This game is killing me right now like I cannot believe (long)

[2handed]

We all know that PLO is a higher variance game than almost any other form of poker. To compensate for this we play with bigger rolls, typically at least double what nlhe players use. While moving up past 100PLO I employed at least 40 BI's as my standard bankroll. This has always been adequate, until this month when everything has collapsed on me. I have lost roughly 40,000 dollars in the last 3 weeks.

I began taking PLO seriously at the end of March of this year. Previously I had primarily been a holdem player live, and an O8 player online. My main live games were 2-5 NL and 15-30 and 20-40 limit. Online I had a few months prior busted what remained of my roll after withdrawals to play live. I had begun dabbling in PLO earlier, and started reading this forum to pick up strategy. After a bad run live, I decide to try and grind my way up from 6max 25PLO online.

I deposited 200 dollars, and after working it up to a 1000 playing exclusively 25plo on FTP I moved up to 50PLO. I played at this level for quite awhile, and conservatively began to take shots at 100PLO when my roll got to around 3k.
After this limit I never played with less than 40 BI's. At 100 PLO I took my first 20BI downswing and a got taste of the variance in this game, especially playing an aggro 6max style. Fortunately my roll was over 4k at that time so I was able to sustain the losses. At this time I was playing about four tables at once, probably averaging 3hours a day on weekdays and maybe double that on weekends. The only thing limiting the time I put into omaha was my obligations to school, and these sometimes took a backseat to poker.

I got my roll up to 10k or so by beginning of the summer and started handily beating 200plo. I took a break in June to travel in Europe for about six weeks, leaving myself 8k to play with when I got back, and budgeted everything else for the trip, about 6k or so. I had a great time, and played some live PLO in Spain which was a lot of fun.

Upon returning home to the USA, I resumed playing. I went on a huge tear through the whole month of August. I was incredibly focused on poker and was playing my A game almost always. I ran the 8k I had up to over 50k playing first 1/2, and then moving up to 2/4 and 3/6. I felt great, I was playing great, and running great. In this time I had a few big setbacks, but nothing that really messed with my head or seriously threatened my roll. I took a serious shot before I went back to school at 5-10 plo and lost about 8k.

I had a similar setback near the beginning of school, but had a monster week afterwards winning 25k playing 2/4, 3/6
and crushing the 30/60 and 50/100 o8 games. I also dabbled in online LHE and did well. At the end of September, I was really on top of stuff. I bought great furniture and all sorts of gadgets and for my apartment, including a flatscreen, a nintendo wii, a new sick dual screen computer, rugs, a nice grill, and few other things. After all the spending, (I probably spent well over 10k in september), I still had 60k left for poker.

Then October started. I took another shot at permanently moving to 5/10, playing all the games running on FTP. I started playing 6 or more tables at once and playing different games. I was cocky and took on any opposition, my game selection was bad and played HU too much, i took a few small losses after initially winning, but then the big drop started.

On oct 3rd I lost over 15k in a combination of 5/10 plo and 50/100 O8. I played all night, and finally dragged myself away at sunrise. I couldnt believe how much I had let myself lose that night. I took a break for a week after this session to recoup. I still had over 40k liquid and was not too worried, just figured I needed to move down for awhile.

I came back strong after a week off, and made 6k in two sessions, mostly at 2/4 with a table of 3/6 thrown in.
Over the weekend I gave it all back however, and struggled the whole next week. I felt like I played decently, I just couldnt make anything happen. The games felt tougher, and my hands didnt consistenly hold up. After playing about 12k hands at 2/4 in two weeks I had lost 2k.

I had been planning a trip to Vegas for the past month, and went last weekend bringing 7500 with me. I had hoped to turn things around live, but this was just not in the cards. I played the 10/20 NL at the Bellagio, and got busted for about 2500 when I went all in with the nut straight versus two pair on the turn. He rivered the boat. I got another 2k out of the ATM and moved to 100-200 limit, and bought in for 7k. I was pretty happy with my play, but once again ran bad and played too long, and lost all but 500 of the 7k. I played all night and felt like I had an edge even when it got shorthanded around 5 am. I dont remember ever making a flush or a straight all night.
I had a surprisingly fun trip after this loss, ironically winning 2k back at craps and blackjack. I lost another thousand playing lower stakes poker however. I drank quite a bit and partied with some fine women and was able to shake off much of the pain of losing.

Upon getting back to school I have dropped another 10k in 2 days, 20 buyins at 2/4 and 10 BI's at 1/2. This last run has been the worst I have ever experience, running as bad i ever have and not playing my A game. I guess I am going to take another break now, but my confidence in my ability to win has been shaken, and I am down to my last 15k or so. Any advice on how to recover or get myself back in line and winning would be appreciated. I still feel like I am good player, and I attribute these losses to some lapses in my play, starting to want to gamble to much and chase losses, and playing too long and too many tables. I have busted my online roll and the dollar amounts I have gambled with and lost nag at me, as well as some of the bad decisions I have made.

Just writing this has helped my clarify some things and remember how lucky I have been in the past. I was wondering if anyone has had a similar experience to mine.

To those of you just starting in this game, be aware of the psychological difficulties this game can wreak on even a serious and over-rolled player.

Good Luck

[Big Dave D]

"I don't mean to seem like a prick..."

Having criticised that style in another post, I'm tempted to start off on the same tack. Anyway, although this has undoubtedly caused you some distress, this post should be in BBV.

gl

bdd

[cmyr]

i always wondered who michaelsc was. (prob. not right, i haven't been datamining at all this month, but he's a player who vaguely fits your description)

[2handed]

i didnt think i would get any good advice there on dealing with PLO variance. I know other posters here have had runs like this and wont just write omahahah or whatever

[2handed]

id rather the mods just delete it if the OP is that innappropriate.

[2handed]

I'm not michaelsc

[Big Dave D]

There is no advice. This is Omaha. To badly mangle Godfather II: "This is the business we have chosen." You ran hot. Then you ran cold. Almost no one on here has had experience of that to the extent you're talking about, because normally they just stop posting. The only way you get used to winning and losing big numbers is to win and lose big numbers.

gl

bdd
---

"In the silence of space, no one can hear you scream."

[Troll_Inc]

I got some advice for you and anyone else that will cure you of your mental problems associated with playing stakes high enough to support yourself.

1. Cash out what you have left.

2. Tomorrow go look for a regular job.

3. By the time you get bored of looking for, or working at, a normal job you'll have a clear head and be able to come back and play well. And you will have gained some perspective on your situation.

[2handed]

troll i actually like that, cheered me up a bit

[Rob121]

yeah i agree with troll. I had a really bad down swing, felt like [censored], got a hard working job and started playing again and started right off where I was at before the downswing.