The Pitfalls of Running Bad

In my last column, I discussed five ways that running particularly good for a while can negatively affect your play. In this column, I’ll discuss how running bad for a prolonged period of time can get in your head and cause you to make bad decisions.

Running bad is the boogeyman for every poker player. There’s nothing more frustrating than doing everything “right” and still losing session after session. If you aren’t vigilant, running bad can set off a vicious cycle. You run bad for a while, which causes you to start playing badly, which then prolongs your poor run of results. Here are five pitfalls to avoid during your next bad run:

Losing Aggressiveness
Aggressive play is the key to winning poker. Finding the right bluffs and the smart value-bets sets good players apart from mediocre ones. When you run bad, however, your aggressive edge can be the first thing to go. After all, none of your bluffs have worked in two days, so why burn chips trying another one? Or, every time you make a decent hand, an opponent seems to show up with the nuts. So, why bother betting your hand for value?

When you’re beaten down and nothing is working, it’s easy to lose the nerve to bet and raise with anything but lock hands. If you notice that you’re becoming too scared to make aggressive plays that you’d normally make, try one of two remedies. You can take a few extra seconds on these decisions and talk yourself into putting your chips in the middle. Failing that, you can take a break and analyze some hands away from the table. Reviewing the mathematical basis for an aggressive play can motivate you to make it next time, even if things haven’t been working recently.

Making Hopeless Calls
Have you ever said to yourself, “I know you got there, but I have to see it anyway”? Then you pay off, and sure enough, your opponent has the hand you expected? If you’ve been running bad for a while, making these hopeless calls can become more tempting. Or, you can become so incredulous about your luck and so accustomed to losing that you begin to just throw your money away.

This is a very dangerous state to be in. If you no longer have the willpower to avoid paying off obvious hands, it’s definitely time to take a break. Unfortunately, your opponents can indeed outdraw you three, five, 10, or even more times in a row. If you can’t make the smart folds when necessary, stop playing and do something that will relax you. The next time that you play, you’ll likely be in a better mental state.

Preferring All-In Plays Too Often
When you’re running bad, you might begin to try to end hands early. You’ve been outdrawn one too many times on the river, so you subconsciously adjust by shoving on the flop more often. This can take two forms, neither of which is good. First, you can overplay your big hands on the flop, shutting out your action. Let’s say that you flop a straight. Instead of making a small raise or flat-calling to keep an opponent in the pot, you make a huge all-in raise and your opponent instantly folds. Sure, you win the pot, but you don’t win as much with the hand as you could have.

Or, more dangerously, you begin to commit your stack on the flop with hands that are too weak to justify it. I once witnessed the following: A very tight player had waited several hours for a hand. When he finally flopped a set, he got his money in against a flush draw, and the river completed his opponent’s draw. The very next hand, the tight player opened for $20 in a $2-$5 game with a $400 stack. Two players called. The flop came A 9 6. The big blind bet $40, and the tight player moved all in for $380. The big blind called, and showed A-Q. The tight player had K-K.

Obviously, shoving with kings on this ace-high flop is bankroll suicide. Don’t let a bad run put you into a state in which you’re shoving with marginal holdings just to end the hand. If you catch yourself thinking this way, take a break.

Giving Too Many Free Showdowns
One of the big advantages of having position is that you often get the option of making a river value-bet with a good hand. But when you’ve been running bad, sometimes checking it down to see a showdown can seem very tempting, even with strong hands. If you haven’t even seen a showdown in five hours, you might say to yourself, “Thank goodness; finally, I got to a showdown!” Then, you check.

Needless to say, if you’re so grateful to see a showdown that you’re intentionally not making good river bets, you’re not playing your best poker.
Take an extra few seconds with your river decisions and put your frustrations aside. Think as clearly as possible as to whether a bet is smart or not. Don’t let a bad run frustrate you into missing out on good money.

Failing to Play Shorter Sessions
When you’ve been running bad, no matter who you are, I think you are best served by playing shorter sessions than you usually do. Let’s say that you usually play four hours at a time. Cut it to two. Playing shorter sessions has a few advantages:

1. If the session gets off to a bad start, you’ll play fewer hands in a frustrated mindset.
2. If the session gets off to a good start, you’ll be able to book a nice win and regain confidence.
3. Either way, you’ll have fewer hands played and more time away from the table. This enables you to spend more time working on your game, which will help you avoid the pitfalls of running bad in a future session.

Cut those sessions short during a bad run. Soon enough, you’ll be back on track.

Ed’s brand-new book, Small Stakes No-Limit Hold’em, is available for purchase at smallstakesnolimitholdem.com. He is a featured coach at stoxpoker.com, and you can also check out his online poker advice column, notedpokerauthority.com.