Downswings - how bad can they be ?

[malicor]

Hi,

I'm wondering how bad downswings can actually be. I don't think I changed style in playing, I'm playing .50/1$ to 1/2$ limit hold'em, and went down a good 150$ in the last two weeks.

Is that normal ? Or is it quite sure that I'm doing something big-time wrong ?

regards, malicor

[HoneyBadger]

300 BB is not surprising. So that'd be $600 at $1/2 or $300 at $.50/1

[shane88888]

Don't think of it in terms of time period, but instead in number of hands. 300 BB happens often. I've seen much better players than myself break even over tens of thousands of hands.

10k is a good number to get an idea of how you actually run.

How many hands have you played? How long is your current trend?

[BigBadBabar]

they can be terrible. unimaginably, gut-wrenchingly, mind-bogglingly terrible.

[Ricks]

You downswing is relatively minor but I think that you should always assume that downswings are the result of not playing correctly. This way you will always take steps to improve your game and in turn you will be more likely to become a better player. If you attribute it to variance you may just ignore the possibility that you are playing poorly.

I know that when downswings happen to me, I play less and study the game more. I actually believe that if there ever has been any leaps of improvement in my game it has probably come from having downswings. Sometimes, losing can be a great motivator.

[danspartan]

I agree with Ricks about improving your game, but also think that sometimes you can lose your edge and not play as well as you had been. You raise less than you should, chase too much, call down too much or fold too easily.