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Shrinking bankroll

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  1. Excalibur Excalibur is offline

    United Kingdom

    Posts: 16
    Joined: Nov 08

    Dec 24th, 2008 (12/24/2008 7:08am)

    I have been playing poker online for over four years now, mainly sng and mtt no limit hold em. I play most days and poker does consume a lot of my time whether playing or reading strategy etc.

    I started with a very low deposit and ran it up to a few thousand which paid for a trip to Vegas. I played cash in some of the casinos and did quite well. I left a small ammount in my bankroll, came home and built it right back up again.

    That was last year and since building it up I have gone on a losing run that I am finding very hard to understand. I don't feel I am playing badly and do take breaks if I feel that I am. In the last four months my bankroll has shrunk from about $3.5k down to $400. My buy ins in mtts are around 2% of roll and single tables around 5%. I am currently experiencing 14-20 buy in downswings and these are becoming quite common. I am generally ahead when I get my chips in the middle and feel that the standard of play in general is no better than when I was winning.I have spoke to friends who are going through similar runs at the moment which would indicate this is quite common.

    I would be interested to hear of any members who are experiencing similar runs. Have any of you ever had a similar expeience and recovered from it? I love poker and would love to play full time but obviously this is a pipe dream in my current run and to be honest there have been many times lately that I have felt like packing it in completely. I would appreciate any advice on where I should go from here. Wishing you all a very merry and profitable Christmas.
  2. Jennifear Jennifear is offline

    Niagara Falls, NY
    United States

    Posts: 10,222
    Joined: Nov 05

    Dec 24th, 2008 (12/24/2008 7:19am) in reply to Excalibur

    While I am not sure of your exact troubles, if you are playing with those bankroll requirements (which are a ad loose, but not horribad for a casual player), and you are suffering losses like that, there are likely leaks in your game that you are unaware of.

    I don't recall ever seeing you play, so I can only base my thoughts on your stats.

    Your SNG stats from sharkscope indicate that you are not shoving nearly enough in BvB situations (heads up) and that you are playing over your head, in games that you are not truly beating. However the sample sizes are small, so it's hard to say for sure.

    Take the time to read this article and understand it. It's full of math mumbojumbo but it's probably the beginning of what you need to recover from a talent standpoint.

    Leader of the Stack - HU article
  3. racer racer is offline

    Gananoque
    Canada

    Posts: 994
    Joined: Oct 08

    Dec 24th, 2008 (12/24/2008 9:13am) in reply to Jennifear

    what your going through is adversity. Think of this as an obstacle course where you have to pace yourself, or a .300 hitter in baseball whos going through a 2 for his last 30 ABs. Its the poker gods way of really putting you to test of the mentality part of the game..
    peace GL
  4. bananaSugar bananaSugar is offline

    Garza García
    Mexico

    Posts: 36
    Joined: Apr 08

    Dec 24th, 2008 (12/24/2008 11:36am) in reply to Excalibur

    What is happening to you has happened to me a couple of times. However having two horrible beats (see bat beats forums) I understood luck was a bit more involved than what I thought. So I developed a set of rules that has allowed me to keep a healthy BR. I keep a record of my BR every day and put it in a Excell spreadsheet, and plot a 7 day and 11 day exponential moving average. If my BR is above the 7 ema I play 5% of my BR mainly in MTT's, if I'm between 7 and 11 then I play 3% of my BR mainly in S&G's, and if I'm below 7, which should be your case, I only play $4.40 S&G's and have fun loosing the floped nuts against donks, but in a few days I climb up and begin exploting my BR again.
    In conclusion, I play strong with a good streak and play very little, or the tourneys I feel I have an edge, when I have a bad streak.
    Hope this helps. good luck
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