Happy Vacation to me...So much for relaxing

[hustalasta]

Just another 'Downswings Happen' post, figure its good for newer players to see what can happen any given day.

Since I'm on vacation this week I have decided to spend some quality time on my poker game. Up to this point I have played limit seriously for about the last 4 months. Logged about 10,000 hands as your typical mouse winning approx 3BB/100 with my mousey ways.

I have revisited my game and have been working on my agression from reading SSHE & this forum, the last 2500 hands have been much better (my flop agression has tripled, and pre-flop has gone from the 5% to 6.50-7%). For the first time poker tracker not only rates me as a 'money bag' (using the formula's from the poker tracker forum) but I have been consistently a 'money bag' the last 2500 hands. Its a big step for me, be proud (Sample Size Guy may not agree, but I never liked that guy much anyways).

Today I decided I would play 500 hands (I only 2 table) and found some really nice fishing spots. Average saw the flop was 44.16%, I was able to relax my starting hands slightly. Only problem was I didnt get much to work with. some stats from todays session:

Total Hands: 502
VP$IP: 14.34% (72 out of 502) Blech!
Saw flop: 20.52% (103 of 502)
Won $ when saw Flop: 16.5% (17 out of 103) + 2 hands won with no flop. Cruelty!
Went to SD%: 21.36% - normally see 27%ish
Won $ at SD%: 45.45% - normally in the 60%ish range (who put the foam fishing hook on my line?)

Suited hands
dealt: 105
saw flop: 35
flushes made: 0 (actually made 1 flush on the night with 4 of a suit on the board)
win %: 8.57%
net -29.5 BB

Pairs
dealt: 27
played: 24
99's & up win %: 72.73% (8 of 11) +39 BB (something went right!)
88's & lower win %: 7.69 (1 of 13, normal) -4.75BB , hit one set for 2.25BB average pot size tonight was 8.36BB [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

Blinds
Big Blind
Dealt: 58 hands
Played: 40
Won $ when saw flop : 10%
Net: -27.75 BB

Small Blind
Dealt: 53 hands
Played: 15
Won $ when saw flop : 6.67%
Net: -25.50 BB

Session Total
Net: -36BB (-7.17BB/100)

Not the end of the world, just a minor speed bump. Frustrating? Yes. But I'll be right back at it in the morning.

[BadBatsuMaru]

Down 29.5 BB? Consider yourself extremely lucky. I think most ppl have seen multiple downswings closer to 200 BB.

I lost $55 in about 15 min this afternoon. I actually got an overpair heads-up vs. a full house 3 times in a row vs. the same guy.

[sin808]

I've already had 2 downswings, one that exceeded 100BB, and more recently -80BB. I was down 29BB for the first hour I played tonight (I finished +50BB after 3 more hours). 30BB shouldn't even be a concern.

Take a look at this. Fool around with that for even just a couple of minutes and you'll get an interesting view of how streaky poker is.

(I really just though Homer's spreadsheet was cool and thought more people here should see it, this looked like a good opportunity to plug it)

[JordanIB]

You're on vacation. Get out of the house!

[hustalasta]

[ QUOTE ]
You're on vacation. Get out of the house!

[/ QUOTE ]

This is the best reply so far! The plan was to be golfing but unfortunately a drunk driver intervened and left me with a screwed up back, no golf for now. Poker will have to do momentarily plus its 45 degrees and windy out, rather be indoors presently. I will get to visit with my friend who just had back surgery so as I will feel less sorry for myself. There is always someone worse off. (did I mention the drunk driver had only $5k worth of coverage? So my wallet is $2k lighter from out of pocket expenses at the moment, there goes my vacation money).

To add a little to my original post:

My current downswing is at -44BB, last night was only -36BB (not -29BB) of the current down swing and who knows if the swing is over? I am not trying to turn this into a my scar is bigger than your scar contest, I just wanted to show what can happen over a period of 500 hands. I'm not extremely lucky or extremely unlucky, I'm just another notch on the variance stick. At least I can look at my stats and know why it happened.

[BatsShadow]

This is a good post. I'm currently on a huge downswing - nearly 150 big bets. I'm playing 0.10/0.20 on Pacific Poker. The variance is sometimes crazy. The last session I played, I played only 65 hands and lost $12. Not winning a single hand. I swear I played the same as usual. Occasionally in sessions of similar hand numbers, I win 40 big bets. I've only had one swing this bad before. This one is scaring me this time. I took a few days off to cool my head, just to make sure I don't tilt (or tilt more).