Hey guys

Making this thread to try and vent/get advice on how to cope with 8+ week downswings/run bad, and keep up the grind and not lose motivation. My mindset right now is extremely negative which I know is terrible for playing. I expect to lose every hand, and thats got to be making me play sub optimal.

Going to post my daily results here, not really going to delve into which games / site I play on, this is more a place for me to vent / have discussions re mindset.

Current graph since April 1



Aiming for 2k hands a day, 12k hands a week. Also need to make sure Im going to the gym 5x a week, which seems to be harder to do in a downswing, not sure why

What do you think the reason for such a downswing is? Also have you tried any strategy sites to help your game? Like Upswing?

Ah its just definitely a string of runbad, I've reviewed a lot of hands and its just one of those things, just need to get in a good mental state to deal with it and get out of the other side.

Yesterday was a pretty grim day, ran pretty terribly and then towards the end was playing my B game so decided to quit rather than continue to play bad.



Lets hope today is better! Won't be lots of volume today as I have to attend a birthday meal this evening

Good luck man!
I would recommend you to read the mental game of poker, the author talks there about how to deal with downswings and stuff.

Hey mate,

I recommend you to change your focus point. I know it's easier said than done, but you can't keep looking at that graph - it will drive you crazy.

You shouldn't be thinking like this. Maybe it is just a string of run bad, but when luck isn't on your side it's time to change your perspective to something you CAN control - the strategy part of the game.

I don't expect you are the best poker player in the world? Then there is room to improve. The more you improve, the better your win rate, and the less of an impact variance will have on your results.

I would start making goals - process oriented ofc. Stuff like:
Study x amount, read a mental game book/listen to a mental game podcast (Jered Tendler has an excellent one "The mental game"), play x amount hours - but cut down on the amount of tables.

And then, whilst focusing on other (more important IMO) things, you will slowly grind your way up again

Best of luck

Doing a lot of studying & hand reviews, there isnt much/any content online for the games that I play, so studying would largely be from reviewing my DB / purchasing PIO, which I will be doing shortly.

My friend recommended removing EV from my database, said constantly looking at your EV massively hurts your mindset/game if youre running bad or even running good, so I'm taking his advice.

Finally had a winning day yesterday, even though its nothing compared to how much I'm down as of recent, it felt great and stoked to put in lots of work this weekend

removing EV line isn't nearly as good idea as removing your winnings line. EV is everything in poker long term and greenline just follows loosely around it (std dev.) if you're that far under ev, however many BIs it is, you're simply running bad in all-in variance at showdown, a small part of overall variance. The important thing is your EV line is showing a positive winrate.

Best to focus on playing your best in every decision and making sure you are comfortably rolled so that you can continue in the right mindset. Looks like you're playing 200nl-500nl so it doesn't seem too bad overall unless its all 200nl in which case you're just experiencing probably the worst DS you've had so far I assume. If you play multiple stakes then maybe show your graph in BB to see what you're actually looking at in terms of variance.


Variance is just variance, you can go -20bbev and -20bb greenline and still be running bad, but that's when it becomes much harder to tell whats variance and what's poor play. being under ev just means you didn't get back the % you earned yet, so don't sweat it too much, it always corrects long term

Thanks for your words mate, completely agree re its just a downswing and need to grind out of it.

I play a short stack version of poker, currently 356 buyins under ev, so by far the worst downswing I've ever had yeah

Today has just been one of those mornings that you play your perfect A games and don't get rewarded. Felt like I've been absolutely crushing the competition and then this guy appears



Anyway going to go workout and cool off and put in another 1-2k hands this afternoon. EV put back in for BlueCollar

Managed to get a small grind in today even though I dont normally work on Saturdays. Felt like today should of been a €1k+ day, but wasn't meant to be.



Definitely feeling positive, and I think its reflecting in my game, maybe its just a placebo but I'll take it.

Overall for the week, its not great results, and volume is at least 50% under what it should be. Im going to be setting myself a goal of 15,000 hands next week

Today was a super super grim grind, glad I managed to grind out of it, the first 600 hands made me almost quit, glad I stuck with it.



Looking forward to my 15k hand challenge this week!

im no expert but if im looking at it correct your losing alot of just sort of flips???... marginally ahead situautions is that right?

anyway id ignore all in ev stat least according to this dude https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/7...l-luck-823386/
which makes sense actually say your against a fish who sucks out river on you when the stack to pot ratios really low and youve got to call off the rest of your stack river regardless cause of pot odds... (mistake to fold) surely of the all in ev graph stat that hand will make it just dip a stack even though you played it correctly got majority of stack in turn and river you got unlucky they rivered the nuts
(but also maybe just ignoring it turning it off that stat also just cause its not really important its not something you can do anything about or change so just play your game work on your game, play in games your rolled for and good games and if your doing the right things longterm the green line will take care of itself and you only keep track of the green so you know when to move up or down?)

and if you are going through a downswing (i wouldnt know not played tracked hands to even know what a downswing is) cant you just move down in stakes where possibly your edge andwinrate is bigger so the games will be more profitable even if running bad like you still might be able to churn out profit or your at the least minimise losses? maybe just play lower just to regain some confidence in your game notice capatilise on more obvious clear mistakes in the lower stakes games where i presume there are many? and just wait until you start locking up more consistent winning sessions?

https://www.cardplayer.com/poker-new...ways-get-worse

any good luck dude you seem to be playing pretty high least up least to me ha dont think ive ever even had 8grand to my name ever in my life let alone be able lose it lol (saying that ive never even had a grand to my name ha), so im presuming your well bankrolled for the games you play anyway