Quote:
Originally Posted by 6bet me
Thank you for your kind explanation.
Might I ask how you busted a $40k+ roll? What stakes were you playing? Was it live or online? And did it all happen in a day during a huge tilt session, or did your bankroll slowly diminish over a few weeks/months?
Combination of both. Some huge losses as a result of shot taking, playing HU 25 50 and 50 100. Losing 30%+ of my BR in single sessions. Subconsious tilt as a result, declined motivation to improve my game, playing B game for weeks after such a session and running very bad as well. 95K under EV at one point.
Spending big on life and gambling also helps to destroy your roll. Playing high as a kite, drunk etc.
One advantage of playing live vs online is that you can't go monkey tilt and play HU vs regulars on very high stakes. Plus rebuying is more difficult and you play fewer hands per hour. Online it can go very very quick.
I would go as far to argue that shot taking is almost never profitable in the long run, considering the very large downside of: Needing time to process mentally, going on subconsious tilt, playing B game, finding your normal stakes boring and not thrilling or fun, risk of chasing losses, the list goes on.
Also, if it does go right a few times, you will be inclined to take even bigger shots or widen your view of what is shotworthy, which will eventually make you end up in the downward cycle again as described above.
Some giga whale in Vegas once said smt along the lines of:
''I lost 100$ in the casino and I spent 300mil to win it back''
By being honest with yourself and knowing your flaws, you can beat the biggest enemy, that is yourself. However, personality is incredibly hard to change if not almost impossible, but you can implement rules like stoplosses and focus on improving on those lesser aspects of your personality, in order to avoid disaster.
This process of improving yourself will feel incredibly uncomfortable at first, but gets better overtime as your mind starts to gradually respect the process more than the outcome. Focus on the things you CAN control.
Played a bad session? No problem, if you made sure to analyse honestly what went wrong, if you implemented your stoploss and did your workout that day or ate healthier and managed to keep your spendings on dumb things to a min.
For us poker players variance can easily start to influence everything in our lives. Mental and physical state, health, routines and social interactions. Focus on improving other aspects of your life as well, and you will experience how one positive thing leads to another, just like one negative thing leads to another. The cycle works both ways and the opportunities will multiply if you persist.
For example: You stuck to your BRM for a few months, you started working out a couple of times a week, improved your game and watched some videos on mental life game in general. You feel more energized, look better and are more fun socially, when all of sudden one of the whales you played before invites you to his 5/10 home game with his friends only, because you were the only ''fun'' guy at the boring and unfriendly 1/3 table. I know this might sound like a long shot ofc, but this is just an example to sketch how one thing leads to another. You never know how crazy life can get. But the thing is, if it happens, you better be ready and able to seize the opportunity.
I went broke just before the cryptoboom. One of my close friends, was in the position where he could follow advice from early adapters and invest. I wanted to join, but there I was with no money. At that time I had some crypto already, but I had to sell as otherwise I wouldn't have had money to live from.
1 week later the market exploded which was very very lucrative for my friend and I was very happy for him, knowing how much work he had put in in order to reach the position where he could invest that sort of money.
However, hearing the stories at my university and hometown of random guys having portfolios of 20K and even 90K, while starting with like 1k, was pretty hard to swallow, as I missed the boat because of my own mistakes and am now less worth than some random guys, while I have dedicated 3 years of my life to poker.
Again, I understand that this particular event was almost historic and unlikely to happen again in this form, but the truth is we never know what will be next. I hope these stories make it more tangible for you.