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

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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?
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I think it’s a combination of both. Variance is obviously real, and sometimes you can play well for hours and still get crushed by the cards. But I also believe our own mindset and decision-making can create what feels like a “hot” or “cold” streak.
When I’m playing badly, I might be tired, impatient, tilted, or forcing spots that I normally wouldn’t take. On the other hand, when I’m confident and focused, I’m probably making better decisions and noticing things I might normally miss. So I try not to blame everything on being “cold.” I’d rather review my hands and see whether my decisions actually changed.
At the end of the day, you can’t control the cards, but you can control how you respond to them. ♠️
 
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Everything Nameless said above. So no I don't really believe in hot and cold streaks. I believe it's either just variance(we can't control the cards) or like you said some days we simply play better then others and those stretches of either can last awhile. No matter how good we are....we all are human and have days where we play good and days where we play like garbage.

Cheers!!!
 
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What people often call “bad luck” in poker is actually variance. You need to learn how to deal with it so you don't go on tilt or completely lose your composure.
 
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I believe in cold and hot streaks and I believe electronic devices may favor gambling institute.

But statistics are real. You will eventually have good stats and profits if you keep making good decisions.
 
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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.
 
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I don´t "believe" in hot or cold streaks - there is no mystical dealer that decides whether you are blessed this week/month/day and the other way round.

What tricks us there is our human brain that does not like chaos and poker can be pure chaos.
The human brain likes things sorted (each thing in the right box)and this brain also underlies some strange not only pure biological rhythms.
There are many things that influence these states (focus, confidence, well rested).
Our brain puts this together in a non conscious way like cold/hot streak sorting of events happened.
 
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I definitely feel table confidence is strongly linked to results, sometimes it can be because of the type of games we choose to play, sometimes we play at a level that is higher than we are able to manage (especially when embarking on a poker career) but essentially, results dont lie - you can have a streak of run bad and run good and im a firm believer that good results breed more...thats why they call it a heater.
Poker is fickle and over the years ive developed a thick skin, i dont get over obsessed with results these days but thats through choice and lifestyle.
I play significantly less now due to prioritising my job and my fiancee.
Good luck and bad luck definitely can run in streaks, its what we do when its a run bad that defines our future results, self care, time out helps me.
 
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I am past the point of believing that good or bad luck controls how I do in a card game.
I get good feelings in knowing that I played solid and made the correct move...
When I lose focus and do something that I should not do bad things happen.
That is not bad luck, that is me being stupid....

The toughest part to accept in poker is sometimes you can do all of the right things and still lose.....
That falls in the category of "Cards Are Funny Things."
 
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I would say hot and cold streaks definitely exist in a game like poker but its our own decision how we let that influence our game. Its definitely more easy to play your best when running good and also vice versa.
 
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Hi🙂
Poker mirrors the recurring ups and downs of life; in the game, we choose when and how to confront the hand—whether good or bad—that fate deals us. I view every phase of the game, the highs and the lows as an integral part of the experience. Since any contest between two or more parties inevitably produces winners and losers, the superior player is the one who recognizes and capitalizes on winning streaks while effectively managing and navigating periods of loss.
 
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Great perspective! It really does come down to human perception and variance. While short-term variance and downswings are completely real mathematically, our own focus, mental state, and decision-making quality heavily influence whether we turn those moments into a "hot streak" or a prolonged slump. Keeping emotions in check is definitely the hardest part!
 
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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?
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I agree 100% I don't believe that I personally have good or bad luck runs caused by external factors. It's all me. Variance, or crazy stuff as I prefer to call it, happens all the time. Sometimes in my favour, sometimes not. What I don't understand is why the mathematical certainty of odds is wrong so often. Those ridiculous/crazy draws happen much more frequently than the odds say they should. Again, not just against me, against everybody.
 
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nabmom said:
I definitely feel that I have periods when I'm playing better or playing worse
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That's exactly how I feel too. Sometimes, I find myself right in the zone, and sometimes I'm just lost.
But poker has its own mind too. You can be in the zone as much as you want and lose every single hand you play even if you start ahead and you can win every hand you play no matter how you play it. So, yes, you can have winning streaks as well as "cold" ones.
 
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I believe poker definitely has short-term streaks of good and bad luck, but I don’t believe luck runs are permanent or predictable. Poker has a lot of variance, so even a very good player can lose for a significant period, while a weaker player can run extremely well. Over a large enough sample, though, skill and decision-making become much more important. So I try not to get emotionally attached to either a winning or losing streak—I focus on making the highest-EV decision on every hand.
 
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i believe in bad streaks yes it happens many times sadly
 
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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.
 
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I think it’s more about making bad/good decisions, distractions, and the need to pull everything off in a single hand. Streaks are what they are: consequences, not destiny.
 
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wushibala said:
What people often call “bad luck” in poker is actually variance. You need to learn how to deal with it so you don't go on tilt or completely lose your composure.
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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?
 
lol, you can win with crap hands too. So i think you can have favourable periods where anything you play not too well, can yield decent results, but in the end, only consistent good play will get you there even through bad periods. as much as AA is not a garuanteed win, the bad times may just be bad luck in a sense. but playing good and consistent should overcome that. i think people play loose and then lose more in the so called bad streaks.

idk. but good question
 
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I like to think that I've reached a point where my game has become more or less standard. So I don't recognize any skill peak periods and total brainfarts occur less and less.
What remains, is just me being Donald...
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The results tell the| truth . At least in my games . The unlucky or crazy hands usually deep in a tourney hurt my game a lot , and my willingness to dedicate time on poker . Thee hands reduce dramatically expected profits . Now , are they bad streak , bad luck , or maybe bad rng ?? I would choose the last option . So many crazy or unlucky hands one after the other is unreal . On the other hand good streaks , upswings are almost non existent.
 
Sometimes I find myself thinking about how unlucky I’ve been with money for most of my life; however, I have a wonderful family and great friends, so I believe God sometimes makes up for it in other ways—as the saying goes: "unlucky in cards, lucky in love."
 
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