Do you believe in continuous good luck or bad luck runs in poker?

YLAN · Saturday at 4:21 AM

Definitely, hot streaks/cold streaks in poker is real! One can be a good player but random variance can deal you the raw end of the cards in downswings & likewise a bad player could find luck in the cards for a limited upswing. Poker is never constant unless one is really bad in the game & unlucky.

koalapanda · Saturday at 4:25 AM

The biggest upswing feels like you're completely invincible—every river card hits, your bluffs always go through, and you feel like a genius. On the flip side, the biggest downswing is pure mental torture where doubt creeps in, you question your entire strategy, and it feels like mathematically impossible beats happen every single session. The emotional rollercoaster is real!

TheNutz4You · Saturday at 9:27 AM

it's simply called variance, and boy can it be a mfer sometimes. Good poker players have shorter/less dramatic downswings, but every player, good or bad will go through stretches where no matter how well you play, the cards will destroy you.

Magallaneroy · Saturday at 9:35 AM

I do think so. That's not my case, but I've seen him in a lot of players. Now I do believe and it has happened to me that I have lost a lot of tournaments due to the great luck of the other players.

fundiver199 · Saturday at 3:15 PM

Each hand or game in poker is completely independent from the previous ones, so in theory there is no such thing as "being in a hot/cold streak". But its quite normal, that a period with poor results make us play worse and vice versa, and then it can become a self reinforcing thing. There are many subtle ways, this can manifest itself like making bad calls, avoiding thin valuebets or becoming overly focused on protection at the expense of value.

Colbefc · Saturday at 6:25 PM

Every poker player has good runs and bad runs and if you do not get too happy when you win
or too down when you lose you will be a far better player.

Coolcassv9. · Saturday at 7:12 PM

During the time I’ve been playing, there are moments when I just don't feel like playing—this happens to me about 5 to 7 times a year. What I do is take a break for 4 or 5 days, and once that feeling passes, I go back to playing

Like2Play2 · Saturday at 7:38 PM

Absolutely. For example: I play Stud H/L at PokerStars just about every evening to relax.
I play the $25,000 buy in. All play money.
From the bottom of $100 where I am now. I will probably go up to just about 3 Millions and then I will gradually go back down.
This has been going on for years.

Toruk Makto · Saturday at 9:28 PM

In all sincerity, I believe so, because there are times when we play so well and everything goes wrong... And sometimes we do everything wrong and win the games, in other words, we have to respect the current phase!! 👍😂😉

skaterick · Saturday at 10:10 PM

i almost always run cold in cash games at the casino . of course it's not easy to win when the house is dropping 5, 6 even 7 dollars a hand in rake ! small stake brick + mortar games are a cash trap .

CNXRegie · Saturday at 10:45 PM

nabmom said:
Do you believe in hot streaks/cold streaks in your poker game? Or is it just another example of how flawed our human perception is? I definitely feel that I have periods when I'm playing better or playing worse, but I think that is a "me" thing, and not some blessing/curse of a hot/cold deck that is outside of my own control. What do you think?

Somehow, yes. Luck, good or bad, had their streaks and it can be very hurtful if you're running a long streak of bad luck. It's been 2 months since I final tabled.

hobojim1247 · Sunday at 3:58 AM

The object of poker is to improve your game to make better decisions and rely less on luck. No one will ever eliminate
luck but one can reduce reliance on it. There will be times when we all have strings of luck but we should never rely on them

ramdon p358 · Sunday at 6:32 AM

Certainly believe it. I’ve seen players have fantastic years—Niklas Heinecker won a huge amount of money in a matter of days playing only cash games—while, on the other hand, Gus Hansen had terrible years; without a doubt, these were streaks that defined both players.

CNXRegie · Sunday at 9:49 AM

Luvepoker said:
I do believe in hot and cold streaks, and I've seen them. But poker is a game of skill because of the math involved. Yeah, there are times that we're gonna lose more than we should, but we're never gonna complain when we have those good streaks, are we? Poker is a long-term game, and in the end, the numbers will come out close to what they should be. And I think that's what we really need to remember. Also, when you're in a down streak, what I tend to do is look at my game more. I'll look to see if it's really the math or is it me. A friend of mine once was trying to prove to me how online poker was rigged because he had lost with pocket aces like 12 times in a row. And when I saw what he had been doing, yeah, he lost 12 times in a row, and most of the time was his fault. So it is a bigger thing than just math and variance and up and down. It's such a combination of all, and we as players really need to look into it deeper when we're having one of these streaks.

I agree. Those long 2 months I have not reached ITM is mainly due to my wild plays. But, I still believe it's luck (bad one, in my case). Perhaps it's not meant for me. I don't, and never complain though.

I may have to revisit my previous hands and see what went wrong.

schtiuky · Sunday at 10:06 AM

it can happen but its not a must.

ulisesmero · Sunday at 10:12 AM

I quite agree with that idea. In poker I would distinguish between “streaks” and “accumulated luck” .

A streak of good or bad results does exist statistically : you can win or lose many consecutive sessions simply because of the variance.

ratbat615 · Sunday at 12:16 PM

Definitely there are hot streaks in poker but for sure there are cold ones too , for example you can play well a still bubble a tournament which is the worst feeling to me because you question your play even if you played perfect but when you win playing the exact same way its ok, so just accept that its just a game people win and people lose. I have heard of accomplished poker pros that had a 1 year losing streak and some had to take a break for months so just accept the game for what it is and I hope you never lose a hand.

nasty bent gorilla · Sunday at 6:24 PM

As others have said, variance will inevitably lead to a perception of being on a roll one way or the other. It's probably a function of how human brains work that, when a pattern is so different from the norm, we will extrapolate a story beyond the maths.

Even if there is predetermination, or there is something profound about a particularly interesting new pattern, there is no way of proving it either way.

I admit to some cognitive dissonance here, as I have personally extrapolated meaning from patterns, and yet I both agree and disagree with my own perception.

ironduke11 · Sunday at 7:46 PM

i figure it is more human perception than anything else.

SOLO22 · Sunday at 10:00 PM

I don't believe in luck, I believe more in work, study and continuous improvement, knowing the faults and identifying them, to a certain extent, analyzing lost hands and hands won.

wushibala · Monday at 4:50 AM

Cozmin said:
Hello, it's interesting what you say, but when the "variation" makes you lose on the river because he gives him a kinta or you with AA and he makes him a reki on the river or a flush or kinta, you get ideas and it destroys you emotionally and mentally, especially if you played well and you're getting close to the itm, the final top 50, right?

Variance works exactly like that. If someone doesn't understand it, they start getting in their own head and convincing themselves that the site is a scam, that it's full of bots, etc.

Just check out the wsop channel on YouTube and look at some of the brutal bad beats they've had. I've watched more than one tournament there, and there are hundreds of hands like that

Leandro6803 · Monday at 7:25 AM

Yes, I believe so—after all, that’s poker: highs and lows, or sometimes just lows 😂🤣

belizebum · Monday at 3:31 PM

I will let you know when I have a good run!!!! So far its been mostly bad runs with a sprinkling of a good game here and there.

Snake2007 · Monday at 3:46 PM

You make your own luck to some extent, and luck does play a role in poker.

lolpeura · Monday at 5:30 PM

Luck will always definitely play a part in it, but it is by play you can definitely minimize some involvent of lady luck. You can have good/bad slumps in luck, but how you handle it is the most important part. So I would say its a real deal, but for player you just need to regognize where you are accordingly and knowing when to keep playing, when to have a break, and especially when just yeet and walk away.

Do you believe in continuous good luck or bad luck runs in poker?

YLAN

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