6 Weeks and Counting

[Jorge10]

Ok I have experienced downswings before, some last 1 week, some last 2 weeks, lost a few buy ins nothing crazy.

This last one has been going on for 6 weeks, and I play about 700 hands a day so its a long long time. Its to the point that its actually cutting into my bankroll, I lost about 25% of it so far. I have been wondering what to do. Now I know I should play through or something, but my bankroll is hurting right now, I was well overbankrolled for my level, but still damn.

I started playing another game actually because its been so bad in my usual game. Its to the point where I wonder if I can even win. Its also odd as people tell me, WTF are you playing higher stakes or did you change your game or something? I was used to doing somewhat ok monthly, but damn. Anyway anyone ever experienced a long downswing like this? Also should I stop playing poker for like a week or two. I have begun to play 100PLO instead of my usual game 200PLO8 and so far I have been winning at that game. Im thiking of playing other games for a while or something, its just odd that after playing PLO8 for 8 months suddenly I cant play it.

Anyway any ideas would help me out, just cant think of what to do.

Also sorry about the downswing post, its just that 6 weeks seem like a long long time to me.

[tommo]

yep, I had one of those just this month. Lost about $8000. I'm back to even for the month now. what did I do?

I took a couple days off, ordered about 4 poker books and forced myself to read all of them before starting again...and then I went on a ridiculous hot streak. I also knocked myself down to 2 tables for a while.

Things are really often a lot more then just being some random luck based downswing...

In my experience it's usually that you start playing worse, chasing more, making "reads" which aren't real because you don't want to fold for the 80th crap flop that hour...

Take a step back and stop playing for a bit and you might find the sky clears for you.

You could be in a state of prolonged tilt and maybe don't even realize it.

[Killer Man's Son]

My longest cold streak online is 2-3 months (nothing remotely playable pre-flop for the most part. Disclaimer: ran OK live). My longest hot streak is 6 weeks (couldn't lose a hand I decided to play). It all balances in the end. Contrary to some other opinions you may receive, I would not try to 'play through it' (e.g. play more tables to get more hands in). Drop limits, drop the number of tables you play, and wait for the cold run to break. Good luck.