I just went through a "mini-cycle" version of this which left me massively tilted and spewing like a monkey. If you had asked me a month ago I would have told you that I never really tilt....I understand variance and just continue to make good decisions ha ha but I got hit with a series of massive coolers followed by thousands of hands that unfolded much the way that you've described. It leaves you questioning your decision making and with an unquestionably bad attitude. You have to keep playing positively or take a break.

Try to review some hands with a friend or a coach bc sometimes you may be repeating mistakes in common situations or otherwise get some positive reinforcement and stay focused on making good decisions and playing aggressively. A positive attitude is everything and you have to do something to restore that.

You gotta realize that poker is a game of luck and sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. We all know this, but on a deeper level we tend to resist this idea. You have to fully accept the fact that you will lose some hands and win some hands, all you can do is increase your expected value. Stop comparing winning and losing and start looking at these objectively. Replace thoughts like "I should be winning" and "bad players/worse equity hands don't deserve to win" with "every player wins and loses sometimes" and "all I can do is to increase my EV and enjoy playing".

You should also make sure that losing your entire bankroll would not have a huge impact in your overall life. Takes a lot of stress out of playing poker and facing downswings.

I think restoring that feeling of being a "winner" is so vital. I play live when I feel like I'm tilting and I'm shown numerous examples in that session the progress I've made. It really reinforces that I'm heading in a positive direction. This is soft competition but the feeling is just the same. I reinforce what I know, realize how much of an edge I have. Often times online, when feeling negative you are playing poorly times x amount of tables. It can be costly, slow down, take a break and look at how far you've come.

One time I lost 19 sessions in a row. That's a whole month of losing every day. This was playing live only, playing $20/40 limit only. On day 20 I was playing $3/6, waiting for a seat in $20/40 as usual, and when they called my name for my $20/40 seat, I was up about 100 bucks at $3/6, and I said no to $20/40 and went home, a winner.

Obviously I've had many shorter range losing streaks, two weeks or so, that were still devastating and had me wondering how I ever won. I went through it enough times that eventually I put top priority on just booking a win or two. Didn't matter how small. Just going home plus. That was all my mind really needed or wanted. Some kind of forward motion rather than back. Some validation that I was still legit.

The way I sum that up now into advice is to suggest that when you have no confidence and you are funking bad, take a couple days off, and then go find the softest low-stakes batch of pansies and play your nittiest game and book a few wins somehow someway.

t

How long is that? How many hands?
Actually, I have a bad year! I earned about the 1/5 of my last year's profit.
Than I checked my fellow countryman's blog. /Sipinho13/ Doo, I noticed this guy has several 150k breakeven streches. Ishter11 also has. They are great winners!
So, yeah. Sometimes variance can make pretty weird things.