Personally, I believe the most important factor for deciding when you should leave a game is based on the game and not your stack. Every 30 min check in with yourself and give an honest evaluation of how your playing and how good the table is. If your not playing on the top end of your game or the table has gone from good to bad, then it's time to rack up.

^^^^ hot dog we have a weiner

Probably mentioned somewhere in this 861 page thread but let's talk about this again - biggest 1/3 downswing and worst 1/3 session! Go!

Biggest downswing for me is ~1500 over 400 hours of 1/3. Pretty close to it now and I'm sure I'm due for one that's double that before I hit 1k hours at this limit. Worst 1/3 session is -700. My main game is 300 max although I've played maybe 100 hours of 500 max.

Currently at 3942 hours of 1/3 NL, I've had two identical maximum downswings of $2866 (both to the dollar) both over fun little 3-7 session stretches (first was in a $400 maximum game, second was in a $300 maximum game). Both times it sent me on ~breakeven stretches of about ~200 hours.

My biggest single loss is $1200, which was all I had in my pocket at the time (with my solution being "bring more money from now on", which I do, lol). Last two BIs were simply terrible spew on my part (really hilited for me early on how important tilt control is), and I've since only recorded one other $1000+ loss in (509 sessions overall).

GcluelessdownswingnoobG

My biggest downswing at 1/2 and 1/3 combined is around $5500 over a stretch of around 3 weeks when i played in Vegas for 2,5 months last year. I hope it will be a long long time until i experience such a downswing again,hopefully never. The feeling of the doomswitch was turned on forever no matter how many hours i continue to play is some of the most difficult challenges ive had in my years of playing poker and in life. I get sick just thinking back of how i ran at that time.

And biggest losing session 1/3, $1400 down the drain.

I remember a long time ago in a galaxy far far away.....when I won 20 days in a row. The **** the poker gods have put me thru since then is mind boggling.

Did you thank them for the insane positive variance of winning 20 in a row? Doubtful.

If you go on a 20 session losing streak you have to wear an avatar of my choosing.

Gpostdownswingresultsforlols,imo!G

Not at 1/3, but my record downswing is 2,877BBs at .5/1 and 1/1. Fortunately, I had some winning 1/2 sessions in there too, so the overall downswing was only $2,572 total, but considering that all of those losses were with $1 BBs, that's pretty brutal. I was buying in deep, but still, I was also playing a very juicy game and just getting hammered.

1/3 has been much kinder to me, variance-wise. The game is much more ABC than the gamble-fest at 1/1, and thus much lower StdDev.

Actually, every single day I made sure that I savored the great run because I knew when it ended I would miss it greatly. I know how bad the bad runs feel and I wanted to make sure that great run felt just as good.

Deal! I'm at 5 in a row now. 5 in a row is my all time record though so if I get to close to 20 I may jump off a bridge before I ever have to wear an avatar for you.

yep, my 1/1 downswing is over 2000bbs and is still alive. I have lost about 600bbs in my last two 1/1 home games I play with friends and I lost $1400 at the Vegas meet up drunk 1/1 game last June.

Your downswing lasted 400 hours or that's the total number of hours you've logged so far?

I have never played 1|3, but my worst downswing at 1|2 was $2689 which I am technically still in since I stopped playing 1|2. I had two others of about $2000 and $2400. These are all within 930 logged hours of 1|2.

My worst downswing at 2|5 was $7634 and I've had two others of about $7k within 2k hours.

Nah that's total hours I logged at 1/3 although it's probably closer to 450 now. I'm just getting out of a $1300 downswing that lasted less than 50 hours. Although this is since last May when I reset my records since I think I became more of a winning player. I definitely had some prolonged break even stretches at 1/2 in previous years.

This is probably the biggest reason why my downswings have been so mild so far. I mainly play in passive limp fest games where either I'd be the only one really raising preflop or I'd be one of two people. No one really bluffs on turns and rivers too - if they bet big they usually have it. So I don't have to really react to aggression and when I do it's usually just a correct fold. A lot of my big losing sessions are the results of bad beats, legit coolers such as aces vs a set in a big 3 bet pot where folding would be lol, and thin value gone wrong.

Man these swings make my $1400 downswing at 1/2 seem like amateur hour. I got almost all of that back in one session too.

Even ABC games can be swingy. Nothing makes you question everything you knew about poker more than having AK miss the flop 20 times in a row while having your cbets called every time.

$1400 is nothing regarding downswings so yeah Only 7 buyins at 1/2.

My friend lost about that amount just running into unavoidable huge coolers being set over setted 7 times in a row during a 2 weeks span, and being on the wrong side every single time.

Absolutely agree. Its a crazy feeling when you go into that territory.

Would you mind providing your results during your 20 day hot streak and then since? I know you have made some comments that variance is sometimes overrated in this form so I'm just curious the extent of your downswing and how extreme or mild it has been.

As an infrequent poster in this thread, I do know the general rule of thumb espoused is that 10bbs+ an hour is "crushing" but I was hoping for a little more nuance. Specifically if (insert your favorite pro/best player) played 1/2 exclusively and only Friday and Saturday nights in a $400 capped game with most stacks between $250 and $300 , what do you think his long-term winrate would be?

I feel like in this thread people just leave it at 10 BB's + an hour is crushing without examining what is truly possible. I'll confess that I'm currently on a 110-hour heater after a 80 hour slight downswing period and probably have some irrational euphoria thinking that for a pro (who is obviously ridiculously better than I) 25bbs an hour would be possible. Thoughts??

I cant go that way in speculation. But I can tell u that i have a pal who plays full time. He is not super creative or "feared at the table". But he plays very well. Has no major leaks that I could see - after playing hundreds of hours with him. Never tilts. In other words rock solid. his w/r is between 30 and 35 per hour at 2/5.

This should demonstrate how hard it is to get 10. This dude is a solid pro and he is significantly less than 10. 10+ is doable (in normal games) but it aint ez.

Ha, don't make me dig up my arguments from a few months ago in this thread that even dared questioned what is considered crushing and attainable, especially at the lowest limit rake traps. Don't think (???) anyone has ever even posted a winrate much north of 10bb+ over any non-trivial sample size at the lowest stakes in this thread (maybe Squiddy, but even that was mostly at a level above the rake trap stakes).

GcluelesswinratenoobG

Maybe I'm missing something but it sounds like he's playing ABC and leaving money on the table. ABC poker will result is maybe 6 or 7 bb/hr which is exactly what your friend is winning. It will also lead to low variance and mild downswings which probably explains why he doesn't tilt.

But I'm very confident that it will NEVER win 10bb/hr over any sample GG would consider large enough even at 1/2 or 1/3, never mind 2/5. The non-ABC plays that are slightly +EV but controversial or too "creative" are the plays that push the win rate to 10.

So are folks in basic agreement that it is unlikely that even the best players in the world playing 1/2 in great conditions (somewhat deep, Friday/Saturday nights) would not be able to win a whole lot more than 10bbs/hour?