[Buzz]

"Is $500 in 10 hours a reasonable (statistically speaking) drawdown, or just indicative of bad play on my part?"

OTC Trader - Hard to say. $500 would be a severe loss for me in a $5-10 game. In fact it would be an impossible loss in a $5-10 game. I'll explain.

Speaking just for myself, sometimes I think much more clearly than at other times. This first became apparent to me years ago in graduate school. I remember sitting down in the evening and being simply unable to do the assigned problems for a particular class I was taking. I remember being so depressed that I felt like crying.

I went to bed wondering what would become of me. Then when I got up in the morning and looked at the problems, they were somehow do-able. There was some little trick in each problem and somehow when my brain was fresh I had insight as to what the little trick was. But only when my brain was fresh.

Every time I tried to do the assigned problems (mostly involving applied partial differential equations) for that class when my brain was tired, I simply couldn't do them. (I mean I was clueless). But if I had a nap before trying the problems, then I could do them.

I couldn't really tell the difference in how sharp my brain would be by the way I felt. It wasn't like I was sleepy or even feeling tired. Yet when I had just gotten some sleep, even though I wasn't sleepy or tired before I got the sleep, I could think better.

I think it's the same for poker - at least for me. Sometimes I have insight, while other times, without exactly being conscious of being tired, I think I may lack insight.

Another strong possibility is when I'm in a poker game and losing, I may be in over my head, playing against opponents who are much better poker players than I am.

When I'm losing I can't usually tell if it's because I'm unlucky, lacking insight, or in over my head.

The above is all rather vague. Bottom line is I limit my losses. For example, I'd quit a $5-10 game if I was down $200. Thus I could never lose more than that in a single session.

You might consider setting a loss limit for a playing session. You won't want to quit a game that looks easy when you're stuck a couple hundred bucks - but maybe you're missing something - and tomorrow is another day.

Just my opinion.

Buzz