Not caring about the money - probably good, but a bit frightening

[DrewOnTilt]

Apparently, last Sunday I had my worst loss ever in terms of raw dollar amount. I say "apparently" because I just realized this fact today.

The loss occurred on the 2nd day of a weekend trip to Atlantic City. I spent the whole ride home thinking about the mistakes that I made during the session, such as not leaving when the table turned tough, and several hands that I should have laid down. A bad fold that I made on the river is still eating at me a bit even now.

Not until today did it occur to me that in the course of 8 hours I blew through the equivalent of my monthly after-tax pay from my day job.

Is that because that after 2 1/2 years of playing this game that I am accustomed to variance, that I understand the mistakes that I made during the session, and that the chips are just plastic? Or, maybe because I booked a decent win the night before, finished only moderately down for the weekend, and am just under my all-time high in terms of total wins? If so, then that's a good thing, since I used to be a major tilt-monster.

Still, I lost over 8% of my yearly pay in the course of a day and didn't even realize it until almost 3 days later. That's [censored] sick, and also a bit frightening. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[jrockhaf]

Do u keep your poker $ seperate from your everyday living $.If the $ you lost was from previous poker earnings ie .bankroll,then its no biggie,but if its $ you have earned from your day job ,id be concerned.

[DrewOnTilt]

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Do u keep your poker $ seperate from your everyday living $

[/ QUOTE ]

Yep. Bankroll only baby.

[jclin]

Not sure how big your bankroll is, but I never lose more than 5% of my bankroll in a day. Basically, I only play 4/8 limit or 1/2 NL live with my ~4K (used to be much bigger) roll right now. When that bankroll disappears at a very quick rate (as it happened to me before), I felt too urgent to get it back to a healthier level instead of tightening the reins more. I'm sure this has happened to anyone who starts moving to bigger levels.

Anyways, just be aware of losing a large portion of your bankroll. I'm assuming your bankroll isn't a years worth of salary, so what you lost was more than 8% of your bankroll. Especially if you are not making a living off of poker, be willing to go to lower levels if the bankroll goes way below what you want.