Back to reality....

[Coca919]

I've played poker for quite a few years with relatively good success, but the past 6months or so have been something pretty special for me.  Im just a student and have managed to win around 30k over this period, along with winning entry into the Carribean Poker Classic.  Of course I know I've been lucky, but I naively thought I had it all pretty much sussed.  Thinking to myself, sure I can make solid money doing this week in week out.  I know streaks come and go in poker, and you hear the pro's saying of months and months without being able to win.  So of course I know I can't expect to win all the time, I'm just hoping that my "streak", as such, hasn't come to an abrupt hault.

After losing almost 5k (too much for me) within the space of a few days it has really taught me that I can't just expect it to be all plain sailing.  This poker malarchy can be bloody stressful and depressing at times!  I've always told myself I wouldn't let myself lose this kind of amount of money so quickly, but ive gone and done it!  Went and chased my losses didn't I.  With this 5k looming over my ahead I've decided the only way to get back to winning is to take a much needed break and start from scratch rather than 5k behind.

I know this is only a bad run of a few days, and I'm sure plenty of you out there have experienced much worse, but its just when I think about the value of the money I've lost it makes me kinda sick, and definately in need of a break.

What do you do when things just won't go your way and you know ur chasing ur losses?  Stick it out until it comes good? Up the stakes to win it back quick? Play it safe in lower stakes?  Take a break?

I hope I'm going to be able to keep away from the tables, gonna be hard when the boredom sets in tho!

P.s This isn't a sob story!  (I know everyone goes through it all)

[tikay]

Nice post Coca.

Look at it this way. You probably had some real luck on the way to scoring a 30k profit. Now you are in "payback" time with the Poker Gods, & yes, it hurts, & it's hard to bear.

Allow, theoretically, for "varance", & your 30k profit is PROBABLY only, say, 10k. So expect some more bad luck, but at least you are in profit.

Turn it on it's head - imagine you'd had the bad run FIRST - you'd have never been around to win the 30k then!

[Karabiner]

Good post Coca.

My take on this FWIW is this:

You most probably started off your good run in smaller games and continued up the levels
until you were playing fairly high stakes, and then your form dipped (I'm assuming that you were playing cash).

The big trap in my experience is that it is very hard to drop down to smaller games
and "grind" your way out of it at a lower level, having lost in a bigger game.

The temptation is to play the bigger game and try and "get out of it" there,
but the trouble is that your bankroll may not be big enough to play the bigger game comfortably
having sustained the 5k loss, possibly affecting your play.

My advice would be to play the size of game that your bankroll dictates,
and to only play when you feel capable of giving that game 100%.

If that means taking a break so be it.

Hope this helps, good luck !

[ACE2M]

nice post.

Personally i would advise not to take a break, but pull back the throttle a little. Just drop down a couple of levels from what you've been playing until the odds even out or you start to play well again.

I took a break after an extended winning streak just to prove i could and now i seem to be full of bad decisions and can't win anything (apart from ring games strangely, which is where i always struggled previously).

I like what Greg Raymer said "if i lose a big pot i imagine i have just doubled up", you can apply this to most things in poker. You've just lost 5k think about the fact you're 25k up. It helps.

Good luck whatever you do.

[Coca919]

Thx for the replies.

Personally i would advise not to take a break, but pull back the throttle a little. Just drop down a couple of levels from what you've been playing until the odds even out or you start to play well again.

When I say take a break, I don't mean anything big. Unless I have anything planned I will play poker day-in-day-out. I think I'm just gonna stop for a week or so, to clear my head a bit, and hopefully return not chasing them losses. I know if I were to play again today and tomorrow, etc, it would be all I could think about.

You've just lost 5k think about the fact you're 25k up. It helps.

I've been trying to do this, rather than think to myself what I could have done with the 5k. I've already spent quite a bit of the money I've won (invested in a house so I don't lose it all like I have done before ), so this 5k really is quite a hard hit to me. It's part and parcel of poker I know. So I think I'm just gonna have to have a break for a few days, then jump back on the bandwagon in a few days time in smaller stakes and put the 5k to the back of my mind.

Karibiner.. yes I did start off smaller and work my way up. When I've lost before I have upped the stakes like I'm sure many have, although I know this is definately not the best thing to do, so this time I think I'm just going to have to grin and bear it and drop down a peg or two for a bit. I don't want to risk blowing what I have left of my winnings.

I'm more than happy with how the past 6months have gone, and knew this day would have to come soon, I just need to find the best way to deal with it. Thanks for the advice.

[Ironside]

personally i play at levels that if i do hit a run of form it wont affect my bankroll too badly
once i built another of a bankroll to be able to sustain a hit at a higher level i move up
if i do take a long streak of hits i move back down again untill my bankroll is comfortable
at the higher level

but i do not intend or claim to make a living out of poker just a nice profit

[stewart]

i recently have gone threw the same thing coca, not online though - live,

5 months ago, i won around 15k in a month ( my biggest profit month ),  during the next 5 months i played bigger games, and went down to london to play the gutshot, when i was sat there with all the big names, Dave C/Julian Threw/Koresh/Xzamphos thingy excuse spellin, i was i thought doing pretty well,   lasting over 6 hours, just on stealing/pinching then with 2 tables left i made a huge mistake and went out of the tourney before the money, that mistake took me 3 months to get over i seriously when i sat down to play could only think about that hand nothing else during that period i lost about 13k of my 15k bankroll, and was on the felt again haveing bought stuff with my other 2k profit, i didnt play for a month and bulit my bankroll back up from work and worked on my game and went back, won 5 in a row and 7 out of 9 finals, and my bankroll was back up to nearly 15k again, then i made the 2nd biggest mistake of my career i sat down in the cash game, with the big guys,the lawarences/waynes/alis/howards/daves/simons/terovr/shaft of the world (big in our casinos anyway), and in 1 night i lost 5k, and over the following 3 weeks i have blown the rest, but im not beating myself up this time, because i have learnt a invaluble lesson, at the moment i pratice dealers choice maybe 4 hours a night after work (sad but true) to work out what hands should win, the same as i did with holdem

i suppose the moral of my story is,  unless you try you dont know, im lucky im only 20 have had a hell of a lot of money go threw my fingers but i think im better for it, my goal is still to turn pro at 21 when i have the experience required

anyway thats my rollacosta ride,
stu

[doubleup]

The title of your post says it all - I've fallen for the delusion that a winning streak will continue more than once - despite always trying to tell myself that a correction is coming. It is a form of tilt - your balance has been affected by the winning streak and this losing run has affected you more.

It is important (but difficult) to lose all emotional attachment to your bankroll. It is only a thing that allows you to play at a certain level (always assuming you can win at that level). It doesn't matter what size it is (no comments please) or how it got there (spent or lost), there is always a level for you to play and you should automatically move to that level. Karabiner hit the nail on the head when he commented that it can be difficult to move down, but thats what you must do - if you can't win enough at that level, get a job, beacuse if you buy-in to a nl game for 25% of your bankroll, you're just like a punter betting his rent money on favorites.

Work on your game, read hand posts on places like 2+2. If it won't distract you, keep a table open at a higher level and make notes on the players there, when you get back you will be a better player.

[Junior Senior]

EXCELLENT thread and some good honest views and stories to share.

In terms of having a bad run - its important that you are playing within yourself and don't overplay your bank roll.  If your sat in a tourney where the entry fee alone is a big chunk of change to you and it really matters if you don't get ROI in the tourney then you really shouldn't be playing in it. - you will be playing scared and will not be possessing your A-game.

Don't be affraid to drop down a level again and build your money back up (leave the big comps for when you win a satelite) - i know its hard when you've sat with the big boys in a big comp to go and play the 20 re-buys ot $30SNG's on-line but this if this is where you first turned your profit then go back and crack the games again.


Following my purple patch earlier this year (Jan - March), i decided to quit work (this was mainly because i really hated it though) with a view to going on the tournament trail and giving it a crack with the big boys.  The plan was and really still is to play until the end of 2005 and review the situation (i figured i won enough to survive a run of bad form until the end of the year and with no other major outgoings and my parents happy to have me at home for a bit longer i went for it).  I cleared all my debts (car loans, credit cards, student loans, overdrafts) to get a true perception of what my bankroll would be following my winning streak. Debt free, brimming with confidence I swaggered off to East Midlands airport armed with a European poker schedule and headed off bank roll in hand into the sunset .

Were now in August.  I have been and played in Dublin, Vienna, Jesolo (Italy), Las Vegas, Blackpool, Sheffield, Walsall and even Luton!  I have had some good results and have had a brilliant time in the process travelling and meeting up with some really great guys along the way.  I have learnt alot as well, some really important things about just how costly it is to take on the tournament trail, the entry fees, expenses etc. you really need to be winning a good chunk each month or find a sponsor to manage to break even or make money.

I have just about covered my costs so far but do feel more pressured to win now that i don't have that regular income from a job that provides that certain level of security.  My advice for what its worth is try and keep it cheap, don't take on too many european trips where there are huge costs such as flights and hotels. Play satellites and try and win your entry cheap - this really adds value to your tournamanent and keeps the costs down (2.5K a week for a full festival schedule is a huge chunk of most people's bank roll).

most importantly, enjoy it!

good luck

Greg