[lork]

I am experiencing my first slump in my short 13 month poker "career." Sure, I lost at first but after a couple of months of study and play... I felt like I had a pretty strong game. I played with a lot of confidence and profited $1.70 for every $1.00 that I gambled for that year. (I keep records).
The last month has been pretty bad for me, and here’s the problem... After I play and reflect on my game, I find that I’m playing scared. I am not getting cards, but I didn’t always need the nuts to take down pots in the past. How do I break out of this psychological funk I’m in?

[arcfinn]

1) Choose your table when you can.
2) Choose your seat at a table when you can AFTER analyzing the other players.

There is also what remote viewers call "analytic overlay" (AOL). After your beginner's luck runs out, you start to try to think through the game, and you get in your own way. This is common, almost universal. You must keep practicing your skills and get past this "startup transient" to get to mastery.

On the subject of mastery, I highly recommend *Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fullfillment* by George Leonard. As I recall, the book contains a graph of skill acquisition and mastery that is worth the entire price of the book--the whole book summed up in a couple lines drawn on a page. There's an extensive page about it at Amazon, and I copy a quote from there: "George Leonard provides an excellent account of the requirements necessary to master any undertaking. He stresses that there should not be a focus on short term progress and that to become a true master, one must accept the periods where improvement seems non-existant."

[DeepBlue]

Play it safe, play it slow. Don't gamble much away, get to know what hands work and what don't - you've got to win a few pots to gain confidence, and when you're down as you are you need to choose your hands, and tables, very carefully.

Good advice from arcfinn, maybe even read the book - I know I'll be looking it up

[BigAl]

Tight game is the only way to play it. Play sensible poker, don't gamble much away, wait for the big hands. It is a slow, long and drawn out process but it is essential you win some hands to lift that burden psychologically of not winning for a while.

Once you've won a few hands, your confidence will grow and you can return to your normal game, but you've got to take it slow.

[louis]

I would just spend the first 15 minutes folding rpetty much every hand, taking note of what players are betting, what cards they are betting with and so forth.

Also, take a look at the winning hands and play only hands of that value or above. It means you are in very few hands, but as the guys here rightly said you need to win a few pots to regain some confidence, and playing it this is the only way to do it.