Dealing With Poker Downswings Like a Professional

If you play poker long enough, you will deal with a soul-crushing downswing.. in fact, you will deal with soul crushing downswings multiple times a year. Playing poker professionally or semi-professionally is unique to other jobs in that, day to day, you never know whether you will actually make money or lose money. So being able to mitigate the losing periods we encounter is an extremely important skill to master. In this video, I give you 3 tips on how to navigate those times when everything just seems to be going the wrong way, help you minimize the losses you sustain, and get back on the winning track asap.

I have had some pretty crazy downswings over the past few years. The most recent occurred during my spare change challenge. After a few really bad days, I took a deep breath, called upon my mental reserves and and managed to get back on track.

Tip 1- The best way to deal with downswings happen before your next downswing. Most people fail at poker because of mental weakness and not understanding how poker works on a fundamental level. Make sure you understand that a long term poker career is actually just a series of upswings and downswings. No one runs exactly their expected value or expected win-rate day in and day out. One day you might run 50bb/100 and the next day -45bb/100.. while the -45bb/100 day really suck, you are still, after those two days, a 5bb winning player. It's when several of those losing days come at at once over consecutive days, that mind games can start and we get tricked into believing something is wrong with us, or that we are just unlucky, etc. etc. etc. Solution- Actively work on the mental side of poker. Try to distance yourself from the hand to hand and hour to hour results. You might do this by not looking at the cashier. I used to only look at my cashier once a week,.. its really libertaing to remain ignorant of how you did on a particular day. Does your daily poker result determine your mood? If so.. avoiding looking at day to day results is probably a good idea for you. Even during sessions we can use this tactic. If you stack your tables, or stack and tile your tables, don't watch individual all-ins to see if you won or not. Just move on to another hand on another table and focus on making the most +EV decision you can. It'd be nice to be a vulcan and be able to remain detached and completely logical all of the time, but unfortunately, we are humans. Focusing on each little result is the road to mental destruction. Remain positive, learn to think long term, stop worrying about short term results, or stop knowing about them altogether, and you will find you are tilting less, and not exacerbating the downswings you endure.

Tip 2- Follow a reasonable bankroll management plan and stick to it. Don't chase losses, just move down, maybe even take a break, regain some confidence and grind it back up. My advice is to be very deeply bankrolled, making it less likely to ever sustain a downswing that requires moving down. If you are a part-time player, it's a good idea to keep the same amount you have online. In other words, if you have 3k online and grind 100nl... have 3k behind. If you hit a huge downswing down to like 2k online, you can move 500 from the bank account and lessen the period needed to rebuild. Just make sure you replenish the "emergency fund" once you are able. And be sure to bolster it during the good times. If poker is your sole source of income, I suggest always having at least 6 months of living expenses behind, preferably 1 year or more. You never want your poker downswing to put pressure on real life or force you to change your lifestyle.

Tip 3- Make sure you continue to study and improve. Make sure you invest a portion of your bankroll to coaching and getting better. In fact, it's no secret that, the better you are, the less awful your downswings will be. I once went 18 months running about $20,000 under ev.. but still managed to win money during that period. How did I do this? I had a 10bb ev winrate during that period but a 2bb actual win-rate.. ouch right? All of those early years I spent building a solid foundation and my consistent daily study paid off. Imagine if I had a 4bb win-rate and had the same type of disparity between my ev and actual win-rate.. I would have probably been down to playing micros again and likely wouldn't be making this video.

In summary, the best way to deal with a downswing actually has nothing to do with mitigating it when it happens. With proper preparation and knowledge, you can actively plan for downswings and understand that they are just part of the game. We do this by actively working on our mental game, following a conservative BR management plan, and working hard to become the best player we can be.

[AutomaticPoker]

I built a 40 big blind chart-based cash game strategy that takes advantage of poker population errors. Perfect for those that prefer a straightforward math-based strategy!

[Kropotkin]

What is this "upswing" you speak of?

[MugenTJ]

I play live poker and it is impossible to not be affected by swing. Main issue for me is that I start to have doubt about my game fundamentals...here I am reflecting and learning

[AndreasFroehliPoker]

Well done, sick amount of videos that you've uploaded over the years!

[tytythefly]

Bro, I love your videos.. Thank you... You remind me of myself. I grind micros, been playin since 2003, just lost my job so I'm like 6-10 tabling 10NL, 20NL and 50NL. Thanks for your effort, hope to talk to you more.

[macrovigilance]

Just found this. I am a professional trader and only a recreational poker player. But the messages in this video are just as applicable for either activity - great video - thanks and I just became your 1000th subscriber! All the best, MV

[antigtohighlights]

I've found that having 1 year of living expenses and 100 BI's helps me to reduce tilt very very well.

[wilde]

Great stuff. People often ignore this aspect of poker. Downswings are inevitable, pretty often at times too. My new fave poker YouTuber, wish I found you alot earlier man.

[AmandaRoberts]

This video is so, so helpful. Thank you <3

[aaronsoto]

Great video. Downswings, truly are inevitable. I play 1-2 live cash. I play around 20-30 hours a week for the past 6-7 months. I've played nearly 15-20k hands. I'm currently exactly break-even. I had 4 winning months and about 2-3 losing months. For example: first month in i lost 2, 000$ couldn't believe it i was devastated. 2nd month i won 3k, 3rd won 900, 4th won 500, 5th break-even, 6th I've lost 900. Leaves me at about 1, 000$ profit. After what 1, 000 hours on the felt?. Very swingy game.

[jonh]

How do you feel about taking time off of poker during a downswing? I feel it helped my mental game a lot to take a few months off playing and do some other things. I would play a few freerolls and started playing a few small stakes games after a month of collecting change while goofing around and found some joy in the game again, and things seem to be working well down the road. I was for sure playing too many tables as well, that's a huge problem during prolonged swings, play less tables and focus more on all decisions and your tilt should be minimized.

[enriquestewart]

Poker took me in the back room, and beat the shit out of me. I have to get 4 jobs now!

[garygwinn]

Most people do not know what truly running bad is. The way to survive in poker is too play a ton when you run good amd stop playing when your running bad. Anyone who says otherwise is wrong

[Insanity-vvnn]

i can tell that I am talented, but i do lack on the mental weakness. any tips for me?

[Rexas]

Came here to see the pain. WHERE IS THE PAIN!

[sx]

How to not look at your cashier when you see your balance every time when you join a table? I lose all my profit on sports bets, its my biggest issue right now...

[kevincfc]

I’m coming to poker stars to try and grind out a profit playing nl20/30 or there about I want to play 4 tables minimum, what’s the story with rake ? On poker stars any help ? Thanks guys

[stanleyfok]

i have started bk playing short stack strategy in this year after 2.5k hands in 888, my green line is losing around 50 and the all-in eq line is about -15... it is normal, or either i am the one who are causing this problem (like shoving too light post-flop) or is the problem of 888 poker? since i have hear there are some kinds of problems happening in the site :(

[ifiity]

my question is: I make +ev plays most of the times, like 95% or more I guess.

Still: I always get crushed by lucky players all the time. Even if I have some good days, after that very bad days come for sure where I lose like 5 or 6 buy ins for no f cking reason because a random guy called with J8o or some shit and then hit twopair vs my AA or KK ...

it never gets better. I still play my solid game and keep adjusting the raises (make it bigger for fish), and still I lose.

[patriciofalotico]

so, im a weaker mental player. no matter how my br its im always going broke, because idk, i have ansiety to win more and more, and no stick to a level. I never have a single bankroll for 1 month, i was crushing nl10 but any win i made i go to a mtt like bounty $109.

The thing is im like desesperate to hit a bomb, idk how to be pacient (no in the game) on the long terms.

If you can give me some advice i will apreciate

good videos!