When do you move down/what do you do?

[JoshuaD]

I'm in the middle of my worst downswing so far in my career of playing.

From the last peak, I'm down about 160BB's playin 5/10 6m, over 5600 hands, spread over 3 or 4 days. It's brutal. My bankroll was at 510BB's before the downswing started.

I was a >2BB winner at this game over about 60k before this downswing.

When do I stop? What's the smartest move?

edit: Make that 170. And I quit for the day.

play through it, thats not that bad.

[JoshuaD]

[ QUOTE ]
play through it, thats not that bad.

[/ QUOTE ]

.. so your advice is to just grind out my bankroll until I'm broke or out of the downswing?

I'm not looking for a pep-talk. I'm asking at what point in my BR should I stop trying to play through the downswing and take a step down.

Or, should I reload from savings and continue to grind the game?

[beeyjay]

I'd say when you hit $1800 if you're real worried about it.

[Femto]

I have a little ritual that I go through. When I drop past a certain point, say 10 buyins (I play SNGs), I drop 3 levels and play an hour there to blow off some steam, then play an hour at the next level, etc, and I don't move back up to my preferred stakes until I've shown a profit for a day or two at the lower stakes. I think if I had implemented this earler it would have severely cut down on the tilt aspect of my downswings, because this helps to maintain your confidence level. It feels good to be able to laugh when your QcQh gets outdrawn by QdQs, because the money doesnt matter. So ride out the downswing at a lower stakes, then move back up when they flip back the doom switch.

But for 6max...I used to play a lot of 5/10 and a little 10/20, and the downswings were always so stressful. I was rolled well enough, but I just found that if I sunk past 100BBs or so I'd just keep on sinking until I took a few days off--NO poker, NO 2+2--do other stuff for awhile, like exercise, sleep, hit on some ladies, etc. And come back mentally refreshed. IMO that's all you can do. "Working through it" is something some people can do, but not I. I prefer to take a step back and regather myself.

[JoshuaD]

Now with graph action:

[JoshuaD]

[ QUOTE ]
I have a little ritual that I go through. When I drop past a certain point, say 10 buyins (I play SNGs), I drop 3 levels and play an hour there to blow off some steam, then play an hour at the next level, etc, and I don't move back up to my preferred stakes until I've shown a profit for a day or two at the lower stakes. I think if I had implemented this earler it would have severely cut down on the tilt aspect of my downswings, because this helps to maintain your confidence level. It feels good to be able to laugh when your QcQh gets outdrawn by QdQs, because the money doesnt matter. So ride out the downswing at a lower stakes, then move back up when they flip back the doom switch.

But for 6max...I used to play a lot of 5/10 and a little 10/20, and the downswings were always so stressful. I was rolled well enough, but I just found that if I sunk past 100BBs or so I'd just keep on sinking until I took a few days off--NO poker, NO 2+2--do other stuff for awhile, like exercise, sleep, hit on some ladies, etc. And come back mentally refreshed. IMO that's all you can do. "Working through it" is something some people can do, but not I. I prefer to take a step back and regather myself.

[/ QUOTE ]

Did you feel like you were tilting before you moved down? When I start feeling burn, I just stand up. When I sat down today I felt good and ready to make money. When that feeling disapeared, I stood up.

[jba]

keep playing until you hit 3k or so, then move to 3/6 6m. that's all you can do.

btw if your 2+2 name is just like your PP 5/10 6m, I'll give you a free compliment and say you're solid.

[JoshuaD]

[ QUOTE ]
keep playing until you hit 3k or so, then move to 3/6 6m. that's all you can do.

btw if your 2+2 name is just like your PP 5/10 6m, I'll give you a free compliment and say you're solid.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks, I appreciate it.

[Femto]

[ QUOTE ]
Did you feel like you were tilting before you moved down? When I start feeling burn, I just stand up. When I sat down today I felt good and ready to make money. When that feeling disapeared, I stood up.

[/ QUOTE ]It's more a preventative measure. When I feel like I could start to tilt because of all the ridiculous beats, then I take action--rather than waiting until I know for sure that I'm tilting.