The Streak Is In Serious Danger

All right, so here we go. 3 days left in the February and I am down slightly on the month. I am in danger of my first losing month of my career. I have shown a profit each and every month since April of 2005. That is 57 straight months of making money at the tables and probably my most prized accomplishment in poker. There may be someone else who has done better than that, but either way, I am intent on keeping the streak alive.

I suppose the classy thing to say would be to say that I have played poorly this month or that I have lost my focus. But I feel saying that would diminish the hard work of the poker Gods. They have tugged on my doom switch and held onto it with some kind of kung fu grip that I can’t seem to get them to let go of.

In all seriousness, I am very proud of both the way I have played and how I have dealt with this emotionally. Never in my career of well over 7 million hands of poker have I seen anything like what I have experienced this month. I still am in shock that Ashton Kutcher hasn’t popped out of my closet and told me I was being punked!

Most of the long bad runs I have endured have come with some excitement. I may break even for 100k hands, but within those 100k hands, I have had numerous big upswings followed by a downswing. Those are emotional roller coasters as well, don’t get me wrong, but at least there are typically some periods of feeling like you know what you are doing. In this particular stretch, I would liken it to death by 1,000 paper cuts. I basically run about $6k behind EV every day and lose a little each day. My biggest upswing of the last 2 weeks is 5 buy ins!! This is not a joke. 5 buy ins!!

What is done is done. I can’t go back in time and undo bad beats or a lack of upswings. All I can do is play my best and hope that I am given something more than a lump of coal for my efforts. I am not sure what is at stake other than my own pride. I suppose if we kept official records like MLB or the NBA, it is possible that the 57 straight winning months streak might be some sort of record that was in jeopardy for me, but since we don’t, it is just my own personal competitiveness at stake here. I HATE losing. And I really HATE losing over a month’s time. But I suppose if it ends at 57, it will still have been a pretty good run and I know I will have gone out swinging.

Well, I’m off to the tables now. Going to play at least 20,000 hands before the end of the month so I do have some time. That being said, I am pretty deflated right now and while I feel confident about my game and it’s ability to go on a massive heater to end the month, I have stared at bad beats pretty much all month, so many of them in fact that it is almost hard to imagine not getting unlucky. It has almost become a way of life this month haha. But I know I can’t think like that. I have to envision great plays and the cards falling my way. With 20,000 hands left, there is still time.

I will keep everyone updated on the outcome.