hey man, smiley faces aren't argument, expecting to win against 6/2 when you have aces isn't entitlement...it's logic. It's never 100% but the odds that you'd lose AK, AA, KK, and KK four times in a half hour is probably about 1% but it happens. It's contrary to expectation though.

This is what's worked best for me:

Go home, look at the chart of your winnings over the years. If you are a solid player, you should have a decent chart. Then record your results for that session, and irrespective of how bad the session is, it will be a negligible dip. It might not even register if you have a few thousand hours under your belt.

I find a visual graph really helps to put things in perspective.

So:

1) Record your sessions.
2) Graph the results.
3) Note the insignificance of the bad session.
4) Feel good.

We tend to overweight hardships, and the more recent the more we feel they define us. They don't. It's an illusion. An insignificant blip in life. You are a chipped and jacked F-350 Turbo Diesel, and you hit a bump on the road. That's all.

I've been playing weekly for 7+ years. Was a consistent winner, with the normal variance but I was consistently ahead. I kept good records for it.

Until last year. Had a 9+ month downswing that was brutal. From being a regular winner to losing my roll. Draws never came in, I lost every coin flip, lost to 2 outers, runner runner, you name it. I was so shell shocked by the end that I couldn't play. I ended up having to take a few months off.

The break was the best thing in the world for me. I wish I had taken it before I went completely busto. It really helped clear my head.

i've always recorded but never graphed, you're 100% right i'll give this a go now, is there software you use?

I'll go back tonight and if things go badly i'll take a week off. I can't say I've had the worst of it. I'm still up for the month and Monday and Tuesday were big wins for me

"shell shocked" is exactly how i feel when it happens

just made a graph here http://www.plotvar.com/make-line-graph.php
that does help put things in perspective, i'm only up a few 4 digits this year as a part-time player. the highs have been high and the lows have been low! unlike the trooper, i won't refuse free coaching lol

This post really put a smile on my face, thanks.

Grunch

That variance is pretty minimal. I'm a LAG and have had days I lose 3 buy-ins in a few hours. On one I lost three all-ins each as a 96%+ favorite. It just doesn't bother me unless I feel I've made a mistake. Ask yourself if you made a mistake. If you're sure you haven't, move on. If unsure, write down the hand, maybe post it here, and move on for the rest of the session.

If you're running so bad it's endangering your bankroll, that's another thing. Play less poker is probably the best advice. You can spend more time studying, analyzing, etc. Less time at the table running bad. And play shorter sessions. If you find you're up $200 after five days of losses, maybe just book the win so you can end your downswing. Does wonders psychologically.

Great post!

That ends the losing streak. Does not end the downswing. A downswing ends when you're back at your lifetime peak.

just had to look up "grunch" had 0 idea what it meant

The thing we need to understand is, that because of variance, it is going to happen. If not that specific scenario, something worthy of you going OMG!! and wanting to post about it.

Summer of 2016, guy I know comes up to my table and asks me a math question. He's a bit excited. He knows I'm a geek when it comes to wanting to know the odds in situations, even though I struggle with it, and asks me this:

Says: "Guy at my table just got dealt KK and got it all in pre vs. AA, KK flopped a set & won."
I respond "Yeah, so?
Guy says: "Very next hand the guy who had KK was dealt it again, the guy who was dealt AA last hand gets AA again & again KK wins, flopping a set. What are the odds of that?!"

I presented that to the probability forum & the answer I got was that you would have to multiply 776k * 776k.

Nothing has bothered me anywhere close to the level it did at times before I heard that one.