I found two articles talking about this already, but they were both from a while ago and seemed dated...

So, quick background. I used to play 30 hours a week (2005ish), 2/5 and 5/10. I did pretty good, but in the long run could have made as much waiting tables at Applebees. Then I got a promotion at work and for a couple years haven't played poker at all.

Now, with more free time, I want to play recreationally every once in a while (while still trying to beat 2-3bb/hr). I've played a grand total of 3 times in the last month or two. My last session, I played a couple too many marginal hands and tilted off a buy-in after making a dumb, unnecessary play. Now I'm afraid that if I sit at a 2/5 game again, and have another loss, my chart could go into the negative -- and for someone that used to take the game too seriously, that would be soul-crushing.

My question: How do you come back from a live loss? What do you do when your winnings are in jeopardy of going negative?

Also, I'm very aware of the swings involved in this game, and my 3 sessions and hours played are the tiniest sample size ever, but I'm asking about mental state. Is there anything you do to psych yourself up, or calm yourself down after a loss?

Thanks!

so your down a buy in and you are worried about coming back. There are times your gona be down several buy-in's it should not be an issue, but you don't seem too confident with the way your playing. That is the main issue here, not the swings. You admited you overplayed a couple hands and then you tilted. Those are major things you need to work on before anything, including on how you play poker in general.

When you know you are playing correctly and have a negative drawdown, just think of it as normal varience which is part of the game.
If you flip a coin and bet on heads, but tails comes up 10 times in a row, we know that if we flip it a few hundred more times, it will all even out. If you're all-in on the river and someone draws to a two outer on you, you have to brush it off and just keep playing as if it never happend because you know you played it correctly.

With a 125$ hourly and 1k+ profit in 3 sessions I think the best thing to do is just review any hands where you think your play is questionable. After you have a larger sample size, if your win rate isn't what you think it could be then start to put in some hours studying poker and fixing larger leaks in your game. No one can completely avoid losing sessions, just try and minimize the damage and learn from it.

This isn't really for psyching yourself back up but when you find yourself about to tilt or lose a big hand just get up and go for a walk. Remember it's one hand out of the thousands you'll play and don't dwell too much just try to not play bad.

You need a lot more sessions to get a decent idea of how well/badly you are doing.

I think you already know enough about the game to not need us to answer it for you. I think if you can ask yourself, "Hey, I know what just happened, and I know it's not representative of who I am, but I should do something, right?" ...then you're probably already capable of doing what you need to do. You should already know that there's no "up" or "down" in poker short-term, there's just playing well or not. Take a break, do something you enjoy - something that honestly makes you feel good [H&B!] - and then head back to the tables.

Also likely true.

If you need any sort of psychological trick to keep from going insane after a single loss, rethink poker as a hobby. Your confidence can not be that easily shaken if you want to survive the inevitable 20+ losing session streaks.

You did something you wouldn't do if you were playing you "A" game. And it sounds like you made a play you were really unhappy with. Just recognize what you did and if you find yourself doing something similar quit for the day and go back when you feel right again, or at least take a long break.

What you must NOT do is stay and spew.

+1

dude it's gonna get a lot worse than losing 100bb, if you can't deal with that then don't play. Even if you're a slight winner, if you've got that "winner's bias" (where you feel more bad after losing than you feel good after winning) to the point where losing one BI makes you sick, is it worth dealing with that stress?

+2

Although, it seems to me that if losing $500 upsets you that much then you're probably playing too high. Even if you used to grind those stakes it may be better just to play 1/2 to get your confidence up and build a bankroll. People tend to play too tight and have trouble letting go of pretty starting hands when they're clearly beat when they're playing too high. I always planned on having at least two buy-ins when I went out to play live. If you're getting tilted by losing one you shouldn't be playing those stakes.

As for clearing my head when I've gone on tilt, there's no easy fix but I find nothing does it better than spending some time just laughing and drinking with good friends... especially outside in a nice European park in the springtime or maybe on Lake Meade if you're in Vegas. There are many things in life better than poker, and when you've just lost it's good to remind yourself of them.

Honestly, I can't separate life/death, matter/spirit, up/down any longer, or in yer case/Q, psychological/whatever. What I've recently found that has bridged some standard "compartmentalizations" with amazing effect is the isochronic tone/binaural beat "therapy(?)." Guess it falls into the "physiological" compartment for those who wanna give everything a name and think that's truth/reality, but these "treatments" are amazing for me, even to the point of reducing chronic back pain. Be sure that, if you choose to try, it isn't only a binaural beat, as this can result in depression. The isochronic component gets into the thalamus region where the results are most efficacious. A guy who worked to alleviate TMJ symptoms in sufferers developed his own product (which includes photic application rather than just auditory) and provides the scientific data (by EEG) supporting the claims of brainwave hemispheric synchronization for all sorts of benefit. I think his site was called Mind Alive if you wanna read the literature/studies. You can also find tons of free programs at YouTube with a simple "isochronic binaural" search.

What's the difference of making $372/day averaging 3 hours each day or winning $252 first day, winning again $1365 the next day and losing $500 in the third day .., It's all the same. What you need is much more hours of play to determine your win rate. The 2-5 game can generate at the most 35-40/hour if you play very well. Your results of $124/hour is just variance. It is impossible to hold that number steady for 100 hours. This is for sure because I'm playing every day for years and I know what is a realistic win rate for 2-5 game.

AK

Get your mind off poker for a bit....

- Find slumpbuster.

- While banging slumpbuster, review your play/hand until your satisfied how you should have played.

- Leave slumpbuster and return to tables and play great poker with confidence.

Never, EVER, use wife or girlfriend for this....as they tend to want you to be emotionally connected to them and you can't tune them out and think through poker hands/strategy properly.

Yes, there is: learn to think in the long term. And accept that you will make mistakes, and that you will have downswings.
For someone who "used to play 30 hours/week", and is "very aware of the swings involved in this game", your response to one losing 4-hour session (after two winning ones), seems puzzlingly naïve.
Dividing your poker results into sessions is an artificial division, anyway.
1 hour or 4 hours or 9 hours of game play is nothing. $500 is one buyin at 2/5, and is nothing. You might as well look at your $ results for every ten minute segment, or every hand.
When you played 30 hours a week back in 2005, are you saying that you never had a losing session? Or never made a couple of expensive mistakes? Or never, ever, ever tilted?
Even if you are (or should be) a long-term winning player, if you cannot deal with the reality of variance, and with the very real possibility that you could lose a few thousand $, even though playing well, and "go negative" (for this stage of your life in poker), you need to find another hobby.
Really, if you're going to play much, learning to control your mind and emotions, so as to play your A game as close to 100% of the time, is much more critical to success in modern poker than is knowing the odds and tactics. (As you move up in stakes, most everyone knows the odds and tactics.) And dealing with downswings, and with your own inevitable errors, is a huge part of this mental conditioning. There are lots of good poker books on this aspect of the game.
Keep your mind on the long run. Worry about individual hands, NOT individual sessions. Don't play beyond what you can afford, and don't fixate on your dollar results until you've built up at least a thousand hours (which is still a very small sample size). Learn from your mistakes: try to identify not only what you did wrong (that's usually the easy part), but why you did it. Forgive yourself for them, and try not to repeat them.
Think long-term, and think forward, and remember that every hand is a new deal....

Wow - I had completely forgotten about this post! I made it when I was fuming over that loss.

I wound up coming up with an idea, much along the same lines as what MJ88 said about focusing on hands, rather than sessions. I made a simple iPhone app that hopefully gives me a better understanding of how I am doing, as opposed to the generic session graph.

I truly appreciate all the input; this is a fantastic community. I wish there was a way I could buy you guys a beer!