My Tips On Dealing With Downswings

Cross post from my blog + thought I would share it with you.
Haven't written much strategy over my time but thought I would share my opinion with you guys, hope you enjoy and all criticism welcome.


As readers are aware of this month has not gone well at all, however I have managed to learn alot of new things and put them into practice during this downswing. Now most concepts people are already aware of but it is amazing how it can help you if you actually put these into practice how your approach changes once you realise you are on a downswing.

So What Is A Downswing?

A downswing in my opinion is a period of time where the odds go against you and consequently you lose more than 10 buy ins. I dont mean by the odds go against you that you have no luck but the mathematical concept where say you get AK in vs AQ in a session and he hits his Q. Now preflop you are favourite 75/25 but what that means in terms of poker is that he will actually win this hand 1 out of 4 times. So a downswing is a more short term aspect of the game because say you are in this spot 100 or even 1000 times you are going to be making alot of money long term.

Recognising A Downswing

The main point is easy, you are losing. Nobody likes to lose and we all play this game to win, some people may not even like poker that much but they enjoy winning and winning is what is most important to some.
Another sign of a downswing is loss of confidence, this is because you aren't winning these 75/25's or the 60/40's where in fact you are favourite and expect to win, however the pure mathematical side is you arent going to win 100% of the time but we find it hard to deal with since we are labelled as the "favourite" and nobody likes losing when they are the favourite, in anything especially poker.
Secondly tilt is obviously going to occur in a downswing and it will actually make your downswing worse since you aren't playinng your A game but you think you are because your head is not in the correct frame of mind. Tilt occurs not just during downswings though and dealing with tilt is a seperate issue but it does make your downswing alot worse and recognising when you are on tilt is definately a very +EV concept.
All these factors occur during a downswing and usually I always question myself "Can I actually beat this game still?" which is a very common question. It sucks when you ask yourself this because its so demoralising as you dont have any solid proof that you can actually beat the games currently but if you are a winning player previously then of course you can still beat most games, but its hard to realise this when your stuck in a rut.

Dealing With A Downswing

Here are my tips on how to deal with a downswing and what to do. Everything is personal and what you do will depend on how big the swing is, how it has affected you, your game and your mental game. I have just put together some ideas though.

Take A Break - this for me is probably the most important factor. If poker really is starting to affect you when you aren't at the tables then it is time for a break. If you find yourself being snappy or short tempered towards family or work colleagues this is probably a sign that its getting to you. Take a break however long you want until you feel in the correct frame of mind for playing or you feel the urge to grind again.
Drop Stakes - When your urge to grind has come back or you feel in the correct frame of mind for playing then I would advise to drop stakes. This is also important because naturally the competition will probably be softer at a lower limit to you so you can pad your bankroll back up, gain confidence and get something going again. Also during a downswing sometimes the monetary value occurs more and it helps ease those loses, I know everybody says try not to think about the money but in practice who actually never thinks about how much they are up or down during a month, I doubt anybody seriously does.
Drop Amount Of Tables - I would seriously suggest this and focus on playing the correct way. Analysing your opponents and exploiting their tendencies will help you actually to play better and also will slow your downswing down. You will be able to check that you are playing correctly as you will have more time to make decisions. If you are naturally multi tabling 6+ tables I would say drop to 4 max. If you usually play 4/6 then cut to 1 or 2 but dont play too little tables because you will find yourself getting board and play too many hands.
Analysis Of Your Game - This should be done all the time but the fact is most people dont, during heaters people just want to grind and grind to rake in the cash. So some ways to fix up your game are to check your HEM/PT3 stats, post them on a forum or PM to a close member preferably. Organise some sweat sessions with buddies, post hand histories, analyse others hands to check you are thinking the correct way. Watch videos on stox/Deucescracked/cardrunners etc to give you some confidence, everytime I watch a poker video I feel more confident and am ready to grind.
That about wraps it up but dealing with downswings is very personal and different things work for different people so these are just some ideas to get you going.

Jake

nice post

the thing i always get back to i think im hard done by is this.. i think of all the starving himeless people in the world, then i think how lucky i am personally to be alive and have a family ETC.

suddenly a bad run of cards just doesnt seem that important