Tammy said:
Well first, the apps don't choose who it "wants" to win. Especially with accredited, regulated sites like GGPoker. They could quite literally lose everything if they were rigging the system. The cold hard truth is that, while poker is a game of skill, there is also chance involved, and the cards don't always run your way, even if you played every hand statistically perfect.
To your question, it absolutely can help to take a break! Especially if you're grinding 12 hours per day, and running into cold decks and variance. Would you not get burnout working any job 12 hours a day without a day off? Of course! Poker is no different. And I think particularly because you are starting to think the game is rigged, you are not in the right mindset to be playing optimally. Take a break, get offline, get out and about in nature/society and just completely turn off from poker for a bit. You'll know when you're ready to come back to it. 🙂
Excellent advice from Tammy here. Also playing 12 hours per day, day in and day out, does not sound like a particularly balanced life. So when you come back after your break, you might want to tone it down quite a bit to leave more room for work, study, family, friends and/or other interests. In addition to this, if things are not going well, it is ok to move to a different site. We do not have to think, the site is rigged to make such a decision.
It can also just be, that it gives us a fresh start. At the end of the day it is more motivating to play, when and where things are going well. Thats just human nature. So rather than fighting an uphill battle to "turn it around" or "get back even", maybe play somewhere else at least for a while. You have an account on PokerStars, that according to
sharkscope you did not use very much. Maybe change that and play your next 1.000 tournaments there.
And maybe take some other steps back as well. Play smaller fields or even cash games to get some small and easy victories. Get the winning feeling back. Play lower stakes to stop the financial bleeding. If you dont do this already, manage whatever amount is left in your poker accounts, as a
bankroll. Like buying in for no more than 1% at a time. You have $369, then the most expensive MTT on PokerStars, that you play, would be for $3.3.
Step up your study efforts also but not during the break. Look at big losing or winning hands and see, if you still like the way, you played them. Study push-fold spots with ICMizer. Maybe even study some hands in a solver to learn and improve. Or share hands to this forum and get feedback from other members. This is completely free and might also help others, who read the thread without posting.
There is always going to be a luck element in poker. But what matter in the long run are not unlucky rivers. Its those situations, where we could have made a different and better decision. Checked back the turn instead of betting again. Folded to that raise on the river. Or been more aggressive. Check-raised that flop instead of just calling. Betting the river as a bluff instead of letting them win with J high. All those small pots, we gave up on without a fight, or the big ones, where maybe we lost to much.
