Unfortunately I am still not at that point in poker where a losing day can completely unphase me. It doesn't tilt me or even get me that mad, but it does disappoint me - makes me feel like a wasted day. I was wondering what lies you guys tell to your brains to make it brush off losing days.. I know it's best to just look back on your weeks and months rather than days and to keep thinking long term - but it's tricky because it's a little counter intuitive, isn't it? We're raised to know that if we work for 5 days we are going to get paid for every day and every hour of work. So this whole idea of some days being big winners, some being mediocre, and some being atrocious is a concept I am still trying to get my brain used to. I feel once I break this psychological barrier that it will be reflected in my play.
I feel the same as you and for me it seems even worse in my mind than you...
but I try to progress dealing with that cause i think it s one of the key to be a winning player
and even to be able to drop down in stakes and still play good (trying ...)
1 of my experience is just gettin good on one session going up in cash and in stakes and after 200 games it just goes wrong
try to recover and play higher stakes and get broke....
since two months I sarted all again climb up again and then down a bit as usual stop playin ...drop down in stakes ...and at the end of the month everything is fine... +++ THE KEY
"We're raised to know that if we work for 5 days we are going to get paid for every day and every hour of work. So this whole idea of some days being big winners, some being mediocre, and some being atrocious is a concept I am still trying to get my brain used to."
We are also raised to believe poker is a game of luck. Even most of our governments make policy based on poker being of luck rather than skill.
But you're already playing poker AND winning, surely you broke away from the "common thought" on that major key, so you just need to have some faith that you are a winning player and that losing days come with the territory.
Thanks Ry, good response. Coincidently, I made this post the day before I went on my worst downswing. Dropped 12 buy-ins today, and it got me wondering if that is a standard swing in turbo HUSNGs. I wonder what the point is where it goes from downswing to needing a serious re-evaluation of game play.
Off for the long weekend, check back in on Monday. Happy Easter, if you believe in that sort of thing, fellas.
It can be almost impossible to tell if it's just variance, bad play or some combination of both, especially if you're just evaluating yourself.
Unless you're a big 6 figure winner, I'd say the rule of thumb is to just take variance as it comes and focus on your own game, at least that's what I try to do in practice. Of course if you're losing or breaking even over a big sample and you don't want to take the challenge/can't play for a few hundred games without making profit then just move down to a level you are 100% sure you can beat.
It's always extremely easy to move up when you're winning, just always try to keep that in mind.
Personally I'd go for the "serious re-evaluation", and I mean more than just this one time too. Your game should "never" remain static, as even the big winners evaluate their plays often, and make sure they are making good decisions as often as possible.
Variance is somewhat out of your control, but the one thing that can affect your winrate is dealing with variance. Personally, I deal with it a lot better when I know I am working hard at my game, and much worse when I know I'm neglecting my game.
HU SNG noob