What to do with ridiculous downswing
Posted by Chael Sonnen
Posted by
Chael Sonnen
posted in
Mid Stakes
What to do with ridiculous downswing
Lost 55 buy ins in 5 days, playing NLHE!
This is just ridicilous. Things have been going badly for a while now, and I'm down 20k from my high point.
Not winning any showdowns, AA vs any underpair, KK vs AK running it twice I keep losing, set over set every other hand, ridiculous call downs on my bluffs.
Today was the first time I completetly lost it for the first time in a while. Ran 2k below EV within 800 hands, and then tilted off another 2K.
Watching more training videos hasn't worked, posting more, etc.
What to do?
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I had my biggest downswing late last month. What helped me was to stop playing for a few days and just clear my mind. Went to the gym, went out with friends and then came back and reviewed some of my losing sessions.
The biggest thing that I noticed , among many small mistakes, was that I was playing scared. Meaning that I wasn't making thin value bets, because I had been so conditioned that every time a scare card came my opponent hit it or every time I would value bet an over pair I would get shoved on the river, etc.
Not saying this is happening to you, but there is no doubt your game is being affected by this down swing, I suggest taking time off and then look what small mistakes you were making that also contributed to it. And keeping in mind that as long as you keep making +EV decisions everything should balance out in the end. And gl...because I know how shitty it feels to be in that spot.
I'd like to add have someone else knowledgable at poker go over your sessions with you, they might be able to point out something small you dont think is a leak
Ive a one like that a while ago, i was playing decent maybe not supper sollid, but def not tilting etc, just losing all the flips and coolers and bam down 30bi (ev was breakeven).
I think you can do a couple of things, move down, play less tables and try to play your A game more ofthen, that way you edge will be the biggest it can possibly be and thus reducing the variance.
And ye def try to stay cool mentally and dont tilt, its ok to lose because of coolers, setups or mistakes even, just a much bigger problem if its cause of tilt.
Work harder off the tables. Review your hands with someone and grind out the "boring" stuff like figuring out your ranges in different spots, knowing what a 4 betting range of 3.7% means, study the guys who crush etc.
Take a couple of days off playing, a week if you need it. In 6 months time you'll thank yourself. Go to the gym, hang out with friends, just take some time away from poker.
Use that time to do some theory work as JH said. But take at least a day or two off completely and try and turn your mind to something else completely for a while.
Get drunk , chase girls, don't think about poker. Then review hands, get hungry to grind again. If you don't get hungry to grind again, wait until you do
Tried everything, but it hasn't worked.
Today will be my first even day in two weeks, and again I ran 2k below EV.
Spent 7 months studying and I'm not going to fuck it up again, but when I run this badly, I really don't know what to do.
I'm currently on a 40K downswing myself. It doesn't affect me mentally so much because I'm not making mistakes over and over again - just getting unlucky and that's okay. Just keep your cool, take a break and follow good BRM. I know the feeling you get when you can't win a single pot, or keep losing flips after flips but that's just the nature of the game. It's cruel and you just have to endure until things go your way.
Agree with everything and the money itself doesn't bother me.
What bothers me is that I lost >100 buy ins at NLHE! It would be hard to do with 10-card PLO!
And the 200NL Zoom games are soft, so it's not like I'm getting destroyed.
your mental discipline and general approach is very impressive.
Thanks, Daz.
But you're wrong here. My general approach is why I haven't been able to really settle in and be succesful for a longer period of time.
I do want it really badly, though.
i want it bad too but i think my approach has been wrong and my actual mood when playing poker has been negative even though i've been working on specific areas of mental game. So i might be more disciplined in key areas and no longer tilt hard, but 'soft' tilt has been an issue whereby i simply don't feel like 'dealing with the same shit' over and over again. The downswing has really tested my ability to remain motivated.
In these past three weeks, I have managed to make back 38K of my initial 40K losses. On my road to recovery, I approached the game one hand at a time and really focused on everything. Since both of you play online, it's hard not to auto-pilot from time to time, but try to really dive into the game and find the satisfaction in making the right plays time after time. I hope you two make a similar comeback soon; if you haven't already that is. Good luck to you both :)
Hey. I play 10/20. 4k max buy in.
Just recently I experienced a prolonged downswing myself (+100 buy-ins as well), so I know what I´m talking about and I know how difficult it is to a) give good advice from "outside" and b) get advice that is really helpful to oneself w/o the risk of getting offended.
Still, what really bothers me is the speed you´re showing up with. 55 buy-ins in 5 days? That does not sound good ... how many hands / tables did you play?
Right now I'm down 23k in I think less than 2 weeks. That's why it's so absurd.
I know I can win because I made 30k in about two months after having just moved up, and I only ran 1.5k above EV during that time.2 tables 200NL Zoom, 4 tables 200NL Zoom, and some added 200NL and 400NL tables.
Lately cut it down to just two.
The 400NL was dumb because even though I lost every flip I got into, I picked the tables with the 3/6+ regs on purpose, and for some reason completely brainfarted and started making ridiculous plays. But that was maybe 8 buy ins or so max.
If I play well, I should be a favourite in a decent game. Obviously not against players like natefive.
Losing money doesn't bother me at all. It bothers me that if this keeps going on, I'm busto, and I worked really, really hard to make sure that doesn't happen again.
Thanks for the help, btw.
Thinking about playing some more HU, because those games are really soft and it might make me feel better again.
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