downswings in sh

[osmosis21]

Since sh is a much higher variance game, Im curious how you deal with the inevitable downswings?

[TerryBorer]

I have a pretty good win rate which makes downswings much less common for me. I do have big losses fairly often. Every time I lose more than $10,000 in a session I turn off the computer and watch rounders from start to finish. I can quote nearly the whole movie

For me, I have a real job, so I just walk away for a while when things don't go well and I have a long downturn. Losing hurts and poker is not zero-sum emotionally for me; the lows of losing are not balanced by the highs of winning. I try to be careful not to mess up my job or relationships which I think is a risk for many players.

I watch the hands I played when I calm down to see if I've misplayed or just been unlucky. I try to pick out a few hands I'd play differently and try to think about what information was available to let me make a better choice next time.

Another thing I do is drop down the stakes. I can't get too hurt at 5/10 and I'm not at risk of tilt there. This allows me to rebuild, shake off the downswing tilt and scout for good higher-limit games. I believe downswings can destroy your play; accepting this and playing lower even when you feel fine is important.

I like to look at my lifetime winnings which puts downswings in perspective and helps me resist trying to break even (since I am already up a lot).

Sometimes I look at the math and see how unlucky I've really gotten. I once played a four hour 50/100 heads-up battle and lost about $4k against someone I thought was weak. I was really annoyed until I did some math: With a deviation of 25 big bets and hour the deviation over the session is 50 big bets (25 * square-root(num_hours)). So my "bad result" was within one deviation of normal which helped me feel a lot better.

Anyone else have some neat techniques they use?

-- Terry

[ezplayer]

I had one session at NL 100 max 6 handed that I think about every time I get stuck in a downturn. In rough numbers, I played 3 or 4 hundred hands on 3 tables and I ended up plus 3 buyins. Initially I was patting myself on the back etc. but after I thought about it, I realized that the profit from the whole session teetered in the balance because of two hands where I pushed coinflip situations.

Turns out, I won both but I could have easily lost both. If I split them, the session would have been roughly breakeven, and if both were lost, i'd have been down quite a bit. I always try to remind myself that a downswing can be as simple as two hands, or 6 hands, or even 10 hands if its a really bad downswing. In the short-run, a tiny bit of negative variance can overwhelm a win rate of 5 or 10 bb per 100 hands, but that happens, and that's why my win rate isn't 30 or 50 bb per 100.

Plus, I always take a break when I get down two or three buyins just in case I've been pushing edges that aren't there.

[osmosis21]

Even with a good winrate there will be downswings...I think for any multitabler they will experience 50 bet downswings many times a week and 100 bet downswings at least every other week (if not more)
What helps you not tilt at the tables?

[maraden]