[JackAll]

I moved up to my current limit about 2 weeks ago after being very confident from my previous limits where I moved up quickly over the last few months. The first morning I moved up, I lost 3 buy-ins due to playing weak-tight from playing scared with double the money and decided not to be a pussy and stick to my game. Over the next few days I picked up 10 and was pretty happy with it and my confidence was at its usual high.

Then I had a horrific day. All those people that post about losing 3 buy-ins in a day should really stop bitching. Anyway, after that day, I went up and down to stay level for a few days, then lost a few more over the next few days. My confidence was at an all time low.

I think the main thing I learned wast how important bankroll management is. My level is about the cut-off for me as far as recovering lost money through other avenues. I had over 20 available, so that helped me not freak out and tilt. If I only had 10 buy-ins I'd have had no bank roll left and would probably feel a lot like giving up the game alltogether. The advice I heard from a friend is that a bankroll should be 20 at the current limit plus 2 at the higher one before you go up to the higher one (so 1000+200 to go from 50NL to 100NL), and if you lose the 2 when moving to the higher limit, then you go back down until you are back to 20+2 and try again. I didn't stick to this advice because, as I said, this level is borderline for recovering my roll. But from now on I'll definitely be practicing correct roll management. I'm also thinking that since luck (both good and bad) seems to come in bursts, I should stick to a strategy of leaving no more than 5 buy-ins available to lose in any one day. If that's gone, then the act of putting more in would hopefully make me realise I should take the rest of the day off.

On the up side, I did analyse a lot more of my hands and learnt a lot from it, whereas I rarely looked at my hands while doing well. So it definitely had a big benefit to my play. Still bruised the ego quite badly.

I guess this post didn't really help much, but I hope you realise you're not on your own with these big swings, and that we all learn how hugely important bankroll management is at different stages of our poker playing lifetime.

Hope your're back on your feet soon and in the game.