Has anyone ever felt like this before?

Python49 · #1 07-01-2005, 03:02 AM

At the beginning of this month I had lost about half my bank roll to a horrible run.. and spent the first half of the month playing intensely to make it back. This was not the first time I had a bad run but it was the most I had lost during a bad run however. It was up and down and needless to say *extremely* stressful.

I did however make it back half way into the month and felt absolutely relieved. The feeling I had when being down that much of my own profits was absolutely sickening. Once making it back I had a feeling of... "do i really want to play as much as I used to and run the risk of another bad run? That was extremely stressful and I hated the feeling I had in the pit of my stomach during that bad run". So i found myself for the later half of the month playing MUCH less than I have been for the past few months when building the bank roll. I'd make a few hundred for the day then log off. If i were to win my first 3 sit and goes I played for example id feel like im done for the day.

Basically trying to get off while im still feeling good about my progress for the day instead of feeling as though I have a "quota" to meet. I did make a solid amount of money for the second half of the month and am pleased, but I can tell that i obviously did not play as much as I did in the past months simply from my overall rake (MGR) for the month. Last month and the month before I had a sense of "hunger" that I just don't feel as much anymore. Nowadays its more of "sweet i won $200 today, no bad beats.. let me get the hell off before that changes". I assume that maybe im still rattled over the bad run and it shook my confidence some so I just need to slowly ease my way back into my "groove".. but was just wondering if this happened to anyone else where they hit a horrible run and just didnt have the desire to play as much, for the reasons I described.

TheMetetron · #2 07-01-2005, 03:39 AM

This doesn't sound good. Reason I play ridiculously overrolled for everything I even dream of stepping foot in. 1,000 BB's minimum. May I suggest some casino whoring to build the roll...

lorinda · #3 07-01-2005, 03:49 AM

I lose the desire to play almost at random, but it happens.

Thankfully there is a cure. A few days off!

You'll play better when you get back, you'll be more confident, and you might even enjoy it again.

Lori

handsome · #4 07-01-2005, 04:11 AM

Play more while you're losing and play less while you're winning? Sounds like a bad idea. Do the opposite and you'll be much more successful.

trillig · #5 07-01-2005, 04:13 AM

Take a break from PLAYING for a week, reread poker books, catch up on OTHER stuff and then jump back in with a clear head, that is my advice and I am sticking to it.

-Bri

allinbaby · #6 07-01-2005, 04:25 AM

I totally understand where you are coming from. In fact there was a time in my poker career when I used to play four tables of 15/30, exclusively. I was doing quite well, averagin about 1BB/100 over about 20k hands.

Then the day after I came back from PPM cruie, BOOM. I drop $5000 in one day. The day after, I drop $3000 within couple hours. Wow. It really hurts to lose that much money THAT fast.

Ever since, I don't touch 15/30 anymore. The highest I'd go is 5/10, on and off. Usually I'd grind out at 2/4 or even 1/2 while bonus whoring.

Now and then I think about moving back up to 15/30. But I second guess myself thinking that the competition is probably even tougher now... anyone have a similar experience? any thoughts?

pyroponic · #7 07-01-2005, 04:30 AM

[ QUOTE ]
This doesn't sound good. Reason I play ridiculously overrolled for everything I even dream of stepping foot in. 1,000 BB's minimum. May I suggest some casino whoring to build the roll...

[/ QUOTE ]

Good advice, maybe 1000 BB's is excessive for most people (although this is what I mantain personally), 500 BB minimum. 1000 or more is even better. That way the individual wins or losses feel miniscule compared to your total bankroll. Doesn't hurt to have a decent winrate too.

Python49 · #8 07-01-2005, 04:42 AM

[ QUOTE ]
This doesn't sound good. Reason I play ridiculously overrolled for everything I even dream of stepping foot in. 1,000 BB's minimum. May I suggest some casino whoring to build the roll...

[/ QUOTE ]
Well at the beginning of the month I actually wasnt playing over my head... i was just on THAT bad of a losing streak. That was actually the reason I didn't bust out completely and only lost close to half my roll. I was playing 100 NL however so the beats were taking my entire stack... so it wasnt just losing a few extra bets here or there. And to the last poster, I know what you mean.. before going on my losing streak I was playing primarily $100 SnGs.. now I just play the $30 ones again. I had played for about 3 months without having any serious run-ins with variance, and then it hit me hard and since I was new to the game I was taken aback. The main thing im asking however is if anyone else hit a horrible streak and then just felt absolutely drained from the energy they put into coming back.. they they were hesitant about still playing out of being worried of another losing session.

SoCalRugger · #9 07-01-2005, 04:43 AM

[ QUOTE ]
Thankfully there is a cure. A few days off!

[/ QUOTE ]

This is the best advice. I play 2/4, and hit a 150 BB downswing over 4 days last week. My PokerGrapher chart took a nosedive. So I took five days off. Watched a lot of movies I hadn't seen in awhile (and finally got around to seeing Revenge of the Sith), doubled my daily workouts, basically didn't do anything related to poker (except read this board). Now I'm back at it, and doing just fine.

2+2 wannabe · #10 07-01-2005, 05:04 AM

[ QUOTE ]
Play more while you're losing and play less while you're winning? Sounds like a bad idea. Do the opposite and you'll be much more successful.

[/ QUOTE ]

this doesn't really make much sense....