Running bad

Dropped a couple buy-ins at Nautica last night. I can count 2 hands I hit...flopped the nut straight with a 6-8 to win a decent pot and chased a set of 9's (hit on the turn) as well. Neither of my river bets were called.

Unlike previous times, I realize now that I am starting to run bad, and it hasn't tormented me like it has in the past. It's just part of the cycle of the game. No one runs great forever. Problem is, running bad can lead to playing bad, which I did last week. Fortunately, I have recognized it and I'm trying to adjust. I played just fine last night, but had LONG stretches with shit cards and none of my good hands hit the flop or held up at show down. I had a dream table the last couple hours last night, and could have cashed big if I had just hit a hand. No one was folding, and I could have been paid well. Last hand of the night, I pushed my last hundo into the pot with 2 pr, got like 5 callers, and ended up being 3rd. I got beat by 2 other 2-pr hands, but I got my $$ in good.

One thing I have noticed during a bad run...EVERYTHING seems to go wrong. No cards, missed flops, set-over-sets, awful "hero" calls, poor reads, getting re-raised by the nuts (when you have the 2nd nuts), etc. You know the deal. Every hand I played beside the 2 I mentioned pretty much missed big. No flush draws, no decent straight draws, no sets. No big pairs. AK, AQ, and J-A bricked all night.

I am taking a bit more of a Zen approach this time around (aside from spending some bankroll $$ on a sweet TV) and I am "witnessing" the bad run almost like a spectator. It helps to kind of sit back and watch it unfold. It doesn't seem to bother me. I refuse to beat myself up over a bad run.