Dealing with Swings

[QTip]

To the best of my knowledge, I've never posted nor read in this forum. So, if this type of post is like the "20k stats, how am I doing?" posts in the SS Forum that make me want to hurl, lock this up.

I've plenty experience in the game, as I've got about 600k hands under my belt now.

I'm having a hard time getting to an even emotional state when playing the game. When I'm running good, I feel wonderful about the game. I feel like it's what I deserve.

However, when I'm losing 200-300 BB, I just hate the game, and wonder why God hates me as an individual.

I don't think this effects my play (though I could be wrong), as even when I'm running poorly, I still feel I'm playing well. So I don't believe tilt is much of an issue for me. Nor do I believe, in general, that having a winning or losing day effects my personality or the way I interact with others.

I'm just sick of allowing myself to go on these emotional roller coasters. I always tell myself, "Play hopeless poker." Then, when I go on a real [censored] run, I say "who cares, everyone has them, I've had a billion of them. It turns around every time." Then, the suckouts keep coming, and I say "I welcome suckouts. It's for the good of the game." But, inside me, there's still turmoil, and it grows with every succeeding suckout.

I should be past this, but I'm not.

Any helpful tricks or anything from others who have overcome this nonsense?

[Alex/Mugaaz]

What I do is find some way to play poker where I can enjoy it. Watch an episode of some wsop you liked, read a new book, play 2c 4cent and raise every hand, etc. Anything to make you enjoy poker even temporarily. Browse the BBV forum, read about some guys huge rush. Take 1 dollar and try to run it up as far as you can playing NL and moving up as fast as you can. Crap like this gets you out of the rut. Once you are excited to multitable some lhe again you're ready.

No one feels the same when they are up 300bbs or down 300bbs. They start to care less, they play good anyway, they psyche themselves up, whatever it takes. If it gets horribly bad you can take up a new form of poker and try to build up again from small stakes or play on a different site. Just do something to get you out of this rut you believe you are in. Banging your head against a wall continously without anything to show for it just leads to hopelessness and desperation.

[mosquito]

If your emotions are going thru swings, then it's almost a guarantee that your play is being affected as well. It may or may not be enough to worry about - no one is completely consistent. Highs and lows do change your outlook and hence your valuation.

5-10 years ago I had a more even keel than I do now, I'd like to get it back. For me it's from working with a bankroll that's too small for my comfort, and I can't afford to play lower without getting a job. LOL.

Have some fun, the results won't matter as much. If you can't win that way, maybe it's better that you know that.

edit: welcome to the forum!

i'm on a downswing now and i feel terrible about it. it's just so frustrating to play your best and still get beaten. it seems i should try to get away from the game for a bit but it's pretty hard. i'm not sure what to do.

[mosquito]

[ QUOTE ]
i'm on a downswing now and i feel terrible about it. it's just so frustrating to play your best and still get beaten. it seems i should try to get away from the game for a bit but it's pretty hard. i'm not sure what to do.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sometimes it's hard to remember that you don't deserve to win just because you play well. Playing well just makes it more likely that you will win in the long run.

If you think you should get away from the game for a bit then it's probably a good idea, for several reasons. If you've done so before you know what it will do for you. If you have never gotten away from it before, now might be the time to experiment with it.

[SmileyEH]

All I think you can do is control the frequency of hating poker. If it's every third session...time to reevaluate. But if you get pissed and hate poker once a week I don't think it's that big of a deal. Everyone is going to have bad days, and it will affect you psychologically-no way around that, at least for me.

-SmileyEH

I just play with a huge bankroll in comparison to the stakes. I'm very comfortable playing 600nl where the swings are almost irrelevant to my BR, rather than 1k nl, where although i'm am almost definately a solid winner, i don't feel comfortable losing 5k in a day. I used to also go on an emotional rollercoaster, and although my play really wasn't affected very much by it, it sucked. Now i just dont' care and the only thing that happens to me when i go on a real bad run is i start laughing.

[xorbie]

I dunno what works, but I just stopped playing for a while. I'll report back later when I start again [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Bluffoon]

Hey we are not poker machines we are human beings and we get frustrated, sad, upset etc....

You can't deny your feelings and reactions. It sucks to take the worst of it over and over and over for days or even weeks. Accept that you are going to have negative feelings when you are in such a swing. It's normal.

I do a couple of things when an extended downswing hits. I look carefully at my state of mind. When I am playing and feeling bad (frustrated, discouraged etc..) I take a short break and do something I enjoy. I find it takes me about twenty minutes to come in off the ledge and I can go back to playing and I feel better.

The other thing I do is pull up a database from when I was running well and I review some successful hands and stats. This helps restore my confidence and I find it also helpful to compare my current play with my play during a successful run to see if any negative changes have crept into my game.

I am amazed at the length and magnitude of swings that are possible and that you will see over 100's of thousands of hands. You can talk about it and read about it but you really have to experience it for yourself. When I first started playing it took me a while to adjust to the normal swings of poker. Now that I have experienced a little bit of the larger and longer, outlier type of swings I hope that I will be better prepared when they hit again.

[winky51]

Doesn't take but losing 1-2 extra hands an hour on the river to turn +2BB per 100 to -2BB per 100.

Or missing an extra 10% of the flops while your opponent with his J5s hits his pair while you bet AK no pair.

Once I hit over 100,000 hands I started seeing how large the swings can be. But keep records and not just PT.

I have a record of every day I play, what I played, and how much won/lost.

That way I can look back and see which were winning months and losing months. Seeing 3-4 winning months in a row makes me feel good. This year I think I had 2-3 losing months, December being one. Made far more than lost though.