The downside of player poker for a living

Yesterday.... by far the worst day I've had. Everything has been running smoothly for the past couple months and yesterday was a reality check. I lost close to $1,000 just by playing 5/10. That's a huge loss at that level. Everything was going wrong. I'd flop top pair, and someone would turn a set. I'd flop 2 pair, and someone would trip on the river. I'd flop top set on a rainbow flop and lose to a runner runner flush or straight. I'd flop the absolute nuts and someone would find a way, any way, to beat me. It was horrible. I played well... textbook poker.... and lost a rediculous amount of money, to me at least. Days like that can make players question their abilities. I was really down for a bit when it happened, but I thought about it a little.... I knew when I made this choice of playing online poker professionally that there would be swings, and huge ups and downs. I've experienced ups and downs, mostly ups, and some occasional "small" downs, so I guess it was only a matter of time before the cards would turn on me in a big way. So after sulking for about an hour after it was all done, me and Justin rode out to Phillip's for the usual "donk-filled" Tuesday night cash game. I walked away with a respectable $148 profit, which wasn't anything compared to my losses for the day, but it definitely was a confidence booster. I know I can win in this game in the long run, and most of the time in the short run. I just have to make the right plays and not tilt, and the money will come. I made the decision to move down to 3/6 starting today, not because I feel 5/10 is too difficult for me, but because I'm willing to move down when my bankroll isn't quite as sufficient as it should be. I'm going to play alot of 3/6 this week, 2-tabling at minimum, but mostly 3-tabling. I showed a small profit today of about $50 in 3/6 in about 3 hours play.... not great, but anything positive right now is ok with me.

Bad runs are all a part of poker, and its something I accepted a long time ago. It's time to move past it and grind back up. Nothing is going to take me away from this game, not this easily at least......

Peace.....