How to deal with down swings?

I am running like fried garbage at the moment, going deep in $8 180, and getting knocked out just before the final table. hands like AK v AJ and getting sucked out , AA v KK and sucked out. Have not final tabled in 27 SNGs, I am playing a TAG style game and picking spots well but getting beat when I have the best of it. Do I need to change tactics? perhaps change game type?

maybe next 27 sng´s you make 2 or 3 ft, therefore patience is the key (that´s what i say to me everytime!!!), i don´t think you should change your style (well always one should improve the things one can and new things one learns) but nevermind, just keep playing tight and the results should show up at any moment

GL

The best option would be to drop stakes when running terrible. You will be much more comfortable taking hits in a level you can afford to take hits and you will find it less irritating. Whenever I run bad I play through the bad runs in lower stakes. Might sound weird but it actually works sometimes. Once I start running good again I simply return to my normal stakes.

I think that is just variance and 27 is pretty low number of those games. Just try to improve your game and analyzing your hands and the results will come.

Like this type of thing happening frequently is soul destroying.

pokerstars Hand #111400082151: Tournament #861951092, $7.34+$0.66 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level VIII (150/300) - 2014/02/06 21:34:52 WET [2014/02/06 16:34:52 ET]
Table '861951092 2' 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: rfbc1 (3430 in chips)
Seat 2: Elkitai (390 in chips)
Seat 3: bboykrill (1635 in chips)
Seat 4: canuckstar77 (4835 in chips)
Seat 5: fejes1988 (3785 in chips)
Seat 6: luis toscano (5280 in chips)
Seat 7: MTZK (6055 in chips)
Seat 8: laylowbe (5715 in chips)
Seat 9: gRy24 (4755 in chips)
rfbc1: posts the ante 25
Elkitai: posts the ante 25
bboykrill: posts the ante 25
canuckstar77: posts the ante 25
fejes1988: posts the ante 25
luis toscano: posts the ante 25
MTZK: posts the ante 25
laylowbe: posts the ante 25
gRy24: posts the ante 25
bboykrill: posts small blind 150
canuckstar77: posts big blind 300
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to bboykrill [Jh Jd]
fejes1988: folds
luis toscano: folds
MTZK: folds
laylowbe: folds
gRy24: folds
rfbc1: raises 600 to 900
Elkitai: calls 365 and is all-in
bboykrill: raises 710 to 1610 and is all-in
canuckstar77: folds
rfbc1: calls 710
*** FLOP *** [6h Qd 6s]
*** TURN *** [6h Qd 6s] [Th]
*** RIVER *** [6h Qd 6s Th] K♣
*** SHOW DOWN ***
bboykrill: shows [Jh Jd] (two pair, Jacks and Sixes)
rfbc1: shows [Kd Td] (two pair, Kings and Tens)
rfbc1 collected 2490 from side pot
Elkitai: shows [Kh Ts] (two pair, Kings and Tens)
rfbc1 collected 810 from main pot
Elkitai collected 810 from main pot
bboykrill finished the tournament in 67th place
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 4110 Main pot 1620. Side pot 2490. | Rake 0
Board [6h Qd 6s Th Kc]
Seat 1: rfbc1 showed [Kd Td] and won (3300) with two pair, Kings and Tens
Seat 2: Elkitai (button) showed [Kh Ts] and won (810) with two pair, Kings and Tens
Seat 3: bboykrill (small blind) showed [Jh Jd] and lost with two pair, Jacks and Sixes
Seat 4: canuckstar77 (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: fejes1988 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: luis toscano folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: MTZK folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: laylowbe folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: gRy24 folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Only 27 games gives no real picture. Continue ur gameplay and the variance will change and ur better cards will win. Play with pacience. It helped me to read a poker book about mind problems .It s called " The poker mindset"
GL on and off the felts

It will always happen. It's poker. On the flop he had a 15% chance of winning. So he would win one out of six times. If you were in that spot, you would win one out of six times. Don't think of it as that the best hand should win every time, because it won't. Just remember, in the long run, for every bad beat you get, you will give one out.

PokerStars Hand #111507941163: Tournament #858473263, €1.00+€0.10 EUR Hold'em No Limit - Level XIX (6000/12000) - 2014/02/08 21:53:16 WET [2014/02/08 16:53:16 ET]
Table '858473263 3' 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: ttavo (75720 in chips)
Seat 2: sunnyslab90 (143890 in chips)
Seat 3: Megashira1 (40000 in chips)
Seat 4: bboykrill (33000 in chips)
Seat 5: Spartasneak (126600 in chips)
Seat 6: ozlem33 (74275 in chips)
Seat 8: 4kingflop (84120 in chips)
Seat 9: KatharinaG (46500 in chips)
ttavo: posts the ante 1200
sunnyslab90: posts the ante 1200
Megashira1: posts the ante 1200
bboykrill: posts the ante 1200
Spartasneak: posts the ante 1200
ozlem33: posts the ante 1200
4kingflop: posts the ante 1200
KatharinaG: posts the ante 1200
bboykrill: posts small blind 6000
Spartasneak: posts big blind 12000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to bboykrill [Qs Kc]
ozlem33: folds
4kingflop: folds
KatharinaG: folds
ttavo: folds
sunnyslab90: folds
Megashira1: folds
bboykrill: raises 19800 to 31800 and is all-in
Spartasneak: calls 19800
*** FLOP *** [4d Qh 3h]
*** TURN *** [4d Qh 3h] [5c]
*** RIVER *** [4d Qh 3h 5c] [7s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
bboykrill: shows [Qs Kc] (a pair of Queens)
Spartasneak: shows [6s Qc] (a straight, Three to Seven)
Spartasneak collected 73200 from pot
bboykrill finished the tournament in 31st place
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 73200 | Rake 0
Board [4d Qh 3h 5c 7s]
Seat 1: ttavo folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: sunnyslab90 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: Megashira1 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: bboykrill (small blind) showed [Qs Kc] and lost with a pair of Queens
Seat 5: Spartasneak (big blind) showed [6s Qc] and won (73200) with a straight, Three to Seven
Seat 6: ozlem33 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: 4kingflop folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: KatharinaG folded before Flop (didn't bet)

I've had bad runs last over a week before where I would get 95% trash cards in the hole and when I would get cards worth playing I would either get sucked out or hit nothing. It happens so I never move up to a higher level tourney until I have enough bankroll to cover 100 tournaments.
Hopefully I'll never see variance so bad that I will lose that many times.

If you're sure you're playing well, one possible reason to drop levels or change games is to refresh your mental state.

Otoh, the best way I know to learn to handle periods of negative variance is to desensitize yourself by playing through them.

I find taking breaks REALLY helps. I went through 6 losing months at on point. Take a few days, or even a few weeks, and do something else besides play poker, just to refresh yourself. I find that if you're play every day, all the time and not doing anything else, you just become mentally exhausted way too easily.
And if you don't want to take a break, do like some other people have said, and drop down stakes, and win a few games to get your confidence back.

Sounds like you need a break, even a one day break can help you clear your mind for the next tournament you enter.

As far as your KQ hand goes, if you raised smaller and shoved flop (assuming big blind calls or if he 3bets all in) you'd end up in a cooler situation regardless.

Yeah, I think you have to change game types, change stakes (low limit not to hurt your BR significantly) and change game time.

High variance, downswings, suck out, tilt, cold hands, rush, bad beat etc are just normal at online poker.

Keep in mind that taking a break isn't a cure for the underlying issue. It won't help you to handle future downswings any better.

dealio96 said:

The best option would be to drop stakes when running terrible. You will be much more comfortable taking hits in a level you can afford to take hits and you will find it less irritating. Whenever I run bad I play through the bad runs in lower stakes. Might sound weird but it actually works sometimes. Once I start running good again I simply return to my normal stakes.

Click to expand...

What do you do when you are running terrible on the lowest stakes then?

NeverEnough said:

What do you do when you are running terrible on the lowest stakes then?

Click to expand...

Improve your game. The better you are relative to your opponents, the less severe and less frequent your downswings will be, making them easier to cope with.

usually i just stop playing for like a day and it seems to go away

If u are getting sucked out with AA v KK or other strong hands..its just bad luck its not your mistake ...so next time u will make it.

bboykrill said:

I am running like fried garbage at the moment, going deep in $8 180, and getting knocked out just before the final table...

Click to expand...

The variance is very high, you win it every 180th time if you are an average player. If you are good, maybe a bit more often. You can easily "lose" some hundreds of games, and then win two tourneys back to back.

how to deal with downswings

Yes, I'm right there with you I play on 25 GTD I took 2.00 and turned it into 33.00 dollars and now I'm down to 16 after 40 hours of poker my conclusion low micro stakes is just not worth it better of in the free rolls,to many bingo players,that way you win ,you add money, you lose you lose nothing.I'll take whatever I win and sattelite up to a big tourney lose it all back to free rolls.

Don't take what I'm saying to heart because I really know nothing in the world of poker but the two hands you posted are both from the small blind and IMO you're opening hands are pretty wide from that position. Purhaps you should wait for a better position? Now I've never played an online tournament and I'm just learning so please take my comments with a grain of salt.