recency and emotion

[NYplayer]

I play high limit holdem and generally have swings 10K to 20K in a given day. It seems irrational but i feel better on a day where i'm down 15K at at one point and end the day down 3K or 4K than I do on a day where I end up 5K on day but was up 15-20 at one point. Why does this happen. shouldn't i feel better after a winning day than after a losing one?

[coffeecrazy1]

No...completely normal response.

That said, I've never actually HAD 20k, so I don't know... /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[tek]

The variance at play money tables can be brutal.

[bdk3clash]

I'd suspect that you nailed it on the head with the "recency" concept. In a day where you win 20k and then lose 15k of it back you've most recently lost 15k; in a day where you lose 20k and then win back 15k you've most recently won 15k.

From what I can tell about you you're mature and disciplined enough player that you have made a conscious effort to not worry too much about daily results; however, unwinding after a session it seems inevitable to me that to some extent you'll continue to be caught up in whatever emotional state you were in during that session--and in particular whatever was going on most recently in a session.

So a day that started out on a heater (+20k) and then ended with a downswing (-15k) you'll likely be stuck in whatever emotional state you get in when losing, even though you're a net-winner for the day, and vice-versa.

There may be some people who are more influenced by how a session starts out, but I suspect most gamblers "remember" recent results more conspicuously.

Wikipedia entry on recency effect (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recency_effect)

Wikipedia entry on primacy effect (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primacy_effect)

Wikipedia entry on cognitive biases (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases)

[sfer]

[ QUOTE ]
I play high limit holdem and generally have swings 10K to 20K in a given day. It seems irrational but i feel better on a day where i'm down 15K at at one point and end the day down 3K or 4K than I do on a day where I end up 5K on day but was up 15-20 at one point. Why does this happen. shouldn't i feel better after a winning day than after a losing one?

[/ QUOTE ]

Because winning 11K-12K feels much better than losing 11K. Pegging "the day" as the metric for performance is as arbitrary is measuring your performance for a specific point, i.e. stuck 15K or up 20K.

[stoxtrader]

Other than tax reasons and bankroll considerations I think that tracking results doesn't do much productive.

I guess the goal would be to manage your roll and life and risk very well while detaching completely from results. maybe not attainable to do one without the other.

I do know that I very often will not know how my session went to within 5 figures, and I won't bother to check.

[stoxtrader]

[ QUOTE ]
The variance at play money tables can be brutal.

[/ QUOTE ]

not that he needs any sticking up for, but in case you didnt get the message when everyone else simply ignored this.

NYplayer plays good. He just doesnt talk about it as much as some of us.

[ThinkQuick]

There was a post about this phenomenon with a poll a while back. I was one of only very few that voted I would "rather" have a day where I was up a bunch then lost it back instead of a day where I was down a bunch then made it back.
The overwhelming majority of people feel the same way that you do, and the response I remember reading is that people love stories and it is a much better story to be down and then heroically come back from the depths. meh, recency sounds like it holds more weight.