Downswings - Poker Tips for Survival - scrawnybob's Ramble

[scrawnybob]

hi all

this week's scrawnybob's Poker Ramble is ...

Downswings - Poker Tips for Survival

Seriously at the moment I feel like I couldn’t win a shin kicking contest against a visually impaired one legged man … And I guess I’m not the only who’s been here ...

cheers scrawnybob

[GypsyTea]

An excellent read Rob,

I think the key is VERY good bankroll management, I am aware that "we" keep banging on about it and we try to explain it with some times no feed back to see if we are successful in the explanations of the said subject.

For some reason in the last week I seem to be also going on a negative variance, I am sure there is external factors, ie I am over worked and tired, but at the end of the day I still come back to good strong aggressive poker with using money I can afford to lose , and also excepting that I am not omnipotent and I can not win every hand, and YES some times I do start to think "They" the server softwear is out to get me, especially when I start in a new site and am trying to play off the bonus points.

How ever the other night live I played junk out of my BB and holy shit I hit a set of queens with an 8 kicker the pots around 2k and I only ( on purpose ) only took with me £1500 so I had a small profit for 7 hours play, anyway I lost all my GAMEROLL ( I could of reloaded but I went home instead) the 1 other player had a 9 kicker with his set of Queens.

Was I upset....well I hate losing at anything, but No not really I said nice hand and went home ( the bar was shut).

So back to basics in this scenario well:-

1/ I should have folded the junk in the BB ie Q8off.

2/ I only took £1500 because that was all I was happy losing, not that I thought I would.

3/ OK we both hit a miracle flop unfortunately.

4/ I can not have a go at the other guy for playing Q9off even tho I do feel I had a better justification being in the blind, infact I give the guy his due He picked off a far better player after 7 hours who was weak ie tired!

5/ I wasnt "Hungry" enough so I made an arrogant play when I put him allin ( what the fuck I thought he had only the Poker Devil in MY head can answer it)!

6/ No point in me bitching about it I do not want the guy not to play cash with me I owe the M****rF****r some pain, that I am Never going to forgive him untill I have some "Donkey Tax" and Interest off him lets say around 5.000.00 pounds

7/ What did I learn from it, well a) He's loose as a goose in a mid position, Hes a Chancer and a Gambler ( I rased pre flop 350 pounds) b) I shouldnt really expect a possative EV when I am tired being a arrogent smart arse dimwit! c) I want the guy on my right in future so I must pick where I sit and the time the place etc.

8/ I really must get physically fit 7 hours poker game knocked the shit out of me, I have had the high life to long, smoking drinking good food, I am going to rectify and not play poker till I have run 50 miles in MY gym ( I never use it..what I tw*t I am )on a very expensive running machine.

Regards

GT

Good thread mate sorry if i ranted a little thanks for giving me the opportunity to vent at my self!

[scrawnybob]

hi GT

yep I was always thinking of things I wanted to add - It was meant to be a proper 5 top tips to ... piece but I got carried away on the

"take time to look at yourself" bit ... a bit broad but hopefully part of that introspective look at the readers own game would hopefully have picked up poker bankroll management - good point

I agree that is fundamentally important - and sort of touched on when I'd mentioned some players will have enjoyed maybe 3 years of reasonably successful play at sites as a whole - so really a 4 month downswing is maybe not inevitable - but certainly not something to get too bent of shape over ...

obviously providing the other key thing - of not making your downswing problems worse by playing worse and getting stressed out and playing even worse

also I was trying to attached a screenshot (unsuccesfully to the blog) of a hand between me and FullTilt pro Steve Yea which while it wasnt quite at the start of my dry spell it undoubtedly made it run worse and longer (still running) -

as I cant even get decent results on the $10-$30 SNG's - which to me is pretty appalling

anyway I'll try to attach the screenshot here (done see bottom) but long story short

I had AA and bet heavy preflop and the flop and we we both all-in before the turn for a total pot of $400ish

flop was Kd 8h 7d

turn 5h river 4d

he had been bullying with his "red pro taginess"

I'd pushed hard before the flop with raises and re-raises ... the same on the flop
so I guess he could have just figured I wasnt going to be run over like he had with the other players

then he hit runner runner - and I obviously went in to meltdown

I've got over that (cashed out bits) and moving down levels and even resorting to SNG's I've not been able to hit a cows a** with a banjo apart from a couple of vaguely reasonable MTT games

I've never really felt I've done that well at FT compared to the other sites - its not really my no1 choice and certainly not a banker site for me - maybe that is the problem I'm now playing to defeat the demons - but still the Bad beats and stupid luckouts keep coming - I'm just not going to get paranoid about it but some days you do think you've jinksed yourself and one or two sites but feel you could take on anyone at another - its not logical but there we are.

I guess the main thrust of my blog post this week was - to look at yourself honestly and figure out if the problem is a head thing - or a positively confidence thing

pretty sure thats my prob at the moment - and I bet alot of other usually fairly consistent players too

or if as a player you actually suck and its just bad luck catching up with the good luck
but the issue is if its the first but you start to wonder if its the second then your lining yourself up for a bigger and longer fall IMHO

BTW I dont normally have comments open on the blog because of the moronic spammers - but just realised it makes sense to pop a link in at the bottom of the blog to threads like this so people can discuss and make comments and help each other with more ideas

cheers scrawnybob

[GypsyTea]

I am sure the key to it is laff it off and if the 30 bucks is unimportant to you it frees up the artistic parts of you as a player, Not sure how PS funds there pro's but at a guess, it wasnt Stev Yea money so he didnt give a merd ( I may be wrong)

I would have played 66 for 30$ if I had it to burn and I cant really see whats going on because I am linked to my computer into a blackberry. 1/ I dont know how to use the blackberry I never had time to read the book on it, and 2/ the screens on the blackberry's to small, so I look when I get to a larger screen.

Catch you later I need to eat some thing...

GT

[scrawnybob]

hi GT

yep its a good while back now - but from memory we were playing the $2/4 tables (but might have been $1/2) - screenshot isnt the most useful really I was still in frustrated shock lol

I've seen him multi table there since but I wont allow myself to go back on against him - because then it would have nothing to do with the cards etc and just be a sure way to dump cash

It was a pretty agressive game but there was definately winable cash on the table - I wasnt even interested in him - I'd spotted a couple of other players who looked to be ripe

anyway he was fast and loose so with AA I wanted to get action but also wanted it all at the front end - hence I think both pre flop and turn was 3 or maybe 4 bet

so I guess the pot odds etc did get skewy - even so

I think it just started a run where nothing - and it feels like literally nothing has hit or stood up

more of warning to others to be prepared to go back to the drawing board now and again ;-)

cheers scrawnybob

[gnk2727]

Excellent reads from Rob & GT!

Now my take on the subject matter:

I used to play very casually online and not at all in person. Ive witnessed alot of suckouts, bad beats, bad plays ----I've been the victim and the winner on both occasions. Then I started reading more and learning more, and it dawned on me that it was my play that was causing the suckouts and bad beats to occur -- If I had only not been so blind and played my hand differently, the outcome would have been different.

Now that Ive logged closed to 21,000 hands this month alone I know that the downswings can and will come. There is nothing you can do about it. Since the beginning of the month I am up about 30 buyins, but I have had swings as much as +11 and -8.

Looking over my hand histories and where I got my money in, most of the time I got it in good and just got coolered or rivered. You have to learn to take the good with the bad!!!

[gnk2727]

Wow speaking of downswings!!!!!!

I just went down 10 buyins of NL10 on the worst suckouts known to man. I took a breather and opened a table of NL25 and 3 more NL10 and kept plugging away!!!!


Heres what happened!!!

Full Tilt Poker, $0.10/$0.25 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
- Hand History Converter

BTN: $35.56
SB: $27.07
BB: $10
UTG: $25.90
Hero (MP): $39.34
CO: $22.55

Pre-Flop: A A dealt to Hero (MP)
UTG folds, Hero raises to $0.75, CO raises to $2.30, BTN calls $2.30, 2 folds, Hero raises to $14.05, CO folds, BTN calls $11.75

Flop: ($30.75) Q 7 6 (2 Players)
Hero bets $25.29 and is All-In, BTN calls $21.51 and is All-In

Turn: ($73.77) Q (2 Players - 1 is All-In)


River: ($73.77) 8 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)


Results: $73.77 Pot ($3 Rake)
BTN showed K K (two pair, Kings and Queens) and LOST (-$35.56 NET)
Hero showed A A (two pair, Aces and Queens) and WON $70.77 (+$35.21 NET)




KK was really loose so I didnt expect that from him..........Anyone else folding KK there? I had AA BTW!!!!

[khicks26]

good advice guys. i am in the same kinda funk right now, and just reading this is a big help. i don't have anything to add. just wanted to say thanks. this thread could not have come at a better time.

[-kera-]

hi GT


I've seen him multi table there since but I wont allow myself to go back on against him - because then it would have nothing to do with the cards etc and just be a sure way to dump cash


cheers scrawnybob

I think we could all learn some thing from this Bob.

Where as in another post The Gypsy says:-

6/ No point in me bitching about it I do not want the guy not to play cash with me I owe the M****rF****r some pain, that I am Never going to forgive him untill I have some "Donkey Tax" and Interest off him lets say around 5.000.00 pounds

I think I like Bob's idea better, I would hate to be on "The Wrong" side of Gypsy !

-r-

[scrawnybob]

hi

lol - I'm thinking that GT probably has the ability and the discipline to be able to take his money back and some from this donk

at the moment I dont think for me it would be wise for me to try - I'm pretty aware that my game is a very long way from my usual game (maybe not earth shattering - but generally profitable) - so for the moment the last thing I need is to try and win losses back - I just need to work on the mental & confidence side of getting my game back without any specific targets or scores to settle ;-)

however I will once I'm back have my eye firmly set on Steve Yea - not to win my money back but more because I think I can beat him and win money from him ...

I had a look at his stats and I think off the top of my head at the time of that hand he was in the hole for something around $50k - down

cheers scrawnybob