Coping with massive downswing

Pysterman

I've been playing on the site casually for over 2 years, steadily building a modest bankroll from nothing, playing mostly DYMs. Last summer I started to concentrate on improving and also started playing low-stakes cash. Since then I have steadily and consistently increased my bankroll more than 5-fold. I now play up to 5p/10p cash, where I've been doing quite nicely. Of course I've had bad nights, or even bad weeks, but I've always come back again.

However, over the last 2 weeks I seem to be utterly cursed. It doesn't seem to matter what I do, I'm just haemorrhaging money every time I sit down.

I get AA all-in against a lower pair, he catches his set.

I get KQ all in against JT (player was short stacked), flop comes AKQ (no, I don't catch another K or Q).

I get AK all in against A3, he flops a 3, I turn a K, he fills up his flush on the river.

...to name but a few.

I'm not one of those who normally complains about suck-outs and thinks it's all rigged but based on my recent experience I can see why people might sometimes think that. At the moment, I just dread seeing a premium hand in front of me as I'm just thinking "here we go again... gonna do my stack again".

And it's not just bad beats that are killing me. I find a good table and sit and watch loose, fishy players throw their chips around, seemingly willing to bet their entire stack with 2nd or 3rd pair. Of course, when I get involved with my TPTK ot 2 pairs, the player has a set.

As if to illustrate my point, literally as I write this, this just happened. I play JT, pot goes 3 ways,  flop comes T6T. I let the pre-flop agressor do the betting. Turn is a 5. Aggressor checks. I now bet and get called by the 3rd player. River is A. I bet and get raised. I'm happy to get all the chips in as I'm only losing to AA (unlikely given betting), 55 (may have folded on flop), a better 10 (unlikely as there's only one other 10) or 66. On paper, I would imagine the guy's hit 2 pairs (A5 or A6). Of course, I already 'know' the outcome when the cards are turned over... 55. I know I wasn't necessarily winning, and this wasn't a bad beat as such, but at this level when I get it all in here I imagine I'm good most of the time.

That left me with a balance of exactly £0.01. I wasn't intending on topping up. So what happens now...? I get dealt KK. Pot goes 5 ways with several rounds of betting and yes, the KK holds and I multiply up to £0.05. Typical!

I don't mean this to sound like a bad beat post. I've been a consistent low-variance winner for 2 years, doing especially well over the last 6 months, but I've blown 28% of my bankroll in less than 2 weeks.

I'm still playing within my bankroll and I'm not trying to chase my losses. I admit there may have been one or two times when I've made an out-of-character play, thinking "what the heck, I've lost so much recently I don't care any more" which I guess is tilting, but generally I don't feel I'm playing massively different to the way I usually play. It genuinely feels like an awful run of luck.

However, I am aware that even though I THINK I'm not tilting, my recent run of (apparent) bad luck may be affecting my game. I also have a feeling of disillusionment, thinking that it will take me forever to get back to where I was before, if I ever do. Should I just cash in my bankroll while I still have one?

Does anyone have any advice? Should I take a break for a week? Should I drop down and play only smaller stakes until I feel like I'm winning again? Or, as long as it's within my bankroll, should I just keep grinding away as normal?

Batkin88

If your getting it good and your bankroll still allows it then stick to the same level and keep grinding away i dont feel a break ever helps personally. If your playing well and losing i wouldn't reccomend dropping the level as your game will change

Talon

  2 things come immediately to mind with your post.

  Firstly, 2 weeks for a casual player is basically a very short time span so will include only a small sample size. variance over a small sample size can be extreme but will even itself out over a longer time frame.


 Secondly. i Think what you need to do is go and look at a large number of the hands you played and be brutally honest with yourself. Asking questions like should i have even been in the pot in the first place and was my bet sizing correct.Sometimes when there are bad players in a pot throwing chips around like they are going out of fashion we can be tempted to play too many pots with more marginal hands hoping to hit the great flop to take them out.


    If you are happy with the way you are playing the hands then i think there is no reason to change anything but first be sure that there are no leaks in your own game surfacing.


 

SJspanky1

Reckon any of us who play cash at any level have experienced this at some stage. It feels like the poker gods have deserted us forever and we start to EXPECT to lose every pot we enter. As our hard earned bankroll dwindles we can start to get looser or make moves we might not otherwise have made in effort to recoup losses and get back to where we were. Certainly my biggest downswings have always followed big winning runs and when I look back at the hand histories there are some bad beats in there but also some bad play.

My advice? Take a little chunk of your remaining bankroll and buy yourself a little present, something you can know that you earned yourself by playing good solid poker. Then drop back down to the level where you made that money(I'm assuming NL4 or NL8) and do it again. You know you can because you already have once. Restore that confidence in your pokerskills.

Best of luck.

Dudeskin8

If you've lost 28% of your roll the first obvious thing I would do is move down a level or two so the beats don't hurt as much.

Secondly I don't often see you post in the clinic so that would be a good idea, just search in HH for the biggest losing pots and post a few up (try and only post 2-3 per thread as 10+ gets boring)

Lastly everyone has down swings so don't worry and I'm sure if you were winning consistently for 2 years then you clearly have a game to build it back up.

Good luck mate

rancid

Plough on, if your doing nothing wrong then why change

Look at your HH and see if all is ok

If you getting it in +EV, no need to change – it will turn around

On a positive note, a downswing is always followed by an upswing

If the downswing means your BR has got low for the level your playing then step down

These downswings only emphasis that a +50 buy in BR is required at least

A downswing just makes you feel like no matter what you do, you just can’t win a hand, very frustrating but the most important thing is to not let it affect your game by playing badly

 

Maybe post some hands up, maybe there’s a part of your game that needs improving –  just be honest about your own play

gracie24

I suugest you play through it by playing 30p dym's very tight until all that bad luck has drained away. lol