Am I missing anything?

[Fitz]

I have been on a great run over the last few months. Part of it has been due to good play, and I've caught probably more than my fair share of cards. I'm averaging better than 2 big bets an hour over the last 360 hours played online consisting of over 46,000 hands; this includes my recent downturn which is the topic of this post.

In the last 2 days, I'm down 125 big bets. The cards have cooled, but honestly, I have not been playing particularly well either. I had a scary session this afternoon when I played badly, chased too much, and went into a weird form of tilt where I was pissed at the world. This is very unusual for me; I hate to sucked out on like anyone else, but I don't normally yell at my monitor and dog because of it; I did today.

Here is my plan for dealing with this recent downswing.

1. Take some time away from poker at least a few days.

2. Spend some time rereading HPFAP and some of my other poker books, and of course follow 2+2 as usual.

3. Step down in limits for a little while when I do start playing again just to get a little confidence back and to protect my bankroll(It is now down to about 250 bb in my normal game).

4. Stay away from Omaha, Stud and tournaments; these are not my best games, but I've been "dabbling" in them a little in the last few days, and I've lost a few bucks there.

5. Try to remember it is all just one long poker session and not lose my mind trying to get my bankroll back to where it was before. It will come back slowly just like I built it the first time.

6. Breathe in breathe out; repeat as necessary.

Any additional advice is appreciated.

Good luck all,

[Clarkmeister]

How is your bankroll at only 250 BBs when according to you, there should be about 720 profit plus your inital roll.

(360 hrs * 2 BB/hr including 125BB downturn) = 720BB profit + Initial stake. You should have about 1000 BBs in your roll right now.

That is why it is important to keep a poker roll separate from your other money, to ride out these all too common 100+BB losing streaks. Not only as insulation from going broke, but for peace of mind. Losing 125 BBs isn't so bad when you look at that fat ass 1060BB bankroll. Helps with the tilt.

[Al Schoonmaker]

Fritz:

You made an excellent post. I'll quote only a few words: "In the last 2 days, I'm down 125 big bets. The cards have cooled, but honestly, I have not been playing particularly well either."
That objectivity is quite rare. Far too many people blame their losses entirely on bad luck and other people's stupidity: "I've been playing perfectly, but these jerks....."
Once you recognize that your own play needs work, you can do something constructive. You also listed a series of intelligent actions and asked whether you had missed anything. Clarkmeister made on excellent comment, and you'll probably get more of them.
Good thinking. As long as you stay objective and work on your game, you'll develop as a player and person.

Al

[Fitz]

Unfortunately, I have taken some money out of the bankroll during my recent run. I totally agree; if I had not touched the bankroll, the recent downswing would be little more than a minor aggravation. However, with a spend happy fiance who knew how big my poker bankroll had become, I was trapped... lol.

Thanks for the input,