what to to to cheer you up after loosing 100BB in a session

[Joshua]

I'm in the middle of a multitabling $15/$30 100BB loosing session. Tommorow I'm going to have a nice meal for $50 at a fancy restaurant and then go see a movie. This is opposite to when I'm running good where I would just relax and enjoy the moment. Supporters of Artificiall-Intelligence-algoritms would view upon this as reversed reinforcement - that is rewarding bad results and pentalizing good results. I see it as necesary to survive. When I'm running good I'm in a great mood anyway so who need aditional rewards then...

How do you guys and gals handle downswings?

[Sundevils21]

do you play for a living?

[J_V]

When I lose, I eat oatmeal. When I win I eat steak. No Joke. I like your idea better.

Of course you are right, [censored] swede. They actually teach in your schools.

[TimTimSalabim]

The best thing you can do, in my view, is to take a week or two off completely. Otherwise, there's a tendency to try and "make it back" and then you start chasing and generally playing poorly. Let the loss completely go from your mind before you start playing again, whatever it takes to do that. Easier said than done, I know.

[Joshua]

Yes I do. I'm a university student who relies on poker to finance school. If I continue down through another 200BB I'll have to go back to playing 4 $3/$6-tables. That's not a bad living, but I'm still hoping to stay alive at $15/$30.

[Joshua]

Maybe I'll take a break and devote more time to my thesis for a while. But it's so fun to play poker /images/graemlins/crazy.gif

[Joshua]

Yeah. I know all about A, B, C. I'm currently studyin the rest of the alphabet at the University /images/graemlins/shocked.gif

[GuyOnTilt]

The best thing you can do, in my view, is to take a week or two off completely.

Uhhhh...no. 100 BB's come and go in those games. When I have a bad day, I go about life as usual. I know I made my hourly rate, so why should I care if I happened to drop a ton in a 6 hour sesh? Poker's a swingy game; you can't fret or rejoice too much over the short-term.

GoT

[Sundevils21]

[ QUOTE ]
The best thing you can do, in my view, is to take a week or two off completely.

Uhhhh...no. 100 BB's come and go in those games. When I have a bad day, I go about life as usual. I know I made my hourly rate, so why should I care if I happened to drop a ton in a 6 hour sesh? Poker's a swingy game; you can't fret or rejoice too much over the short-term.

GoT

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree, if every time I was down 100bb's I went for a dinner and movie, I'd be broke.
I used to be(away from the tables) happy when I won and depressed/angry when I lost, now I try to be happy away from the table regardless of wins/losses.

[Joshua]

Can't you guys just let me have a nice meal /images/graemlins/wink.gif I hear you all. It's nothing to be bothered about as long as it's not a 300BB down-swing I guess.

[TimTimSalabim]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
The best thing you can do, in my view, is to take a week or two off completely.

Uhhhh...no. 100 BB's come and go in those games. When I have a bad day, I go about life as usual. I know I made my hourly rate, so why should I care if I happened to drop a ton in a 6 hour sesh? Poker's a swingy game; you can't fret or rejoice too much over the short-term.

GoT

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree, if every time I was down 100bb's I went for a dinner and movie, I'd be broke.
I used to be(away from the tables) happy when I won and depressed/angry when I lost, now I try to be happy away from the table regardless of wins/losses.

[/ QUOTE ]

I guess I see a 100BB loss as more than just a "bad day". Every time it has happened to me, when I played again the next day, I've made bad chases and calls trying to make some of it up. And every time, I wished I would have taken at least a week off to shake it off. Maybe I'm just not as disciplined as you guys.

[Filip]

I load winamp with "the botten is nådd" by Timbuktu and put in on repeat. Works for me /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Joshua]

Great tune that is!! I don't have Kazaa installed so I guess I'll just have to bite the dust and buy the CD!

[turnipmonster]

when I play PL, if I lose my stack twice I take a cab home. If I win I usually take the subway. I used to do the opposite, except I figured out that I'd rather take a cab on the bad nights and get home quick.

--turnipmonster

[Joshua]

My session ended 170BB down so I'm dropping back down to 4 tables of $3/$6 at Party. This was the first time I've held 15 top pairs without it holding up once. I'll rebuild my confidence and return. "I'll be back" as Arnold would have said. I make more money playing 4 $3/$6 tables than playing one $15/$30 table so if I cant multitable $15/$30 then what's the point. I'll be back...

[Filip]

[ QUOTE ]
I load winamp with "the botten is nådd" by Timbuktu and put in on repeat. Works for me /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

and guess what i am listning to now....... lol omg 5am and making a primal scream after busting 10 places short of the cash for the 2nd time in a row in ubs $50 with 3k added....

(_*_) (http://www.fuckpoker.com)

[/tilt]

[Filip]

Keep the faith Joshua, poker can be mean sometimes.

[Nemesis]

A 5k drop would definately make me not play as good... good luck getting back up.

[Mikey]

When I have a downswing, I'll be honest with you, I sleep a lot better at night.

[Enon]

Josh -

If it's any comfort to you, I recently went through a 10k downturn at the 15/30 tables and endured what seemed to be an endless array of people hitting their 2 outers on me. I actually thought about doing exactly what you are thinking about, heading back to my old days of 3/6 to get my sanity back. Well, that experiment lasted all but one night as I'd already adjusted very well to the 15/30 game and ended up playing suboptimal strategy. Plus, its also hard to get worked up about a +100 BB session at the 3/6 tables once you're used to the 15/30 game /images/graemlins/smile.gif

I've since recovered from my 10k downturn and recovered my 'loss' and then some in about 2 weeks.

But I believe a good way to handle this downswing is to consider doing other things that get your mind off this substantial loss of money and that allows you to regain your confidence and your mental clarity. Over the last few months, I played the 15/30 obsessively, playing almost every night for about 3-10 hours and found that I had started becoming very sluggish without getting much exercise. After a losing session where I also felt that I severely misplayed a number of hands, I would compulsively play even more hands in an attempt to have a error-free session, an impossible goal to start with. This would inevitably put me on semi-tilt because as soon as I laid down that the winning hand in a big pot, or got outplayed heads up out of the blinds, my unrealistic expectation went again unrealized.

My #1 piece of advice that I don't ever hear mentioned is: go exercise. I find that If I get daily exercise (something I neglected to do over these past few months of poker obsession) my mood is much better and my mind much sharper. A few weekends ago I went on a 20 mile mountain bike ride, came home and watched some episodes of Curb Your Enthusiam and then played what I felt was my best online session I had ever played and didn't even have a big upswing. I went to bed satisfied that I had played my best.

One last piece of advice. I found that as my huge losing streak continued to widen, I became more and more insecure about whether I really had developed some the skills necessary to become an expert at holdem. Just because you run up a thousands of profits at the 15/30 game didn't mean that my basic understanding of holdem odds was up to snuff. These insecurities that my losing streak surfaces motivated me to return to my holdem odds book to better my understanding of the game and to make a better effort to read and respond on this forum. As Mason has already written in his essays and other posters on this site have echoed is that if you know you are making the correct decisions but still getting sucked out again and again, you can fall back on your knowledge of the game for confidence in tough times.

[OrangeHeat]

Joshua,

I just went through a similar spell. When I was down to 100BB I switched to 5/10 6 max. I think you'll find the aggresiveness you need at the 15/30 suits the 6 max games better than the 3/6 and you will have to make less adjustments.

Keep the faith - I spent a week in purgatory moved back to the 15 games and have since recovered all of my BR plus a good chunk.

Also it may be a fluke - but review your game. I did and I found some gaping holes.

Orange

[Senor Choppy]

As Enon mentioned, exercise is always good for you, both physically and mentally.

The best thing to do if you aren't steaming is play more poker. If you're a winning player, chances are the next session is going to be profitable, and nothing takes your mind off losing better than winning.

[Sooga]

You know what cheers me up when I'm feelin sh*tty? Rolled up aces over kings. Check raising stupid tourists and taking huge pots off 'em. Stacks, and towers of checks...