HSNL downswings: is - 40bi the new -20bi ??

[mperich]

a lot of hsnl'ers play a very high variance style and often play very short/hu games. ive lost almost 20 buyins in a day before at 25/50 (and i wasnt on monkey tilt)

-Mike

[Rekrul]

To have a 40 bi downswing means you are playing losing poker. I don't care what anyone says. I certainly was. When you play great + run good + play a [censored] load of opponents + HU/6handed/9max if you don't keep your focus it's very easy to tilt and start playing horrible and blame it on bad luck rather than bad play.

[teddyFBI]

i don't know whether to be encouraged or mortified by these responses...

[snakekilla88]

If you take enough beats you can easily get stuck in permenant retard mode. I thought my downswing at 5/10-10/20nl was just me losing every coinflip, but after looking over hh's there is no doubt I made a bunch of horrible plays.

Also I kept playing people HU who I felt like I was way better against but they owned me. As long as your opponent is agressive it can get tough and swingy. Heads up seems like the easiest way to spew off buyins and facilitate a huge downswing if you are not playing well.

[Roger Mainfield]

I remember Samo stating he had had multiple 40 buyin downswings.

[AZK]

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I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say if you are having a -40bi downswing you are clearly not in the right game (this could be due to tilt/your style of play/the line up/your relative position, any number of things) and don't have "the best of it".

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This really isn't true. I ran 6bb/100 for last year at 25/50, but during that time I had downswings of 200 and 300k respectively (some from playing shorthanded at those ub games that were pretty tough and prob -ev for me at 50/100; but a lot of it was in 25/50).

The poster who said you are playing your D game more over the last stretch than your A game is more spot on. Also you experience worse game selection because you just want to play all the time to make your money back, while the best games may not be available and you just jump in blind. Heads up can really accelerate a downswing as well. 25 buy ins, while it sucks, isnt too awful. Taking time away from poker entirely helps a lot.

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So basically what you are saying is that for whatever reason 40bi downswing = not having the best of it. Call it/phrase it however you like, you are basically just saying what i am.

[Ansky]

From max to min I think the greatest downswing I ever had at 10/20 was 29 buy ins, but I also prob lost a bunch at 25/50 and 5/10 during that time. There is no doubt in my mind that after the first 15 buy ins or so, I could no longer blame variance. There were just too many poorly played hands. It wasn't really tilt, but more that because I was downswinging so bad, I just lost my general sense of how to play well I think. For example, some sessions I would get caught bluffing and then I'd play way too timid after that cause I would way over analyze the one hand, and think everyone was calling down light.

I think the best thing to take away from a downswing is that it is as much a test of your skills as anything else in poker. Being able to block out the losses and still play your A+ game is something that very very few players do. No matter what, somewhere inside your head you are thinking about making up lost money, and not just playing for +EV.

Also, the thing is, w/ variance technically anything can happen. I mean, it certainly is possible that 40 buy in downswings will happen even if you are playing great, but you also gotta recognize that it's more likely that there is something wrong w/ your game. It's all about being able to be critical in the right way. If you downswing don't always assume there is something wrong w/ your game and change everything, but also don't just say "aw hell im up in sklansky bux, it's just variance."

[iRock]

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I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say if you are having a -40bi downswing you are clearly not in the right game (this could be due to tilt/your style of play/the line up/your relative position, any number of things) and don't have "the best of it".

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This really isn't true. I ran 6bb/100 for last year at 25/50, but during that time I had downswings of 200 and 300k respectively (some from playing shorthanded at those ub games that were pretty tough and prob -ev for me at 50/100; but a lot of it was in 25/50).

The poster who said you are playing your D game more over the last stretch than your A game is more spot on. Also you experience worse game selection because you just want to play all the time to make your money back, while the best games may not be available and you just jump in blind. Heads up can really accelerate a downswing as well. 25 buy ins, while it sucks, isnt too awful. Taking time away from poker entirely helps a lot.

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So basically what you are saying is that for whatever reason 40bi downswing = not having the best of it. Call it/phrase it however you like, you are basically just saying what i am.

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Ya i think so, i was just trying to clarify that having a 40 bi downswing doesn't mean you aren't in the right game; it just means you aren't in the right mind for that game. The only way i've found to stop large downswings is to take a few weeks off. I was also lucky to be in college, so someone was always around looking to join in drinking those swings away.

[Lj.]

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I was also lucky to be in college, so someone was always around looking to join in drinking those swings away.

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drinking has def been a part of a some big bi downswings, im sure lots of hsnl can agree, myself included. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[Moonshine]

i've never had a downswing of more than 20 buyins where at the end of it i looked back and could honestly say it was just me being unlucky and not me playing like a clown