Anxiety of losing/anxiety during hand gets worse during career - Page 2

Epple · #11 01-15-2007, 06:30 AM

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I feel this anxiety causes me to subconsciously nit it up, and reduce my variance but reducing my winrate.

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Nothing wrong with reducing your winrate if you reduce your variance. Think of it like investing, stocks have higher expected return than the money market, but have higher risk. Play to your appropriate risk/return range. If your not comfortable playing a high variance loose style, don't.

Split Suit · #12 01-16-2007, 04:02 AM

i used to have the same thing...esp when i was playyin wayyyy underrolled. might i suggest that u shorten ur sessions up a bit? because i used to feel very anxious about longer sessions i started cutting em down. i used to feel that if i kept goin, i wud just blow profit then dip red. thats when i was playin 3-5hr sessions (4-6 tabling).

i now play as many tables as i want (6-10), but cut the actual session time down to 1.5hrs max. (i will get off sooner if i start tilting too hard). (i generally take at least 20min b4 jumping on another session) i find this keeps my mental on track, doesnt allow me too get too emotional (up nor down), and lets me reset myself between sessions. this should help with ur anxiety quite a bit. and if nothing else, just try it. gl

tufat23 · #13 01-21-2007, 03:37 AM

i've had the same problem. In nov i went through a 27k breakeven stretch where I just felt like at any moment i was gonna drop 5-10 buyins in a session, then have to spend the next day or the next couple of days getting unstuck.

it felt kinda sick. Right now I've come out of that and done well, but it's still at the back of my mind. Interestingly in another thread good2cu came up with something about seeing a shrink to help cope mentally with the game. I seriously do think that this is an interesting option, especially if you're playing relatively high.

one of the worst things i've found is that my mood for the rest of the day can be affected by my session. If i'm down 5 stacks i'm not really in a jokey mood, and dont interact well. If I'm up 5 stacks I'm pretty boyant and happy. This is even though I 'know' that results and performance in poker doesn't necessarily correlate that closely in any given session.

Acein8ter · #14 01-21-2007, 03:54 AM

It's got to be a lot tougher on Pro's and their sole income is from playing Poker. There is a hugh amount of pressure to win, or ??? That's one reason why I could never play this game to make a living, too much pressure. Heck, I loose 5 BI's at 25NL/50NL and I feel pretty crappy too.

iggymcfly · #15 01-23-2007, 12:18 PM

I need some of your problem. Lately I've been playing super-LAG PLO pretty severely underrolled (35 buy-ins), and it seems like the money just doesn't faze me at all. I can get stuck 1/4 of my roll in a session and hardly feel it.

I think my problem is that I almost went busto a couple months ago to the point that I was sure I was screwed and was going to have to get a job or something. Had a 400+ BB downswing playing limit and went from a 27K BR to a $600 BR. Well, I rebuilt it playing aggressively and taking shots, and now have about 35K, but my fear reflex is just totally gone.

My other problem is that I started playing in this 5/10 PLO game not realizing how big it was and kind of got addicted to the action. I was thinking it would play about like 5/10 NL, but it actually plays bigger than 10/20 NL. Last night, I played a 14K pot and even after winning it, someone covered me. I'm up quite a bit in this game since I started playing it, but I know that all I need is some bad variance and I could easily lose all the money I have online.

JSchnett · #16 01-23-2007, 10:40 PM

move down, you probably wont lose much longterm hourly rate anyway.

rokstedy · #17 01-29-2007, 03:03 PM

[ QUOTE ]
I need some of your problem. Lately I've been playing super-LAG PLO pretty severely underrolled (35 buy-ins), and it seems like the money just doesn't faze me at all. I can get stuck 1/4 of my roll in a session and hardly feel it.

I think my problem is that I almost went busto a couple months ago to the point that I was sure I was screwed and was going to have to get a job or something. Had a 400+ BB downswing playing limit and went from a 27K BR to a $600 BR. Well, I rebuilt it playing aggressively and taking shots, and now have about 35K, but my fear reflex is just totally gone.

My other problem is that I started playing in this 5/10 PLO game not realizing how big it was and kind of got addicted to the action. I was thinking it would play about like 5/10 NL, but it actually plays bigger than 10/20 NL. Last night, I played a 14K pot and even after winning it, someone covered me. I'm up quite a bit in this game since I started playing it, but I know that all I need is some bad variance and I could easily lose all the money I have online.

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yikes, this is one powerfully scary story. more bbv worthy than psych. you say you play for a living?

johnnyrocket · #18 01-29-2007, 03:58 PM

you need to adapt to more of a conservative bankroll if this issue bothers you. That is most likely the best and only solution along with going to a therapist

Mr_Donktastic · #19 02-01-2007, 08:34 PM

I think MANY people have the same problem you're talking about, and it sucks. The anxiety thing is bad enough but even worse imo are the mood swings linked to how well you did that day. That is just unhealthy for you and those around you.

I wish I had an answer for you - the only thing that helps me is playing in games which I'm way over-rolled for, but that sucks too because you are losing out on $$$$ when you do that!

surfinillini · #20 02-02-2007, 03:05 AM

I think the anxiety is directly proportional to how much free time you have to think about your situation. If you use your freetime and occupy it with non-poker things, your overall stress levels will decrease because your life isn't poker poker poker poker...

What about hobbies outside of poker? Do you have any? granted your profession is your hobby, its good to find balance with other things you enjoy. Outdoor activies, exercising, cooking, [censored] take a class at a community college just to meet people who dont play poker while you learn something useful (lifeguard certification, who the [censored] knows). Join a local sports league?

These are things I wish I did in Vegas but it was basically eat, sleep, play poker. I'm sure if I filled my non-poker time with activies I wouldn't have burned out and it sounds that that's where you're headed soon.

Although I had to leave my house to play its all relative.