Ha! That's like a bad couple of days for me.

A little perspective.

In about 2500 hours of live play since April 2015 my worst downsings are:

About 4k (mix of 1/3, and 2/5)
About 4k (1/3, 5-10 w/ a 20 straddle PLO Hi-LO and 2/5)
About 3k (all 1/3)
About 2.5k (all 1/3)

The two 4k swongs and the 2.5k are all from this year. One of the 4k swings and the 2.5k one are within the last three months. I started playing "full time" In July.

Have a bankroll people.

Longest breakeven stretch was only about 100 hours, but felt like an eternity as I was playing about 15 hours a week at the time.

If you're not handling a downswing well, take a break. Don't play for a little while. Trying to 'force it' causes all kinds of problems that cost you money. You're better off blowing $400 on a casino hooker and relaxing a little than you are tilting it off at the tables playing a C- game.

55 hours is nothing.

Plus there's only so many times that V's will flop a set against you, and they just used two of them up in one hand.

ahahah

Try to internalize, as much as possible, the fact that it genuinely doesn't matter. Or, at least, that the effect on your life is unknowable.

I'm paraphrasing Barry Greenstein here.

Say you are in your usual game one day and you crush and are up several buy ins.

There is a lot of buzz around the big game, 2 levels above what you normally play. A couple of rich drunks are just lighting money on fire. Raising huge without checking their cards, etc. There is a small fortune on the table.

You decide to use your winnings take a shot and shortly, you triple up. And, you continue to run good after that. It's a dream come true. You realize that you have enough money to double your BR, AND pay off most of your debt, or put towards a home or new car. Holly crap, you'd better get up.

Against your better judgement you play 1 more round. You're kind of panicked to look down at aces. A player in front of you who covers you 5xs it. At this point, there is no shame in playing scared so you make a ridiculous reraise. Let's say 10x his bet.

He looks confused and thinks for a while and calls. Flop is AK8 rainbow. He check raises the flop and you jam. "This would be the sickest fold ever," he says. But he can't do it and calls with his KK.

Turn 4. River J. You just took down a pot with your annual income in it. You go home and bang the bejesus out of your girl. 9 months later, she gives birth to a future junkie who will cause you endless heartache and money before going to jail for murder.

Turn 4. River K. This is the worst thing ever. You're just crushed. You will wonder why you didn't get up sooner for years. Your depressed for days. Eventually, you have sex with your girl and nine months later she gives birth to a kid you will graduate from a prestigious medical school and bring you tons of happiness and pride.

Or, you get in a car crash, or you take down a WSOP event 2 years later or...

You have no idea how it's going to pan out but any particular (and inevitable) downswing is just one link in a very long chain and to worry much about it is objectively foolishness. So you can continue to be a fool, or choose not to be one.

It’s helpful to remind yourself that it can get much much worse and be thankful you’re only in the midst of a 50, 100, 200 break even stretch etc.

There’s nothing guaranteed in poker and you’re not entitled to run at EV let alone >EV.

Nice thread..

This. I can't recall how many 10BI downswings I've had over the years.

And at this point, I'm pretty much convinced that EV is a f*cking fairly tale.

It's extremely standard. And honestly, it's the biggest reason (among many others) why I knew even trying to go pro wasn't the path I wanted to go down after playing 'semi-pro' for a couple of years as a decent side income.

Just keep things in perspective, and take breaks when you can when your head isn't right. You should also see a TON of easy money over the next couple of weeks with the holidays, so play some TAG poker, book a few small wins, and that will help get you back in the right head space.

lol, thats not a downswing. Thats a losing session.

I wish that wasn't true, but you're right. I've lost 8 of my last 10 sessions to drop almost 10BI, running about 9BI under EV. These are the stretches where I'm glad I can just say f*ck it and quit for a while then rebuild at micros.

don’t think my 2017 is done quite yet but i did hit 500 hours for the year over the weekend

i mean, i was down the most after 100 sessions let alone 10 but look after that and i don’t think it matters

60% 1/2, 35% 1/3, 5% 2/5

You only avg just over 2.5 hours per session?

This may be the streakiest graph Ive seen. Why is that?

some ratholing, also would say there are multiple sessions per day on days i’m playing where i still end up playing 8 hours

example:



i’d say a majority of my bad results this year aren’t from sick coolerz but just playing badly/passively due to mental block, my first instinct is very good from the online days but it can be trying to do that when one-tabling live poker

taking 30 seconds is a big tank for me in my live game

If I switch tables after being up at the previous table, I'll end the session in my tracker and start a new session. For me this is why my 50% winning session rate is misleading. If I'm up at the first table, down at the new table but still up for the day, it'll reflect as 1 loss/1 win even though for the 'session' I am up.

Win % is probably the most useless stat. We really should all just not talk about it anymore.

The only way I could see it being relevant at all is if someone played a specific number of hours every session and never deviated

My point exactly.

Why do you do that?

The only time I start a new session the same day at the same stakes is if I go to dinner and start playing again after dinner. I do it because I track sessions in 4 groups. Daytime weekday, Evening weekday, Daytime weekends and evening weekends.

Ease of accounting. If I leave a table with more than the table max, it's easier to buy in for the max at the table and pocket the difference rather than count it out at the end.

Do you seriously play at MGM, drive to Maryland Live and then drive back in MGM all in the same day?!?!? Whyyyyyy?

why not! i gotta drive back to VA anyways so it’s basically on the way back

back before MGM i definitely took a beat at MDL and drove out to Charles Town after more than once

geez, ur very dedicated. I'm lazy af. I'll pay you $7.81/hr to be my casino driver.

Currently on worst downswong of last 240 hrs @ 2/5 -3 buyins. Feelsbadman

Edit: not -3 in 240 hrs ,but OF my last 240