[adanthar]

[ QUOTE ]
Oh, and why "Adanthar" and exactly how Russian are you (and if much at all, views on Putin) and why the avatar?


[/ QUOTE ]

"Adanthar" is just an amalgamation of two online nicks I use, nothing special. Same deal with my avatar - I was about to go to law school when I originally went around looking for an 'attorney' pic to use and found that guy. I hope his descendants don't hunt me down and sue me, because he's awesome.

I am originally Russian and still speak it fluently/occasionally go back/have an uncle in St.Petersburg. My view on Putin...well, Russia's never had a functioning democracy before, so why should they start now?

[ QUOTE ]
[Sob Story] I'm in the middle (well - hopefully at the end of...) a brutal downswing. I can't win a race, hell, I can't even win when I'm way ahead. (AK vs. A2, I ask my wife to guess if the two is coming on the turn or the river). I've seen my BR decrease by about 30% over these past six weeks or so...
[/Sob Story]

How do you handle the downswings? Do you take a break? Step 'down' and play cheaper tourneys? Just press on knowing that your decisions are good and therefore you'll win soon enough? What advise do you have for somebody getting pretty depressed with his luck (and feeling like he's making bad decisions because of it...)?

[/ QUOTE ]

One of the things I've realized over the past year is just how much mental toughness you need to do well in this game over the 'long term', where the 'long term' turns out to be 'way too freaking long'. It's worth it to mention that two years ago, nobody had a clue what 'too long' meant - people were basing big decisions on 10K hand samples, 100 SNG's, etc. (I'm not so sure they were wrong, honestly, because it's probably better for a talented player to move up too soon than to delay development too long, but that's another story...) Because of that, and the development of poker as a whole, people are just now realizing that the mental aspect of handling big, prolonged downswings is its own skillset. Irieguy in STT's posted a long thread about this that, unfortunately, I don't remember the title of...it's worth trying to find it, though.

Suffice to say that I think handling long swings and minimizing tilt is probably the most important thing you need to know after you are sure you're a significant long term winner. It costs you a little less money in MTT's than cash, but at the same time, the swings last longer and cause more burnout. Do I have any secrets for handling them? No. I do have a very calm personality (some might say level headed [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]) that lets me weather them easier, but I've dropped 1500 bucks on tilt while learning cash just last week, so I'm not immune. I guess the bottom line is to keep analyzing your play and not sweat the results (this is also where good bankroll management comes in.)