so, I dabble in online and live poker. Online, I'll 4-table 25nl and not get rattled even in the slightest if I find I'm in 5 buy-ins on one table... in fact, I might not even notice. In live, I typically play $2/5 1k buy-in and if I'm stuck $3k+, I notice I get pretty steamy and chase / tilt / punt through my play. I try to view the game through the lens of, "this is a long-term game, you shouldn't care about local results; that is, it doesn't matter if you're up or down in this session."

do people have the same issue? maybe im playing to big of stakes live if losing 3k-4k annoys me? Online, I like the notion of checking-in (looking at my graph, results, p&l, etc.) every 10k hands or so, to not make sure I'm not letting variance get to my head. what equivalent would you employ live? every 500 hours?

I guess the jist of this post is, like, how do you not give a f*** about individual session results?

cheers,
ringring

Whenever i lose too many buy ins in a single session I just remember myself that this is not even the biggest downswing I will ever have.

Specially if you want to play highstakes in the future, you must be prepared to face 6 figure downswings all the time.

And when that time comes what are you going to do? Get angry like a baby? No. You must be capable of losing 6 figures and move on completly from it.

Otherwise you wil start drinking too much and beating your wife because of poker.

Two paths, first:

1. Study a ton to the point where you’re good and you’re confident you are good. The majority of 2/5 live players aren’t beating the rake. If you’re taking the game seriously, you should be confident that you’re one of the best players in your game.

2. Countering that, be honest, data based, conservative in your estimation of self. There is a big difference between “I’m good at poker,” and “I’ve studied poker 10 hours a week for two years and have a win rate of 10bb/hr over 2,000 hours so I’m reasonably confident in a significant winner in my game”

3. Be properly bankrolled.

4. Play a ton.

5. Pay next to no attention to short term results. You have virtually no control over whether you win a hand, or a session, or 100 hours of play. Focus on your inputs that you control. While playing, once a hand is over, note it, and then on to the next one. When a session is over, give yourself a quick pat on the back, or a “darn, we lost that one” and then go back to your life. Look at results over significant sample sizes only where meaningful insights can be pulled.

6. Play a ton.


If you’re not taking the game that seriously , there’s path two:

You’re gambling, enjoy it, if you don’t enjoy it play less, play lower, or don’t play

If you typically play NL25 online and NL500 live, when you are down 3k in 2 5, that's 60 online buy-ins (half a year's worth of grinding?) that you are down. No wonder that tilts you.

I generally use a 3-buy-in stop loss. It's really hard to play your best live when you're down more than this. At least it is for me. Call it a night, and go back the next day when your mind and emotions are centered again.

You will get desensitized to swings after a while. Beyond that good bankroll management will help of course.

You can also adjust your playing style to choose lower variance paths and avoid thin edges, if you really hate the swings. This would mean stuff like not auto 4 betting ak, playing draws more passively etc. It does lose ev, but it also lowers your variance.

That being said, if you can get comfortable with variance, you will have an edge over most players. No one likes losing, literally no one. So if you are less afraid of losing than your opponent, that is an edge in a game that is increasingly harder to beat.

Losing money sucks. I haven’t found that it gets easier.

We are humans. We are emotional.

How to get over feelings? Become a robot.

Figure out what works best for you by trial an error.

Ive learned by trial an error ( personally ) playing live poker these rules:

If i short buy; i can buy in 3x and play without letting my feelings dictate action
If i max buy; 1 buy- in only.
If i have a drink, i stop playing.



These are my rules. Everyone’s different, and i learned these lessons expensively.