[Repost of a forum post I did while the blogs were down]
I had my first big losing session in a long time last night. It really hurt, I lost over $240. Everything was going wrong. I'd have two pair, and would cap it with an aggressive player on the flop & turn, but then they'd make their flush on the river. I'd have AA, but lose to a low two-pair (from a player who called three bets cold before the flop). My opponents were making constant mistakes, but I just couldn't capitalize on it. Each long shot they hit cost me more & more.
And like an idiot, I let their play induce me to start making my own mistakes. For example, I'd hit middle pair on the flop. A player would bet. I look at his stats and see that he bets about 90% of the time on the flop, regardless of his cards, so I re-raise him. He calls. He then bets on the turn. Again, I've seen this player do this same play with absolutely nothing and his stats support this, so I call. Same thing on the river. He ends up having middle pair also, but beats my kicker. I think I lost nearly all of my marginal hands, which I normally do well with.
A combination of them hitting long shot draws against my monster hands, and me making mistake after mistake with my marginal hands, made it a very unprofitable evening. I probably could have made some of my cash back, but it was getting late and I was definitley on tilt. I decided to log off and try it again later.
Losing is very demoralizing. Especially when it's nearly double the amount I expected to win. But that's poker, I suppose. I'll just have to close more of my leaks, remain tight/aggressive, and hope I can make it up this weekend.