spending lots of $$$ when stuck, saving lots of $$ when up..... why?

[AZK]

Question: When I run bad/play bad and tilt, and lose large sums of money, sometimes for days on end, I normally go into a buying frenzy, I start buying all these worthless things that I may or may not have always wanted but certainly never need. Such as $50 pens, titanium usb sticks, sunglasses, clothes, rounds of drinks for all my friends, titanium money clips, ebay basically becomes my new best friend, the list goes on... When I am playing well, winning a lot of money and feel almost unbeatable, I end up playing a lot more, people might not see me in a social setting for two weeks or more and I spend close to NOTHING. I will go weeks without buying anything new, and the closest I will come is eating out.

Thoghts on this? Does this make sense? Shouldn't it be the other way around, anyone else do this?

[AZK]

Another perfect example of this: Poker weekends at casinos with other 2+2ers, if I am stuck and everyone wants to go to an expensive steakhouse for dinner, I am so down. If I am up and playing well, I'd much rather just get a $8 sandwich and play, no real interest in buying drinks, gambling, etc....

[millerlolife]

I do the same. If I lose a thou or so playin cards, I usually buy stuff or spend a lot going out. My theory being that I better hurry up and have fun with my money before i lose it all on a massive case of tilt.

[millerlolife]

I will also clean my apt. after a bad session.

[bambi]

Do you like specific amounts of money, eg if you go to the bank and you have $10235 and you only need $200 for the week, will you withdraw $235 to leave round numbers left behind?

What i am saying is some people dont look at $2123 as 2123 individual dollars each eqully as important, they look at it like $2K plus some change?

[JohnnyHumongous]

I get this too, what I believe it has to do with is the money you play with has little to no relation to the money you spend, in your mind. You feel really bad after a bad session; spending money cheers you up. You justify it because a) feeling better will make you play better and earn your money back, and b) you just lost $x,xxx so what's another $xx? You know you're a winning player and you can get it back, and you already have a large roll, so you don't worry about "tightening up" at that point. It's basically a "smoothing" mechanism designed to even out your happiness/utility, whatever you want to call it. Anyways that's my take on it.

[spino1i]

Im the opposite. If im up a lot for a session, I start spending more, if Im down then I become very frugal.

[orange]

I too am the opposite. When I am down money, I feel the need to conserve what I have in order to make up for my poker losses. While on the other hand, when I am up money, I go on a buying frenzy.

[raze]

When I'm up, I go get groceries & maybe go out for dinner.

When I'm down, I get sad & ignore my computer for a while.

[boc4life]

I am the same as the OP, and the reason for it is simple

When I'm on a downswing, I buy things to reassure myself that I have money, and that this downswing is not going to affect my way of life. This reassurance keeps me from tilting and playing in a desperate manner in my next session.

I've found that going out and spending large sums of money is actually the best antidote to a losing session for me


As for why I'm frugal when I'm ahead...I'm not quite as sure about that. I do have an "impending doom" mentality sometimes, I'm often pretty sure my luck is about to run out at any moment, and that I'm "due" for a big downswing...I'm guessing because of that, I try to protect my bankroll while I'm running good