Getting out of a downswing

[ClaytonN]

Okay, so I'm currently in around a 70BB downswing at the .5/1 levels at PS, and have lost an extra 20-30 or so playing a couple of tournaments that I shouldn't have played in the first place. On top of that, I feel kinda under the weather.

That said, I'm still up about $100 overall off my $300 deposit.

How do you guys manage with your downswings? At the moment I am managing mine by avoiding the tables for a day, maybe two. This is certainly the case in this scenario, since I'm a little under the weather.

Is this the right way to go about it?

[rmr1976]

I agree that taking time off if you are in a downswing is a good idea. While I don't believe in streaks, bad beats can affect you mentally, making you play too aggressively out of anger, or too passively out of fear. I recently experienced that myself.

I've been playing at the empire .5/1 tables inconsistently since August, and managed to increase my initial 215 stake up to about 518 (including the 25 buck bonus). Keep in mind, I only have about 4100 hands under my belt (71 hrs.). I'm going to stick to the microlimits until I have at least 50,000 hands to analyze.

I recently just ended a streak where I gave back almost half of my profits.

I took a week off, had some up/down sessions, but finally achieved a equity peak on Thursday, after having a rough session where a maniac kept getting a good run of cards.

It all turned out OK in the end. My $80 bankroll for the game turned into $122 by the end of the night.

If I had a particularly bad session, (ie a loss > 35 BB) I take a week off. It gives me enough time to forget about bad beats, and become balanced again. I'll go over some 2+2 books, and play a few hundred challenge matches with the advisor on TTH, just to get back in the groove.