The more I play, the more I study, the better that I get at poker, the easier it is to deal with bad beats. You just learn to except the good with the bad in poker. Whether they hit a 2-outter, runner-runner, whatever. It doesn't matter. Nothing is going to change the result. The one positive thing, regardless of results is knowing whether or not you made the correct decision. I am learning that that is far more important than the result. So now, when I am in these situations, I am constantly looking at the decisions I need to make. Reviewing later, and figuring out whether they were correct or not. Do I get mad? 100%. Not so much because it's "unfair", but because I made an incorrect decision. Make the wrong play tilts me more than getting 1 outtered. The 1 out on the river I have no control over, but making correct folds I have 100% control over.

I am glad you are playing great, I too feel like my game has drastically changed over this past year. I am constantly studying away from the tables, working on my game, and I feel great. I have a long way to go, but I am LOVING this journey. A nice $100k win on the way, along with a guest appearance on the Thinking Poker and Tournament Poker Edge Podcasts  would be nice too, but in due time. For sure.

Why? I'm not entirely sure, but there are probably a couple of reasons. One reason is that I feel like I played some of the best poker of my life throughout the final five days of the series. It felt like I was reading hands and situations well, finding ways to exploit villains' leaks in ways that I often wouldn't consider, and making a lot of disciplined laydowns.

However, I think the more important part of the equation is my perspective. I can only put this into words thanks to KB sharing that Gary V video, it really crystalized a vague feeling that I had.

I had to take a break on the final Monday/Tuesday of the series because I really burnt out and felt like I wasn't playing well the previous weekend. I was having a bunch of the typical 'downswing' thoughts like: 

"How often can I make a good 4-bet shove and run into the top of their range?" and "How often can I check-raise shove a 12-outer vs an aggro player's turn cbet and not only get called but miss my draw?"

After taking a break, those thoughts stopped troubling me. I would ask myself the same questions but with a totally different perspective. I realized that if I keep making good 4-bet shoves, it doesn't matter what happens in this hand, or the next 20 hands, as long as the shove is good. How often can I run into the top of their range? A bunch of times in a row, but sooner or later the opposite will happen.

It is very helpful to realize/remember that whatever happens today is completely meaningless in the long run (assuming I am playing within my bankroll) as long as it doesn't make me play worse. I can simply focus on "how well am I playing?"

I can safely say, for someone down ~8k over the past 3 months, I'm playing fucking great. That's all that matters.