How to deal with downswings?

[Ollafus]

Busted in 4 tournaments today with QQ.

This is my last one:

CardsChat Poker Hands Converter

Convert your hand history into forum code, plain text or relive your hand and create animated replays

www.cardschat.com

Busted near the buble.

The problem is that I keep busting like this and it feels like "WTF?!?! Over and over again?".

I am playing about 5-6tournaments per day, daily, and I keep busting from them in hands like the one i posted above or I loose a significant portion of my stack like in this one: https://www.cardschat.com/replayer/7254lzIcz ( I have allready post it in here in one of the past days). In the last two months it's been a nightmare... I am either card dead the entire tournament either I am loosing against all sorts of idiotic hands mostly completed on the river.

I am not here to discuss about RNG or variance or how our brain remembers mostly this type of hands. I got enough with this topics and I really understand all these factors.

I am here to ask how are you guys dealing with these kind of periods?

I am really loosing confidence. It feels like I am cursed.

Yes, I know, here are only two examples but I have lots of them. If anyone is interested I will just upload more of them if anyone is interested.

 

[Phyrrura]

First of all, be consistent with the play u know that are profitable. It doens't matter if u got a run of losing with that plays, if u know they are winning plays, keep doing them and the results will come. The downswing are part of the game, and give u the opportunit to take a step behind, look at ur game, ur knowledges, and study things u have doubt on.

 

[lauestla]

Well when you play many MTTs the variance is very high, so you have to face such tricky periods. IMO there are no magic solutions. Just stay patient, continue playing your A-game, and hope for better days.

 

[Oranaro]

Be aware about it, study your hands, and the more you get downswings the more you are able to deal with them. If your downswings make you lose more than you win in upswings, you are surely losing ev somewhere, or being too sticky, but this is on large samples, maybe 3K mtts? Depends on the field.

 

[gon4iypes]

Hey Ollafus, There is some pretty good advice here already, so I don't want to add to it, but I put my arm around your shoulders and pat your back. We are all here for you my friend, keep your chin up....the downswing will pass and soon you'll be kicking ass again !!!!! All the best, David

 

[mina271]

I know that you can't let your game be affected by this and above all you shouldn't be afraid to play a hand because you're afraid that you'll lose. But when I am in such a phase then pay even more attention to what is playing and above all I go preflop as I go out of the way. But I do this even if I'm not in such a phase. Whenever you go preflop, there is a 50/50 chance that you win or lose. AA can also lose to worse hands. Losing and winning are part of the game and you simply have to accept it. I can understand that you are beginning to doubt your skills as a poker player, but you shouldn't do that. I used to do that too, but then I understood that what matters is not that I lose, but how I lose. If I think I did everything right and still lose then it wasn't because of me making mistakes but then I was just unlucky. Good and bad luck are our constant companions as they come and go. Don't let a losing streak tell you that you can't play poker wait for your next lucky streak soon as it arrives. I wish you every success at tables

 

[Ollafus]

Hey Ollafus, There is some pretty good advice here already, so I don't want to add to it, but I put my arm around your shoulders and pat your back. We are all here for you my friend, keep your chin up....the downswing will pass and soon you'll be kicking ass again !!!!! All the best, David

Thanks man. Appreciate it. 😊

 

[melbru88888]

after the rain comes the sun take it easy

 

[milka1605]

It seems to me that the main thing is to play with an eye to what the opponent can drop on the table in order to help him defeat you. For example, I go all-in before the flop only in freerolls, and in tournaments with an entrance I play only with a raise or a call. And if the opponent raises after the next card has fallen on the table or calls your raise, this is already a call to your attention that there may be an aggravation of the situation. Usually I don't play after a bad game and do something else but not poker.

 

[Axmanace]

Study your hands.

Minor preflop misplays can turn into big post flop losses.

For example: should you have 3 bet the pocket tens?

Both BB and SB were getting decent pot odds to call.

 

[Joe]

Busted in 4 tournaments today with QQ.

This is my last one:

CardsChat Poker Hands Converter

Convert your hand history into forum code, plain text or relive your hand and create animated replays

www.cardschat.com

Busted near the buble.

The problem is that I keep busting like this and it feels like "WTF?!?! Over and over again?".

I am playing about 5-6tournaments per day, daily, and I keep busting from them in hands like the one i posted above or I loose a significant portion of my stack like in this one: https://www.cardschat.com/replayer/7254lzIcz ( I have allready post it in here in one of the past days). In the last two months it's been a nightmare... I am either card dead the entire tournament either I am loosing against all sorts of idiotic hands mostly completed on the river.

I am not here to discuss about RNG or variance or how our brain remembers mostly this type of hands. I got enough with this topics and I really understand all these factors.

I am here to ask how are you guys dealing with these kind of periods?

I am really loosing confidence. It feels like I am cursed.

Yes, I know, here are only two examples but I have lots of them. If anyone is interested I will just upload more of them if anyone is interested.

You, I, we... Must analyse the play and our decisions very coldly and mathematically and be very honest with ourselves about the reality of these situations.

If we are really getting it in great and facing horrible redraws, suckouts, counterfeits and the suchlike then it is very simple...

One of the strategy books mentions the 'casino visualisation':-

I.e. Do the casinos/casino owners get upset when the one in every five to fifteen million paying punters gets lucky and binks a random $1,000,000 jackpot once every year or two?

The answer is usually no. They do not.

They are not upset because in that same time they have profited X billion dollars during the same time period.

Downswings are a brutal fact of poker which effect everyone who plays enough to some degree or other. A great quick way to gauge what our EV is like in a given spot without having to calculate any formulas is to just imagine how we do when we run the spot one thousand times.

It's easy to conceptualise roughly how our hand will profit on average Vs villain's holding if you glance at the equity when the chips go in.

If x 1,000 you do well, you can feel assured you will profit long term, if it's closer to break even or negative then decisions need reassessing.

Hope this helps in anyway, keep fighting the good fight!

Kind Regards,

 

[puzzlefish]

Busted in 4 tournaments today with QQ.

This is my last one:

CardsChat Poker Hands Converter

Convert your hand history into forum code, plain text or relive your hand and create animated replays

www.cardschat.com

Busted near the buble.

The problem is that I keep busting like this and it feels like "WTF?!?! Over and over again?".

I am playing about 5-6tournaments per day, daily, and I keep busting from them in hands like the one i posted above or I loose a significant portion of my stack like in this one: https://www.cardschat.com/replayer/7254lzIcz ( I have allready post it in here in one of the past days). In the last two months it's been a nightmare... I am either card dead the entire tournament either I am loosing against all sorts of idiotic hands mostly completed on the river.

I am not here to discuss about RNG or variance or how our brain remembers mostly this type of hands. I got enough with this topics and I really understand all these factors.

I am here to ask how are you guys dealing with these kind of periods?

I am really loosing confidence. It feels like I am cursed.

Yes, I know, here are only two examples but I have lots of them. If anyone is interested I will just upload more of them if anyone is interested.

I think the whole point of poker is that everybody feels cursed most of the time. The cure is to keep playing and put in the volume.

It might help to separate hands where you are all-in preflop versus hands where you truly do get rivered after playing every street.

 

[VikyGia]

Busted in 4 tournaments today with QQ.

This is my last one:

CardsChat Poker Hands Converter

Convert your hand history into forum code, plain text or relive your hand and create animated replays

www.cardschat.com

Busted near the buble.

The problem is that I keep busting like this and it feels like "WTF?!?! Over and over again?".

I am playing about 5-6tournaments per day, daily, and I keep busting from them in hands like the one i posted above or I loose a significant portion of my stack like in this one: https://www.cardschat.com/replayer/7254lzIcz ( I have allready post it in here in one of the past days). In the last two months it's been a nightmare... I am either card dead the entire tournament either I am loosing against all sorts of idiotic hands mostly completed on the river.

I am not here to discuss about RNG or variance or how our brain remembers mostly this type of hands. I got enough with this topics and I really understand all these factors.

I am here to ask how are you guys dealing with these kind of periods?

I am really loosing confidence. It feels like I am cursed.

Yes, I know, here are only two examples but I have lots of them. If anyone is interested I will just upload more of them if anyone is interested.

QQ is a deceptive hand, which is often lost, if you can tell when you get a pair to another player too.

 

[Duxflux]

I am here to ask how are you guys dealing with these kind of periods?

I pull out my hair and knit a sweater with it.
I think that until today I do not really well with such phases. Sometimes you play so well and yet you lose to incredibly bad cards, so your nerves can't always take it.
I stop playing poker on days like that and try to distract myself.