How do you guys get through the "down swings"

[raistlinx]

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Playing over-rolled helps. I will drop down in levels if I'm running bad for an extended period. I will also regularly switch up my game and donk it up at some MTT's or SNG's for a bit, try some omaha or stud. This is also a great recipe for stunting your poker growth unfortunately.

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WTF??? Learning different games will always help your other games.

[MotorBoatingSOB]

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[ QUOTE ]
Playing over-rolled helps. I will drop down in levels if I'm running bad for an extended period. I will also regularly switch up my game and donk it up at some MTT's or SNG's for a bit, try some omaha or stud. This is also a great recipe for stunting your poker growth unfortunately.

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WTF??? Learning different games will always help your other games.

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I agree with this. It makes you more well rounded and can keep your mind fresh.

[FloppyJ]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Playing over-rolled helps. I will drop down in levels if I'm running bad for an extended period. I will also regularly switch up my game and donk it up at some MTT's or SNG's for a bit, try some omaha or stud. This is also a great recipe for stunting your poker growth unfortunately.

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WTF??? Learning different games will always help your other games.

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I completely agree. I find myself just finally starting to learn NL cash after a year or so of poker, so the comment came out slightly twisted.
edit: (and am a ridiculous bankroll nit)

[GiantBuddha]

A...day... off???? I usually try to take a day off (and fail), but playing other games is great. I play a little horse sometimes. Or morrowind.

It can be hard not to question yourself, but if you look back at your historical stats, hopefully that will be enough to reassure you.

[ICMoney]

I dropped a few buy-ins today and took a break.

Came back, dropped a few more.

I tell myself that it's good when someone sucks out on me, because I got my money in with the best of it.

If I knew his cards, I would make the same play again.

The luck will even out in the long run.

[Tking4unc]

Wanted to say thanks for the advice boys, I dropped back down to $10 NL where Im about 40-45 buy ins as opposed to around 20 ish at $25 NL, I was up $25 despite still running cold as a cucumber, the Aces hand I think I played to perfection and he spiked a 2 outer on me after the money got in, the KK hand I played super fast pre flop bc I want to get an AK or 2 Queens hand in there pre flop, AJ suited called 2 all ins and hit runner runner flush on me, I guess I shoulda probably just made a normal reraise? I bet I get 2 pushes behind me regardless:

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Tking4unc [Ac Ad]
Tking4unc: calls $0.10
Nacho667: folds
tyt08: raises $0.25 to $0.35
sul the bull: folds
bankerupted: folds
wei7751: calls $0.35
DaNatural22: folds
devon06atX: folds
Tking4unc: raises $1.65 to $2
tyt08: calls $1.65
wei7751: calls $1.65
*** FLOP *** [9s 3d 8d]
Tking4unc: bets $5
tyt08: calls $4.65 and is all-in
wei7751: calls $0.85 and is all-in
*** TURN *** [9s 3d 8d] [Jd]
*** RIVER *** [9s 3d 8d Jd] [Qh]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Tking4unc: shows [Ac Ad] (a pair of Aces)
tyt08: shows [Js Jc] (three of a kind, Jacks)
tyt08 collected $7.20 from side pot
wei7751: mucks hand
tyt08 collected $8.30 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $16.30 Main pot $8.30. Side pot $7.20. | Rake $0.80
Board [9s 3d 8d Jd Qh]
Seat 1: Tking4unc showed [Ac Ad] and lost with a pair of Aces

Dealt to Tking4unc [Kh Kd]
Sevenoutt: calls $0.10
Kuhlke007: calls $0.10
LOLBillFrist: raises $0.80 to $0.90
Jiggy Moe: folds
boutitson: calls $0.90
Tking4unc: raises $13.25 to $14.15 and is all-in
McCount: folds
DaVols2K7: folds
Sevenoutt: folds
Kuhlke007: folds
LOLBillFrist: calls $8.35 and is all-in
boutitson: calls $3.95 and is all-in
*** FLOP *** [3c Qh 8d]
*** TURN *** [3c Qh 8d] [5c]
*** RIVER *** [3c Qh 8d 5c] [4c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
LOLBillFrist: shows [Ks Ad] (high card Ace)
Tking4unc: shows [Kh Kd] (a pair of Kings)
Tking4unc collected $8.35 from side pot
boutitson: shows [Ac Jc] (a flush, Ace high)
boutitson collected $14.20 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $23.70 Main pot $14.20. Side pot $8.35. | Rake $1.15
Board [3c Qh 8d 5c 4c]

[wallenborn]

You played both hands fine. If your downswings consists of bad beats like this, you should be happy.

In my experience the worst thing you could do now is let these beats affect your game. I had a nasty downswing in January that started with a series of bad beats just like yours. They cost me a few buy-ins. Then i began to doubt my game, started to make random adjustments, and ended up with a terrible month. The bulk of the losses came after the streak of bad luck had ended.

If these beats bother you, move down. Play ABC poker. Don't try to force things just because you feel you have to "do something". Then, when you feel your game coming back, look at the losing hands in the downswing. Identify the bad beats and forget about them. Learn from the others.

Bad beats, after all, are just rake. Only less predictable.

[D.L.M.]

To get through them, you must remember other downswings that occured. Realize that this to shall pass, and that the first two days of the month are trivial compared to the last 28. And that in a 10-20 k sample you can run about break even with any sort of variance combo you could think of.

My first two days of march!

[solvine]

table selection is pretty important i feel, try and sit down at tables where there are not too many regs as you will not get their money as easily. I have paid more attention to this recently and have been getting better results accordingly

[jetsetboy]

Each time I have a bad session (more than 2k hands) I go to the games notes in PT and try to figure if I am running bad or if I'm on tilt/FPS. I simply replay all the hands with a pot > 20bb won or lost. Most of the time it's variance and sometimes I can see how bad I can play when I'm on tilt. When I have an hesitation about the way I played a hand I ask to friends or I post the hand on the forum.

When the downswing last for more than 10k I try to check deeper :
_ I look at all my pp and see how many times I hit a set on the flop while holding a pp. This should be roughly 12%. I have been as low as 8% over 10k hands.
_ I look at the frequency of the big winning hand : QQ+/AK. _ I look at all the classical setup loose/win a stack and see if i'm even. I'm thinking about set over set, KK vs AA, flush over flush (with two cards of course), str8 over str8 and things like that.
_ I look at my AI with drawing hands and AI against drawing hand.

These kinds of checking can help you to:
_ Stay confident in your game which is really important when you are running bad.
_ Find out when you are on tilt much quicker.

Last but not least : I use the grindhouse thread to whime.