It's not easy to play poker when you are free falling. Your bankroll took a beating like you haven’t experienced before. There is simply no luck from the RNG today. It might be tough to walk away from the computer at times, in the face of everything seemingly working against you. It’s your day off and the house is to yourself. You have been looking forward to this day all week long. It’s just that the winning part of the plan didn’t come through.
Your instincts tell you to keep playing because that’s what you do. Things will get better and luck will come your way. The problem with thinking is that that is usually the time when your luck gets worse. When things get really tough, you are probably better off not playing at all - do what I do and just pick up a poker book.
It’s easy to break the rules in these trying times, to try and make your money back. However breaking bankroll rules is just a segway to Murphy’s Law, and you’re generally only to have more to complain about and more to be remorseful after you have finally had your fill.
When I get in spots like this, where I really really really want to keep playing, I satisfy or by playing sit and go tournaments. Not just any sit and go tournaments but the low low low limit’s is what I’m talking about here. I mean the one or two dollar heads up, or six seated single table tournaments. First of all not only is your competition week at these levels, a good number of them don’t even care if they win or not – seriously. And so that's just to accomplish that is to simply win.
If I am going to have a losing bankroll session, I would at least really like to finish it on a winning note. You can’t imagine how good that is going to make you feel walking away from the computer and back to your other life by simply winning a poker tournament. It's just a relief of sorts to win - something - during your last game, even if it's just a buck or two. Which is much better than reliving some of the bad beats, idiotic players, or string of ridiculously bad hole cards.
Even if you don’t play many sit and go tournaments, this is really a great psychological strategy to keep your head about you, finish your session on a positive note, and keep an open mind about positive long-term sit and go strategies and results. So next time you are on the verge of kicking your keyboard, go find a sit and go tournament to save yourself.