Help!! Not sure what to do anymore after consecutive losses

Hi,

I am a player on pokerstars.

After a good run of making FT's, I have run suddently cold and i am not sure what to do.

I have lost over $250 the last 2 days, about 50% of my br, and rebought.

My br is currently at $250,

What should I play?

I am trying to think of set plans to stick too, mind you i am not working right now and I am playing poker all day.

I do not know how to curb the losses.

I have tried everything, moving down limits, but I just get unlucky and lose also.

I am looking for some guide, not a fourm that shows advice.

Can anyone help me, I am looking for answers but they are no where to be fou nd.

tmlftw said:

I am trying to think of set plans to stick too, mind you i am not working right now and I am playing poker all day.

Click to expand...

As difficult as it may be, I would suggest doing something entirely different. Go out, practise some sports, read a book. Don't play for some days. There is more to life than poker.

Then, if you return to poker, maybe try your hands at some form of low variance cash poker instead of high variance tournaments? I really liked to play omaha hi/lo for maintaining my bankroll.

Good luck,

MG.

try some 5 dollar sit n go tournys or smaller tournys like a 45 or 90 person all you can ask for is to get em in good.

try some Double-or-Nothings maybe. they are a good br builder in my humble opinion

What sort of bankroll management do you use?

if your losing 50% of your bankroll playing MTT's in 2 days then your bankroll management must be pretty horrible, so maybe read more about that first

whenever i am either playing badly or variance is smacking me around, i take a break, a day or 2, a week, thats up to you, then when i return, instead of just jumping back in, i watch some poker videos, read the forums, do some hand analysis, then play

Karkus77 said:

if you're losing 50% of your bankroll playing MTT's in 2 days then your bankroll management must be pretty horrible, so maybe read more about that first

Click to expand...

This ^

Even when on massive downswings, good players who practice good Bankroll Management do not lose half their bankroll!

In MTT's you don't even need a downswing to lose money regularly — you only expect to get a good cash infrequently anyway.

You need to give your self plenty of buy-ins to get past this mindset
If you play $5 games you will have 50 Buy-ins (although if you lose, you drop down to $2 and you still have 50 Buy-ins)
It does depend on how big a field these MTT's are. If they have thousands of players you will probably need more buy-ins (125x $2 games) before you can expect to cash

Do this and you won't lose half your bankroll in 2 days

tmlftw said:

I do not know how to curb the losses. Play smaller Buy-ins

I have tried everything, moving down limits, but I just get unlucky and lose also. Nevertheless, you are losing less each time until your cash comes. This the correct thing to do

I am looking for some guide, not a fourm that shows advice.
There are no easy answers but there is lots of good advice on CardsChat

Can anyone help me, I am looking for answers but they are no where to be fou nd.There is lots of good advice on CardsChat

Click to expand...

I can honestly say that some of my worst downswings are when looked at in hindsight due to my state of mind at the time. It is normal to experience variance as that is a fact of life ,

If I find myself experiencing an abnormal swing I personally step back and take a look as it is usually my mindset at fault . Hope this helps a bit.

Martingale said:

As difficult as it may be, I would suggest doing something entirely different. Go out, practise some sports, read a book. Don't play for some days. There is more to life than poker.

Then, if you return to poker, maybe try your hands at some form of low variance cash poker instead of high variance tournaments? I really liked to play omaha hi/lo for maintaining my bankroll.

Good luck,

MG.

Click to expand...

I would disagree, are you telling him to give up? I went through a very similar situation as you are describing not long ago too. I lost half my bankroll in three days. what i did (and it worked for me, as now two weeks later i have re-cooped my looses and turned a nice profit and am running well).

What you need to do is take a day or two to review your hands history and try to better your game with study and research. then take this to the tables, set out a plan of what you will play and when, and how fast you move up limits etc. try to stick to this as much as possible. try some $3.50 50/50 sngs? it worked for me.

as for bad beats? dont worry about it, try not to get tilted. As long as you are getting the money in good and you cant fault your play eventually you will become profitable (statistically).

so just work hard and study your game and dont give up you will get there

gl

As many above have told you, take a step back for a few days. I have hit some droughts and decided to shut it down for a day or two just to somewhat reset my mind so to speak.

I found when I started running bad I was making riskier decisions in an attempt to stop the bleeding and get a quick fix...this proved to be a major part of the problem. Take a break, clear your mind and go back to the tables with the same mindset you had before it took a turn for the worse.

Also, read up during your break to help get back to where you need to be.

runnerx289 said:

I would disagree, are you telling him to give up?

Click to expand...

No, I did not want to give him the impression I was telling him to give up, on the contrary. But sometimes you really need to take a break to see that there is more than just poker. If you spend all your time playing, then it becomes very important to run well, because at the end of the day your entire satisfaction level depends on it. On the other hand, if you also do other things that give you a sense of accomplishment, then you can deal better with the highs and lows of poker. At least that's how it works for me.

Also, I mentioned low stakes cash games because tournaments are such high-variance investments. You can play a ton of them without cashing. But indeed, as others mentioned, sit n goes may be a better way to go if you already have tournament experience.

Best wishes,

MG.

Martingale said:

No, I did not want to give him the impression I was telling him to give up, on the contrary. But sometimes you really need to take a break to see that there is more than just poker. If you spend all your time playing, then it becomes very important to run well, because at the end of the day your entire satisfaction level depends on it. On the other hand, if you also do other things that give you a sense of accomplishment, then you can deal better with the highs and lows of poker. At least that's how it works for me.


Best wishes,

MG.

Click to expand...

sorry must have mis-interpreted i agree taking a step back for a while would be a good thing in your position

I came off one of the worst back to back losing session i have had in a long time.I have done a combination of what the previous posters have done.First thing i did was "unplug" my self from the computer got out of the house and did other things to clear my mind from poker,we all need a break.Secondly i did go back nd look at why i was losing,I noticed after a horrific runner runner beat even though I didn't think i tilted.I saw after that i saw that more and more of my bets were higher than usual for those given circumstances.Possibly to "get my money back" from the beat?It was 2 days until i thought about sitting down to where my MIND was ready to play.Hope this helps,GL mate.

Martingale said:

No, I did not want to give him the impression I was telling him to give up, on the contrary. But sometimes you really need to take a break to see that there is more than just poker. If you spend all your time playing, then it becomes very important to run well, because at the end of the day your entire satisfaction level depends on it. On the other hand, if you also do other things that give you a sense of accomplishment, then you can deal better with the highs and lows of poker. At least that's how it works for me.

Also, I mentioned low stakes cash games because tournaments are such high-variance investments. You can play a ton of them without cashing. But indeed, as others mentioned, sit n goes may be a better way to go if you already have tournament experience.

Best wishes,

MG.

Click to expand...

AS i wrote my reply MG wrote this......+1

I concur with Martingales suggestion, walk away for a while. It's what I did when I got burnt out. I left poker completely, took all the shortcuts off my desktop and started getting into movies! Watching movies, recording movies, collecting movies. Then after 2 years or so, I re-installed all of my poker room shortcuts and started playing again, a bit more conservatively I might add. Here I am 3 years later and enjoying the hell out of poker. For me anyway, poker will never be a money making business. As long as I treat it as a hobby, I'll have more fun and more success. BTW, an important plus of all this, I'm still enjoying the movie thingy.

Definitely take a break. The length of the break really depends. I have recently taken a break because I hit a huge downswing. I was also really burned out on poker and was playing pretty sloppy so that didn't help. I've been away for about 2 weeks now and I jumped into a tourney yesterday morning and won $75.

I haven't played any since that one yesterday though as I still feel like a need a bit more time off and that one was just a test run.

When I lose I shake it off and keep going. Like last night I lost 300$ in 20 minutes....so, shake it off and play a different game for a while. It is important to constantly be analyzing your play and working on things you can be doing better.

I would suggest to take a day/two off and enjoy your life a little bit, then came back with diferent strategy, and better BRM (bankroll management) and start lower levels for a change