[TheMightyJim2k]

I think pulling out the majority of your winnings when your confidence is low and you are running bad is perfectly reasonable. If you don't feel good about your play or results there is nothing wrong with taking a break to think it through and wait until you are ready to go again.

you might be seeing the advantages of playing in the post WSOP ME online environment. During the summer they start airing the WSOP on ESPN when people have more free time and have had a few months to recover from the holiday expenses. I'm pretty sure someone on 2+2 showed that site traffic increase in the summer and you have more newbie players donking off money.

you might be adjusting to these players and lightening their load well, but the all of them showing up in the game could be increasing your variance or causing you to misplay against good players.

I had two pretty bad runs this summer, and I found a few problems. The first was time of day. Playing online after 12AM is typically much more difficult then playing between 6 pm and 12AM. At that point in the night the only people playing are sharks and donkeys who at least gamble and make plays. It is much more difficult playing with an unpredictable donkey than a fish even though they both are losing players.

the second hole I found was my tendency to call off with so so hands instead of waiting for a better spot. When I would get stuck big I had some ridiculous notion that I needed to make it all back that night so I would gamble more trying to win big pots. Usually to counter this I either quit or would take a 30 minute break and come back and try playing ABC poker for a bit until I was focused on the hands and not the session results.