How to Deal With Poker Downswings

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Anyone who plays poker long enough will eventually go through a prolonged stretch where nothing seems to go right at the poker tables –if you haven’t experienced this yet, just wait, it’s coming. This is especially true for tournament players, where variance is high to begin with, so when you start running bad in tournaments, you end up running really bad. In this article I’ll go over some of my own experiences with downswings, and some of the things you can do that will help you avoid turning bad luck into a combination of bad luck and bad play; the hallmark of every prolonged downswing.

My experiences with variance

In my poker career I have experienced two very long, and very pronounced downswings.

The first of these saw me go on a break-even stretch that spanned  just over three months (which is close to a lifetime for a professional poker player) but I eventually came through it relatively uninjured and with a newfound respect for variance and a deeper understanding of what a professional bankroll needed to be. Basically, I thought I had gone through the worst of times and had it all figured out… I would later learn just how wrong I was when my second downswing occurred.

The second downswing was far more brutal, and eventually led to me quitting poker for close to three years. It started off normal enough; in fact I was coming off a great stretch that saw me win two tournaments in two days on Party Poker, and finish in 2^nd place in one of Pacific Poker’s largest weekly tournament just a few days later. At the same time I was one of the biggest winners in Party Poker’s recently introduced $30 buy-in 30-man S&G’s tournaments; basically I was flush with cash.

Unfortunately, that 2^nd place finish on Pacific Poker was actually the beginning of a terrible downswing –the final hand saw my opponent hit a gutterball to cripple me and win the tournament a hand later, so while I finished 2^nd it amounted to about an $8,000 bad beat, and it only got worse from there.

From there I went on a miserable downswing in my regular $5/$10 Omaha 8 and Stud 8 games online, took a beating playing live cash games during the WPT Foxwoods tournament series and turned into a bubbling machine in every tournament I entered. By the time the smoke cleared my previous downswing would have been a welcomed relief from the sheer misery I was going through.

I began questioning every decision I made, tilting at a moment’s notice, and worst of all, I became scared money. I turned into an insomniac, sleeping about two or three hours a day, basically stopped communicating with everyone in my life and eventually cashed out what was left of my bankroll, left the game, and started working third-shift stocking shelves before going back to work in the Health Club industry. For all intents and purposes I was that guy; the poker burnout, and it took me years to have any real interest in even touching a deck of cards again.

There was however a silver lining to this experience, which was a lot of time to think about where I went wrong and make sure I learned from this experience. Hopefully, my introspection and the conclusions I eventually came to, which I will share below, will keep you from falling into the same pitfalls.

Preempting disaster

Unfortunately there is nothing you can do about variance, but you can make contingency plans to downplay its effects. First, make sure you are properly rolled; by which I mean, whatever you think you need to play a game comfortably… double it!

For pro players I highly recommend you create a separate vacation fund that can cover a good month of travelling and having fun. Have the wherewithal to realize that at some point you will need a break from the game, and having the money to cover your life expenses AND have a kickass, month-long vacation somewhere can be a godsend.

Too many poker players (but far from enough) put away living expenses, but they don’t think about entertainment expenses, so that rainy-day fund goes towards bills and expenses while you get to sit and wallow about what your next move will be at the tables.

What to do away from the tables when disaster strikes

• Take a break

As I mentioned above, at some point you need a break from poker, and there really isn’t a better time to take a break than while you are in the throes of a god awful losing streak. The sooner you get away the better.

During a losing streak you develop what I like to call “carryover tilt” –Jared Tendler calls this “Accumulated Tilt” in his book The Mental Game of Poker. Carryover tilt is simply when you are always one bad beat away from tilting, and it carries over from session to session. Some people can recharge in a couple days or a week, others may need a month, so know what kind of personality you have, and what it will take to eliminate any “carryover tilt” from your game.

• Talk about your play with a trusted poker player

When you experience a bad losing streak you will question your own play and your poker skills; it’s human nature. One thing I’ve found that helps in this area is to talk to other poker players you respect. You can bounce hands and strategies off of these players to determine if you are playing bad or if you are just running bad.

• Grab a couple of books

Fortunately for today’s players there are mental game gurus out there that can help you. I mentioned Jared Tendler above, and his two books will be extremely helpful to any player suffering through a downswing.

• Seek professional help

If all else fails, and you are in a spot like I was where quitting poker seemed to be the only reasonable option, I highly suggest seeking some professional help. You might discover the underlying reasons for your tilty ways, and this introspection might rekindle your love for the game. You could go with a poker-specific person like Jared Tendler (there are others as well) or even just find a local psychiatrist.

What to do at the tables when disaster strikes

• Drop down in stakes and start playing a new game

This has always worked for me (sans the one instance mentioned at the beginning), and if it’s at all an option I highly recommend just dropping down a few levels and trying to learn a new game. During the learning process you shouldn’t expect to win, so if you run bad the losses are easier to stomach –especially at lower stakes. Additionally, you’ll also learn a new poker format and grow as a player.

Understandably, if you’re playing for a living this may not be a feasible option.

• Don’t adjust proven winning strategies, but think about making your game a bit more vanilla

One of the biggest problems you’ll face during a downswing is that feeling that you are playing poorly, so you might start playing more passively, or loosening up and chasing losses. These are really bad ideas, but there is something to be said for avoiding really marginal spots and erring on the side of caution in these higher variance, lower ROI, situations.

Now I’m not saying to nit it up, but there is nothing wrong with getting back to basics for a while, especially when you’re dealing with a severe downswing. Dropping a few hands with very low profit margins, or reducing your thin-value-bet range, will do little in terms of affecting your bottom-line, and it can greatly reduce variance. Sure you may not be pushing every single edge anymore, but if pushing those edges is sending you on flying monkey tilt than this is a tradeoff you should make 100% of the time. Once you get back to your normal mindset it’s a simple matter of adding these hands back in and value-betting a little bit more.