Normal swings?

[betgo]

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I wasn't sure if you mentioned playing for a living or not...

Tournaments are probably the hardest thing to make a decent living at. You need to have patience and be able to handle the mental strains that come with not winning every single day. Most players can't do that, which is why they add in ring games/sng's to take away the stress of not winning.

I'm not too sure what I can tell you. You can move to another form of poker (ring games/sngs) but you don't seem to want to do that. So basically you're going to have to learn to deal with the varience that comes along with MTTs if that's all you want to play. Assuming you don't have bankroll issues, this is going to be a purely mental challenge for you.

There are more issues than skill level/game selection/bankroll. The mental aspect can be a killer.

Good luck
Jeanie

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I do play primarily tournaments for a living, reaonably successfully so far. I also play some multitable SNGs, single table satellites, and live cash games. I reduce variance somewhat by multitabling MTTs.

I have not been successful with live tourmaments. I am not sure if that is due to variance, the psychological effects of variance, the fast structure of live daily tournaments or other factors. I have tried slower structure live tournaments, and seem to do better at those.

Usually, I will make some huge cash in an online MTT, which will pay most of my bills for the month.

It is hard when I lose several hundred dollars on the day and I sometimes think I am playing wrong, and I may go slightly on tilt.

I am doing OK as a tournament pro, but I play lower than is probably optimum without psychological factors and I find the variance hard to deal with.

[JeanieJ]

I've been playing for a living roughly two years now. Most of my money is earned in tournaments but I always had cash games on the side.

Just recently (last 3 months) I've been playing strictly tournaments and it's gone fairly well. I don't play high limits so this creates the need to win more money playing at MTTs than usual.

I'm not quite sure how multi-tabling reduces varience in MTTs, but I multi-table as well. Without it, I probably wouldn't be able to survive on tournaments alone.

Several hundred on a day of tournaments isn't that bad (depending on level you play). It all basically evens out once you hit the bigger cash. There's going to be a lot of ups and downs.

Give yourself time. I think things will get easier the longer you've played. Try not to stress out so much. Stress can cause your mind to think things that aren't true. I judge my day by the choices I've made. Not the money I've earned. If I've made the right choices then the money doesn't matter too much. That helps me keep the "long run" in perspective without stressing out about the money.

[betgo]

So I guess making $3K in one day and losing $.7K in the next 3 days is a normal pattern if you are playing online MTTS professionally at fairly small buyins. I actually am doing fairly well lately up about $7K in the last month, including entries won and used up, but short and long term fluctuations are pretty severe.

[JeanieJ]

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I actually am doing fairly well lately up about $7K in the last month, including entries won and used up, but short and long term fluctuations are pretty severe.


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Then don't let one days losses get to you. You're doing fine. When it's been a few months since a win, then you can worry. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Happy Thanksgiving