I have been playing for about 3 years now and just started grinding about 6 months ago starting with a 500 br. I built it up to around 13k before I hit a big tourney for 8k, and at one point got my roll up to 24k. I took a shot at 5/10, took a bad beat, and lost 2k of it very quickly. I knew I was underolled but I was trying to make a move. From that point on, I have found myself chasing money to get back to the 24k and the harder I try, the more I lose. I ended up back down to about 18k, and started grinding at 1/2, and never ran so horrible in my life. I probably lost about 4 buy ins, and monkey tilted 6 more. This has had a tremendous impact on my game and the way I approach. I am definitely not playing on top of my game right now and I went from 24k to 16k. Any suggestions for gaining confidence back and getting back on track? Likewise, is there anyone else who has had a similar downswing so I can feel a little bit better about my monkey tilting and horrible br management? thanks

Plenty of people have done the same as you and worse or gone totally robusto.

I would take a break for a week or 2. Then resume grinding 1/2, maybe get some coaching or have a good player look at HH.

I would also take some of the money out and buy something/take a nice vacation with it so you can enjoy what you have been able to accomplish and get some perspective.

if you're a solid winning player, once you deal with your monkey-tilt issues, you should be playing 400 with that roll, not 200.

Take a vacation, go to thailand for a couple weeks, come back with perspective / refreshed.

I did the same before ran $300 into about $12k short period of time and got in the chase habbit of wantin a br of 12k again, if i could replay this i would take a few days off withdraw down to like 6k (10k in your case) enjoy some of the money. Doing this would of taken away the urge to want xxxxx br minium again.

i think the best way is don't focus on the money, focus on the game.
then you will eventually over come the "get even tilt"

take a break is the best option.

"reading will be more profitable than playing poker when you are tilted"
-- tao of poker

OP you are just a baby in this game of poker. Everyone who plays this game seriously and long enough experiences many downswings like yours. What seperates the winners from losers is how they deal with it. When you are running bad and then tilting its easy to lose your mind and continually make poor decesions. From personal experiance I will tell you what to do. First take a few days off (3 is good). Then come back and play 3 tables of a stake you feel comfortable with (in your case 1/2nl). Don't try and get back all the money you lost at once its not goin to happen. Just focus on playing solid poker, only getting it in good and not pushing/forcing minor edges. Eventually, if you are winning player you will book a few wins in a row. From there you will regain your confidence. The rest will be history as you will begin to play better, tilt less, and of course you'll run better and win more. Everytime in my career when i went on big downswings it was followed by an even bigger upswing. I hope this happens to you.

PS. This is only true if in fact you are a winning player (I'm blindly assuming you are)

Concatenate all of the poker sessions you have played, are playing and will play in your mind into one big session. In this session you are no longer short term results orientated - you are still early into the session (since it's lifelong) and are focusing on playing a solid, winning game. Don't have odds to peel the flop? Fold - The situation will come up many more times this session. Don't have a good enough hand to raise the lagtag blinds? Fold - you will get a hand later on in this session and their playstyle will pay you off.

Case in point - It is far better to be long term then short term results orientated and in doing so you will play better and can avoid being so focussed on your bankroll figure but instead on your quality of play.

Let me get this straight you turned $500 into 24K and your upset. Bro Ive been playing off the same $400 buyin for almost a year now. Sometimes it goes up to 800 then goes down a bit I try some tournies never really making much. I take huge bad beats in 50nl on PS. If you started with 500 why the need to play so big. Dude if I had 24K I could easily manage that. Im on a run right now playing 3 to 5 dollar tournies online where when it counts my hand either doesnt hold up or doesnt hit. Thats just poker. 24K, Id be doing back flips all day. 18 K Id be doing back flips for at least a half day.