Re: How do you guys handle the swings emotionally?
 

The swings can be brutal - especially so when you are new to the limit and not playing optimally.

If you cannot hack the roller-coaster switch back to playing full ring games. You may learn to love the fold-fold-fold-fold-fold-fold-fold-fold-fold-fold.

There is no shame in finding a limit and a game that suits your temperament, nor indeed just using poker as a part-time income. Honestly self-review yourself and your game and ask yourself what is good for you. Suffering a psychotic embolism at age 25 and permanently distorting your world view are just some nastier by-products of the game.

Re: How do you guys handle the swings emotionally?
 

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Suffering a psychotic embolism at age 25 and permanently distorting your world view are just some nastier by-products of the game.

[/ QUOTE ]

Nice turn of phrase...Listen to Nap, he says good things (unless we start talking about VP$IP...)

Re: How do you guys handle the swings emotionally?
 

I don't handle them at all well and nothing helps.

I have a 3000BB bankroll for the game I'm currently playing. I have been playing fairly frequently for five years. I have a very thorough understanding of the mathematics of the game.

If I sit down and start out losing 15BB, I get very upset. That happens about twice a day so I am a bit of a miserable so and so.

Hope this helps,

Guy.

Re: How do you guys handle the swings emotionally?
 

I mean, 50 bet swings both ways are multi-daily occourances.

Poker is a game of attempting to create a mean that's about 1/6th (at best) as big as your standard deviation. Of course there's lots of variance guys.

Re: How do you guys handle the swings emotionally?
 

Yea, that graph was pleading for a normalization!

Re: How do you guys handle the swings emotionally?
 

i spend about half my playing time at limits which mean i have a 1500BB bankroll - that makes a 200BB downswing feel boring and whilst it may seem excessive to have that big of a bankroll it is still a tiny amount given the money that i will make with it over a short time

every average/bad poker player i talk to and some of the good ones whine about thier recent poor run of fortune - drives me crazy - it insults the game that i play/teach/write about for a living to equate it with luck - poker isnt about luck at all yet that is how even the guys who play it a lot perceive it - its as if they too have been sucked into the big lie which is the way poker is marketed

the swings are just a part of the challenge the game presents - from my perspective they are the best part of the game because the rest of the skills required arent hard to aquire - this doesnt mean i am immune to emotional upset when i run filthy but given i rarely tell anyone how much i have won/lost or what my latest bad beat was probably means i deal with it better than most

you need to be tough and tough doesnt have to be a natural born instinct - its just knowing what to do when the game is tough - like many things i think suck it up and move on sums up the best approach to poor fortune

stripsqueez - chickenhawk

Re: How do you guys handle the swings emotionally?
 

glad i play nl

Re: How do you guys handle the swings emotionally?
 

Very nice post (yet again) stripsqueez.


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i spend about half my playing time at limits which mean i have a 1500BB bankroll - that makes a 200BB downswing feel boring

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You know...even THIS isn't true for me.

If I have a $15k roll and drop $2k at 5/10 you better believe I'm not going to be say "meh...that felt boring."

Speaking of which..I'm back at 5/10 for now.
A couple of fairly 'normal' downswings at 10/20 combined with the fact that I already know I'm not really that great a player anyway.


I am a bit desensitized to the smaller swings at 5/10 (not the 200BB types though). So when I win or lose a hand it doesn't really blow me away because I feel like I'm crawling along compared with the topsy-turvy 10/20 swings.



Maybe a way of looking at the swings would go something like KNOWING ahead of time that you are going to have a series of 25BB and 50BB swings throughout the day and there's not a damn thing you can do to stop them (which we know is already true of course).

In the course of 2k hands or so you will have a handful of +/-50BB swings.

On an average 2k hand stretch perhaps you will typically have 2 +50BB swings and 1 -50BB swings (a total guess).

At the end of the 2k hands you're +50BB of course.


Sometimes you won't get 2 out of 3 though.
You might have 2 out of 3 -50BB swings in one stretch....and then 2 out of 3 +50BB swings in the next stretch.


This isn't precise of course. Might not be too far off though.
Just looking at your poker KNOWING that it will be a series of 50BB swings...and that every once inawhile you will string together 4 consecutive +50BB swings or 4 consecutive -50BB swings.

If the idea of having these kind of $500 swings bothers you then get out of 5/10 (similarly...I have decided that the idea of too many $1000 swings bothers me enough that I'm stepping back from 10/20 for now until I have a bigger roll).



Screw the stuff about having a 300BB roll or a 1000BB roll or a 2000BB roll.


When you sit down at a game ask yourself "Am i going to be cool if I drop 50-70BB RIGHT FREAKING NOW because my cards sucked?"
That's the 'emotional-readyness' test.

You have to be ready for the possibility of a 50-70BB drop that comes practically in the blink of an eye. And if not I think you should probably step back a level.

Re: How do you guys handle the swings emotionally?
 

Jeff W. has a very good idea, but to fully appreciate and feel those effects I suggest you just shoot to 30/60. If you still got a BR left you will be a new man.