what to make of a huge loss

[octop]

The best thing that ever happened to me in NL was losing a big pot
I lost top two pair to a gutshot and flush draw when we were all in on the turn at the borgata
It was about a 600 dollar pot
I was playing a little too scared and after that I was like [censored] it thats the worst that could happen - big deal

[OrangeKing]

The main problem I have with the idea of the poker bubble bursting is that it's not quite so much of a bubble as people think. Tens of millions of people in the US were playing poker weekly or more often well before this popularity surge, which makes me think that the game will be very, very popular for a long time to come.

[davet]

yeah, taking a huge dip at 2/4 feels like crap, especially because the winners actually start playing worse against you, yet still manage to take all your money. But with a 2.5 BB expectation, you are probably looking at about a 30 hr standard deviation, which means you can go as bad as 700 dollars or so. And this streak can last for over 400 hours.

By the way, we are on a poker bubble, just ask all of the props in Southern California who all of a sudden lost their jobs. A few are keeping their old- timers on, because they will need the props when the bubble does burst. Then we all can get jobs as props, or go broke.

[SNOWBALL138]

Thats a good point. I think that the poker boom that people talk about is partly owed to home game players opening up internet accounts or playing in public rooms.

[hobbes9324]

Mike Caro has written several articles on his concept of a
"threshold of misery" that you should read. A brief and totally inadaquate summary might be -

You plan to play poker, or gamble on just about anything else, with the idea that once you lose, say, $200 you'll call it a night. But you go beyond that, feeling worse and worse about your play. At some point, maybe $600 or $700 you reach what he describes as your threshold of misery - and money lost beyond that just doesn't seem to matter at the time. In the morning, of course.......

Anyway, you might look it up - it's an interesting concept, and one which I think has some validity......

M

[Warren Whitmore]

First of all the advice of others I agree with.

(1) Take a break.
(2) Play small for a while.

I will add a couple more.

(3) Monitor your opponants carefully. Playing with smart people instead of fools can kill your win rate. At the limits you speak of going from +3BB hour to -3BB hour ev is typical.

(4) Play one game at a time. I know this goes against the normal advice (and my own point #3). The normal advice being to play many softer low limit games instead of one somewhat tougher game.

Short term that advice is good long term though it hurts. When you play one game at a time and give it 100% of your attention you not only learn more about your opponants but equally important you improve your own game. Each time you play therefor you play just a little bit better than the session before. Over time studying between sessions and improving through experiance your win rate will very slowly improve.

Contrast this with multi tableing. Each session you play your play deteriorates because you are swithing your mind from learning and improving upon concepts to relying more heavily on memorization. Over time this will stunt your growth as a poker player. As with trying to become an expert in any field look at what the top payers are doing and try to emulate them. Do you think David & Mason would be the players they are today if they focused on playing 3 games at once instead of 1? I doubt it.

[Phogster]

still think there's no bubble?

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/db5a6244-1f...00e2511c8.html

[ QUOTE ]
still think there's no bubble?

[/ QUOTE ]
Party revenues and users GREW. Just not as much as investors hoped.

[Richie Rich]

Spend $1200+ on a new set of irons, top-line driver, and a new golf bag as well. Once you start to see things in a new perspective (and it will happend), losing $500+ won't seem like such a big deal.

[TheHip41]

[ QUOTE ]
Might seem big now, but you'll take worse if you are serious about playing long-term.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree with this. I started playing 10,000 hands a week at 2/4 about 2 months ago.

I went through a 200BB downswing over 500 hands. Then 50,000 hands running at 3.5BB/100.

Now, over the last 10,000 hands, I'm down 250BB.

Variance can suck my ****