Running Bad?

You all know what it's like. Everything you do seems to be wrong. You bluff into the nuts, slowplay and let donkeys hit 3 outers, fold when you should call, raise when you should fold, etc...

We all love to believe that the poker gods (or luck, or karma, or whatever it is that you think controls the cards) have frowned on you. You start wearing your lucky shirt (or whatever lucky trinkets you have), sacrificing virgins, and getting fried chicken to honor Jobu. All in the hopes of turning it around. After all, its not our play that could be causing it, it must be bad luck.

But somewhere, deep inside ourselves, our confidence is shaken. We wonder if all those previous good results were just good luck and not the skill that we had given ourselves credit for. Were we just getting lucky before and our current results are more reflective of our skills? It's a tough realization that our own play might be the cause of our dwindling bankroll.

The truth, as with many things, lies somewhere in the middle. When you're running good, you play better, and that, in turn, creates more "luck." When you're running bad, or playing bad, it becomes a downward spiral. The trick is getting out of the cycle. And that's about where I am right now.

If you think it's all me playing bad, then you should know that in back to back tourneys I went out on 80-20 situations. The first time I had TT vs. 99 and he flopped a 4 flush and finished me off on the turn. The river even brought a 5th flush card and gave me a set to boot. The second time I had QQ vs. 55 and managed to survive the flop, no spade or flush draws this time, but the cruel turn was one of the two outs he had left.

But I can't turn a blind eye to poor play. I have been negative for the past few weeks in cash games online. I have tried playing more passively, playing hyper aggressively, and most styles in between. Each seems to work for a little while, but none seems to produce any long-term results. So am I getting unlucky or am I playing poorly? Probably a little of both, after all, I did make $600 playing in home games last week, so that's gotta count for something...