A truism among people in general is that when you’re winning, you tend to keep winning and when you’re losing, you tend to keep losing. However, people hate to lose so what happens is people who have hot streaks, tend to stop so they can "go out a winner". Even worse, people who are losing tend to keep playing until they win — they think they’ll eventually win. This is particularly dangerous when someone is gambling.

Last night, I fell into the same trap. I tend to play well below my skill level right now as I’m building my bankroll up and as a result, I dominate most tables I’m playing on. However, even the best player can lose to a weak player if the cards fall just right. Over time, the better player will overwhelm the weaker player but in a particular hand or tournament, things can go awry very quickly. Last night, I had a brutal stretch of bad beats ranging from 60-40 favorites to 90+ favorites losing to the weaker hands. Twice, I had someone down to a single big blind and have them come back and win because they were catching everything in sight. At one SnG, I ran over the table and had a commanding chip lead until the short-stack doubled through me three times in three consecutive hands as a 70:30 underdog.

My gameplan is generally to play anywhere from 1-3 SnG tourneys a day until I build up my bankroll. Of course, I violated my own rules and played over and over again to try and reclaim my losses. I finally stopped playing but having lost even more.