The problem with losing streaks

Is that they suck.

But beyond that, they can try your confidence and induce tilt. And maybe that's the way it should be. Maybe on some level, tilt is appropriate, if it means that you're questioning yourself and making necessary improvements to your game. Of course tilt will cost you money in the short term, and nobody tilts on purpose, but I would rather gain something from my downswings that just ride them out with uncaring determination that you're doing nothing wrong.

Unless you are in fact doing nothing wrong and playing perfect poker. In that case, carry on.

Of course, I'm talking about running bad because that's where I've been recently. I like to think that the beats get easier to take over time. Maybe.

It doesn't take long for me to start finding things wrong with my play. My thoughts: "I should have value bet that river. I should have called down. I shouldn't have bluffed there. I should have folded when I had the chance on the flop. I should have raised instead of called."

Or, eventually, more sophisticated thoughts: "Mother f&*@)*( son of a *$%)! damn bad beating loose calling seeing the river @$$hole fish! You'll give me that money right back just as soon as I beat it out of you!" Or, in espanol, "Concha tu madre, jueon culeado!" (To native speakers: sorry about the spelling.)

So, after all this babbling, we get to the point.

Things I have learned in the last week:
_It's OK to limp with QJs or other suited broadway, even under the gun
_Short-handed play can be a gold mine!
_It's really hard to tell if you're running bad or playing poorly. There were some good ideas in this thread from the 2+2 Forums, but I had a hard time finding any distinct patterns in my recent play, probably because of small sample sizes. My running hypothesis is that win percentages with premium hands give some indication of whether you're running good or bad, but there's no way to measure how much action you're getting on those premium hands. If flopped quads only win you the blinds, you aren't really reaping much benefit.
_I need to work on my suckout skills. The fish seem to be able to do it better than me. I wonder why?
_Despite a lot of experience multitabling, I have to admit that I sometimes lose focus and make marginal plays because I missed out on previous action or just simply aren't concentrating enough. Reminds me of this post from The Cards Speak: On Self Affirmation.

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Did I mention shorthanded play? If you care about improving your overall game and your shorthanded game in particular, read these articles by Jason Pohl. If you don't, you're only hurting yourself.

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There's been a lot of chatter on the 2+2 Internet Gambling Forum about Empire Poker closing a lot of peoples' accounts. Supposedly, they selectively closed accounts of players who were costing the company money by only taking advantage of bonuses.

While all this is going on, Empire Poker has decided to offer a Tuesday-only 50 percent reload bonus up to $100 with the bonus code Tuesday100. I'm confident Empire Poker would not confiscate my money if I played there only for the bonus, but they could well close my account. I think the risk is small, and I'll probably take advantage of this bonus.

Update: An alleged Empire Poker representative explains the account closures