Texas Hold'em: Horrible Losing Streaks

Question
I've been playing Texas hold ‘em for about four months now (mostly $1-$2 and $2-$4 at Paradise Poker) and have done very well. In fact I'm averaging about 4 big bets per 100 hands. But lately it seems like I've hit a wall. I was looking over my stats and I've lost $122 in my past 3000 hands. Is this normal? And if it is how often does this happen? Hopefully not often because I'm pulling my hair out!

Answer
Take heart—losing streaks (indeed, even prolonged losing streaks) are something that every winning Texas hold em player is forced to endure. I'm acquainted with good players who have had losing streaks that extended past 20,000 hands, and while I personally have never had one go that long I have had 10,000-12,000 hand streaks where I essentially broke even. If you want to get serious about Texas hold em you just have to get used to this.

Four big bets per 100 hands is a hell of a win rate—at any limit. My guess is that you were performing above your expectation for a while, and are now riding the dark underbelly of the variance curve. 2-3 bb/100 hands is, in my experience, a more realistic win percentage. So long as you're a winning player this downswing will pass. Just be sure to keep very careful tabs on your Texas hold em play when you're in the middle of a downturn, as most of us experience a deterioration in our play when things aren't breaking right—a condition which usually only prolongs the losing streak.

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