I think hot and cold streaks definitely feel real when you’re playing poker, but I’m not convinced that they are caused by some kind of continuous luck that follows a player.
There is so much variance in poker that it is completely possible to have a long period where the results seem unusually good or unusually bad. The difficult part is that our brains naturally look for patterns, especially when we experience several similar results in a short period of time.
I also agree that sometimes what feels like a “hot streak” or “cold streak” can actually be related to how we are playing. When I’m confident and making good decisions, I may notice more positive results. On the other hand, after a few bad beats, frustration can affect my decisions and create a real downward spiral. In that case, the problem isn’t that the deck is suddenly against me — my decision-making may have changed.
For me, the best approach is to focus on the quality of my decisions rather than trying to predict whether I’m currently “hot” or “cold.” Luck affects individual sessions, but over a larger sample, I think good decisions and discipline are much more important.
