'm playing with a time clock running down. As the time gets closer to the draft, I get more and more anxious to hit a score. That is obviously not conducive to good poker and I'm trying to not let it affect my play. It's one of those things where I am going to have to keep a detached perspective and truly play for the long-term. I know that I can't get mad at bad beats and losing flips and I know that I can't force the action. That's the key. I need to work on not putting as much emotional stock in any one tournament. I need to stay confident that I'm going to make good decisions and when I decide a move is right, I need to pull the trigger without fear of consequences. It doesn't mean I need to force bluffs all the time, just well timed spots that I feel confident in.

So the key moving forward is to stay emotionally detached and just put in the volume. Don't worry about when money is going to come out or even worry about being in a current "bad" or "good" run. Just play poker and the luck will even out.