What's the longest downswing you've ever had?

I think the title speaks for itself. Everyone talks about how variance takes people downhill in the short term - what's the longest that the "short term" has ever lasted for you?

For me, I'm still in my longest downswing ever. In the five months from late November 2008 to late March 2009, I had eight 4-figure tournament cashes; in the nearly six months since then, I've had one. (And that one was barely into four figures.)

~4 months

~2 months... still going :/

It was 2 months until this year, then hit a 3 month one, sigh...

for me the last five months with no immediate end in site. I keep on plugging away and hope tomorrow is the better day.

About 4 months that crushed my will to live.

Interestingly (and a little unexpectedly due to my marginal skills), variance has swung all the way back and then some, and my bankroll has taken a nice boost.

Still a long way to go to get to 100 buy ins for the $5 tournys, but that's the goal.

I've been fortunate to avoid prolonged downswings since i"m not high volume, but I've had a few thousands hands streaks where I just couldn't seem to win a pot.

For me, most streaks last 4-7 days, either way... Overall over lifetime I am up so never had a real bad streak over a week long I would say...

Sounds like trouble in yr game and BRM, not a streak.

It'll be 53 years on Nov 17

Longest...about 3 months, including not finishing ITM in 24 straight SnG's. I probably lost every way imaginable.

K, 4k hands and counting.

I think my worst streak was when I lost 13 straight all-in preflops with AA.
10 to KK, 2 to QQ and 1 to JJ.

I'm in the middle of a brutal downswing right now too, although it's only been a few weeks.

I am working on 44 years coming up in 2010.

For poker it has been pretty much this entire decade.

Maybe the 2010s will be my decade.

I guess about a month for me.
If I find myself losing too much and still feel I am playing well, then I take time off.
Go see a movie, read some books, go out with friends but NOT play poker for a few days.

It happens to everyone, don't let it make you crazy!

It depends what I include in my definition of downswing. For example, if I include a month where I win less than my rolling average, then my longest is three months. However - and I feel very fortunate I can say this - if I only include months where I've lost money, then my longest is 0.

As for MTTs without cashing, I haven't kept actual track, but have probably gone somewhere in the range of 15 to 20.

About a year.... I had a real good start to poker, then about a year ago I started to fall and have had no real results since. I guess I could look at it this way too -- I've only deposited ~$200 in the last year, so I haven't had anything to work with as far as a bankroll is concerned.

My biggest downswing was when I had just won up to almost $300 I got ambitious and played $1/$2 NL HU and 25 minutes later I was down $190. I was soooooooooooo sick. But you learn more form screw-ups than you do success.

I had a 3-month period where i lost about $100, while using BRM, Almost every hand i went all in with, regardless of how ahead it was, lost.

I've lost a lot playing at full tilt. I dk but it seems like they always give you hands to go all in with but then u get sucked out. Same with stars. Usually they lasted about 2 months but at the cost of a big chunk of my br.

I am in a three month downswing at Poker Stars and had to drop from 4 tables to 1 because of my bankroll decline. Playing the same way I did when I was winning but have had AA and KK cracked on big pots, set over sets on big pots and draw outs against the pot odds from callers. I am winning every where else, but every where else is looser than pokerstars ring games.

A month but it was also 30 buyins on 200nl so pretty big. Its a long time ago tho .

Longest downswing was for 3 straight days playing HU.... lost $300 on FT... got beat by straight flushes higher full houses... you name it they beat me... Just practice proper BR management (as I do now) and you should have no problem... doing horrible one day... Step up get out and do something else of play on another site...

That's my 2 cents,
Moe

3 months or so.

I am the cooler. My whole life is a down swing.

I would probably say 3 months on a downswing- followed by 2 months of bad poker playing- playing my draws too much, trying to gamble with AQ vs. a small pair pre-flop and losing, etc.

At that point I took a break, did other things besides poker for a week, read a couple poker books, watched some televised poker and railed for about 2 more weeks - after I did that, I reloaded and haven't looked back. I have had periods where I've gone card dead and had to step down in limits and grund it out- but thankfully nothing real dramatic thus far.

I have read many times in the past from winning players (if they can be believed ) that 60k break-even streaks with *huge* downswings in the middle are not altogether uncommon.

Depends on what you're playing though... the variance and swings are (generally speaking) inversely proportional to the number of people at the table.

A friend of mine is currently on a 40k downswing in only 2 weeks....

@ what stakes?

I'm in my worst one now...it began abruptly on June 2nd of this year...from March 1st til June 1st I'd probably won about 5,000 playing 1-2NL about once to twice a week in that span...then on June 2nd I had Q-J of spades on a flop of 3-9-10 with the 9 and 10 of spades out there...a bet of 15$ from first position followed by a raise to 30$ from 2nd position...I immediately shove all in for 250$ knowing I'm behind but I have been running red hot and figure I have half the deck to win the hand...I get called by the first player who is holding 3-5 of Spades...I am currently 65-35 to win the hand despite him holding a pair...turn is a Jack giving me the lead...river....a red 5....since then I have had 3 or 4 winning days total and thankfully two of them were about 700-800 a piece otherwise I'd be in disaster territory for someone who plays low stakes like I do...I'm probably -2,500 or so since 6/2 but that is significant for a tight player like me who plays so few hands and only has a 300-400$ limit for max buyin at any session.....I cannot tell you how many times I have had 10s, Js, Qs only for someone else to be holding an overpair, there was one day in particular where it occurred 4 seperate times with me running into Aces three times with Kings another day (it had happened to me only one time the previous 4 years before that)....if I was a super aggressive player I'd probably have lost 3-4 times what I have....I was able to avoid going broke in most of the overpair scenarios despite there being 3 or 4 low cards on the board.

10-20/25-50 NL HU