Dealing with variance

[Kriber13]

Yesterday I had the sickest day ever at the tables, I lost quite a bit of money and it was how I lost which I had big problems dealing with. If I did not know better and in most circumstances I would have been sure that the game was rigged. I lost to outlandish draws on almost every hand one card straights, flushes and sets or full houses on the river. In the space of two hours I lost with top full against kks sucking out on the river, oh well you get the picture....

My problem is that I could not shake the beats and I was feeling totally disgusted and like a victim, needless to say it did not improve my game. It was almost as I felt comforted when the kept hitting runner one card draws, thus confirming that I truly am the most unlucky player in the universe.

The night ended with me recouping about a third of the loss and feeling ok about the result, but not about how I felt and how I was dealing with that nasty deck I ran into!

So what I'm looking for is advice to handle brutal swings and to be more neutral towards results and play keep the focus on playing my best game.

Any ideas would be much appreciated!

Cheers, Kristoffer

[Humble Pie]

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So what I'm looking for is advice to handle brutal swings and to be more neutral towards results and play keep the focus on playing my best game.


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Try looking @ a lifetime graph of your results when things start going south.

[PantsOnFire]

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So what I'm looking for is advice to handle brutal swings and to be more neutral towards results and play keep the focus on playing my best game.

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Your bankroll handles your variance, not you.

The only thing you can do is honestly assess whether you are outclassed or on tilt and quit the game. Usually when you get a series of bad beats, you are outclassing the field but tilt could be a problem.

The other thing to do is forget that playing is about or for money. Playing is a string of decisions. As long as you are making good decisions and other players are making bad ones, forget about the results and the money. You are playing good poker.

I know this is easier said than done. But experience helps a lot. When you go through enough downswings, you'll get used to it.

And believe it or not, the opposite is true. If you are kicking a game in the ass, you still might not be playing good poker but you might not notice. Focus on decisions and how others are playing.

[Rek]

PantsOnFire is right. All you can do as a poker player is make the right decisions over and over again.

Whether varience is with you or against you at any particular stage does not matter. You can only make correct decisions. If you are then you are playing fine.

Easy to say and difficult to do. Varience is a bitch but tilt is the real enemy. Just be honest with your play.

[OtZman]

If nothing else helps, take a break so you get some distance from poker.

[Russ M.]

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If nothing else helps, take a break so you get some distance from poker.

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This is what I'm doing. I am currently on a 5 buy-in downswing where I feel I've mostly made the right plays and gotten unlucky. I'm taking a week or so off and then resuming play.