75 replies to this topic

[Citizen Erased]

To be blunt, I'm just looking for reassurance.

I went on FullTilt before, having coming off when suffering a bad beat and going out, eating etc. I logged back on and was +$90 in about an hour.

My target was to get my BR to $370, and then stop. At $350, I thought this shouldn't take too long.

However, I slipped to $310, then $270. Wanting to rest at $300, I fell to $220, and then $180, following 2 bad beats.

Following some events, I'm sitting here at $40...



I can't believe what I've done. I always tell myself to stop playing at a set time, but today I was free and went on. When I start to lose money, I know I should stop, but I ventured on anyways. I can't rest now; can't sleep. Just about managed to drink some water. I felt physically sick following the last hand (set vs. set, losing me a notable chunk)

Over the last 2 days I'd gained $300 at the .25/.5 tables, yet I'm finding myself back at .05/ .10.

The only consolation I can give myself is that I was at these tables with $77 recently and built up my bankroll, but its reassurance is of little effect.


Any words of wisdom at all are greatly appreciated.

[MinhLyFan]

this probably wouldn't be so bad if you were playing within your means...But, people have done much worse in a day. Also, Greg Raymer once said that playing with goals such as yours only causes you to make poor decisions because you are not 100% focused on playing your "A" game but your results instead. Not those exact words, but along the same line.

if nothing else, learn from this mistake.

maybe some Confucius: Do not learn with profit in mind, but instead passion. Profit will follow.

[danc1984]

I started playing NLHE cash on FTP earlier this year and started with $100 at the $10 max tables. I built i up to about $150 and thought I was going ok. Then I had one session where I lost 7.5 buy ins. I felt very similar to how you are feeling now, I just kept thinking how horrible I was playing, maybe I should go back to limit, etc etc.

The one thing I remember most about that day was I had AA cracked a fair few times. I started to question my play in the most ridiculous of circumstances. I remember late on in the session stacking off with AA on a TJx board against TJ when the guy had called off 1/3 of his stack pf. The most outrageous thing was that I actually managed to convince myself that I had made a bad play by doing this. All I can say is do not do this.

Personally I found the best thing to do was to get straight back on the horse. I just went straight back on the next day and started playing again. I have never had another day like this one for 8 months, but I know exactly how you are feeling.

[Craigdog]

When I first deposited $50, I quickly took it to about $130 then started playing $0.10/0.25 and quickly lost $122, I then started grinding at $0.02/0.04 then ).05/0.10 & now ).10/0.25 and now I have $1125, this took about 4-5 months but I have a solid schooling now and will not move up a level unless Im confident Im crushing the game, not ure if that helps or offers inspiration

[KoRnholio]

Take a break. Clear your head and come back to the lower limits with a good mindset. We've all slipped like that at some point or another. My biggest slip was jumping into a juicy $10/20 6max limit game with about 1/6th of my bankroll. I ran it up about $300 before losing it all over the span of a few hours. Expensive lessons learned: Don't play games you are unfamiliar with, don't jump up stakes, and don't chase losses.

[Acid_Knight]

If the swings are that much of your bankroll, then you're not properly rolled to be playing the limits you're playing and it'll affect you more when you lose 15% of your roll in a single hand. Stick to lower limits until you have a bigger cushion.

[mtdesmoines]

this probably wouldn't be so bad if you were playing within your means...But, people have done much worse in a day. Also, Greg Raymer once said that playing with goals such as yours only causes you to make poor decisions because you are not 100% focused on playing your "A" game but your results instead. Not those exact words, but along the same line.

if nothing else, learn from this mistake.

maybe some Confucius: Do not learn with profit in mind, but instead passion. Profit will follow.

yeah what he said

you know what you did

don't do it anymore

[Temporary Nuts]

Following some events, I'm sitting here at $40...

And by some events you mean moving UP in limits instead of down. Yeah, we all did done it.

By the way, at no point were you ever really "properly rolled" for .10/.25, so keep that in mind.

If there's a limit lower than .05/.10 on FT then drop to it. Otherwise you really should be grinding out micro SNG's right now.

[Acid_Knight]

If there's a limit lower than .05/.10 on FT then drop to it. Otherwise you really should be grinding out micro SNG's right now.

I'm pretty sure if you want a lower limit, you gotta go to pokerstars.

[AndyZ28]

And by some events you mean moving UP in limits instead of down. Yeah, we all did done it.

By the way, at no point were you ever really "properly rolled" for .10/.25, so keep that in mind.

If there's a limit lower than .05/.10 on FT then drop to it. Otherwise you really should be grinding out micro SNG's right now.

QFT.

Grind out those low limit SNGs. Or those micro tournaments even. Pokerstars has $.01/.02, .02/.05 NLHE and .02/.04 LHE for us cheapies.

[nextprotege16]

I am a new blogger and never really paid attention to being properly rolled for a particular limit and it has cost me. I am just now trying to learn the game.

Can anyone tell me the technique for determing when you are rolled for a particular limit?

Thanks

[Acid_Knight]

I am a new blogger and never really paid attention to being properly rolled for a particular limit and it has cost me. I am just now trying to learn the game.

Can anyone tell me the technique for determing when you are rolled for a particular limit?

Thanks

Welcome to the forum.

It depends on how much variance is built into your style, but I'd say:

Full ring - 20 full buyins
6 max - 25-30 full buyins
Heads Up - 40-50 full buyins

That means that if you're playing 6 max 1/2 NL, you should have between $5000-$6000 to play with. Obviously your variance will be lower if you play tighter and if you play fewer tables, but those are good guidelines I think.

[Sheiky]

Welcome to the forum.

It depends on how much variance is built into your style, but I'd say:

Full ring - 20 full buyins
6 max - 25-30 full buyins
Heads Up - 40-50 full buyins

That means that if you're playing 6 max 1/2 NL, you should have between $5000-$6000 to play with. Obviously your variance will be lower if you play tighter and if you play fewer tables, but those are good guidelines I think.

How does the amount of tables you play affect your variance?

[shinzilla]

How does the amount of tables you play affect your variance?

It doesn't. Playing more tables can affect your hourly rate though, because your concentration's spread out between multiple tables, instead of just one or two. I wouldn't recommend playing more than 4 tables at the level you regularly play at, for this very reason.

[Acid_Knight]

How does the amount of tables you play affect your variance?

If you're playing 4 tables instead of 1 table, you're seeing 4x as many hands, making 4x as many decisions and in partial theory, only able to pay 1/4 as much attention to each table. Your play on one table will often affect your play on another table and if you have a few bad hands, you can lose a lot of money very quickly, especially if you're prone to tilting where your tilt might influence your play on another table that you're playing.

Basically, it's putting 4x as much money on the table at once so your variance will be higher for that reason.

[nextprotege16]

Thanks guys for the info. It looks like I was really under rolled (if that is a phrase lol) for the limits I was playing. I look forward to blogging more.

Another question I have come across is how much of a tournament buy in should you pay for your particular bankroll? Is there a technique for this also?

[Derek Ridley]

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Thanks and have a great day .

Derek Ridley

[Tactical Bear]

If you're playing 4 tables instead of 1 table, you're seeing 4x as many hands, making 4x as many decisions and in partial theory, only able to pay 1/4 as much attention to each table. Your play on one table will often affect your play on another table and if you have a few bad hands, you can lose a lot of money very quickly, especially if you're prone to tilting where your tilt might influence your play on another table that you're playing.

Basically, it's putting 4x as much money on the table at once so your variance will be higher for that reason.

Actually, what's happening is we're playing 4 times as many hands/hour, which means the short-run will be compressed, and we'll reach the long-run quicker. On a hand/by/hand basis, our variance will be the same, but over a period of time our bankroll graph will MORE resemble a straight, upward sloping line than the jagged (down uuuuup down down up up up down UP) graph we usually see. This is only when the x-axis is TIME, however, and not "hands played."

So our variance over TIME will actually be smoothed out. We'll lose more and win more in our bad and good 100 hand stretches, but we'll simply have more of those in a similar period of time, so in a week we're likely to be closer (percentage-wise) to our true/winrate playing 4 tables than playing 1.


I weep for people that don't understand this.

[mtdesmoines]

If you're playing 4 tables instead of 1 table, you're seeing 4x as many hands, making 4x as many decisions and in partial theory, only able to pay 1/4 as much attention to each table. Your play on one table will often affect your play on another table and if you have a few bad hands, you can lose a lot of money very quickly, especially if you're prone to tilting where your tilt might influence your play on another table that you're playing.
Basically, it's putting 4x as much money on the table at once so your variance will be higher for that reason.

Actually, what's happening is we're playing 4 times as many hands/hour, which means the short-run will be compressed, and we'll reach the long-run quicker. On a hand/by/hand basis, our variance will be the same, but over a period of time our bankroll graph will MORE resemble a straight, upward sloping line than the jagged (down uuuuup down down up up up down UP) graph we usually see. This is only when the x-axis is TIME, however, and not "hands played."
So our variance over TIME will actually be smoothed out. We'll lose more and win more in our bad and good 100 hand stretches, but we'll simply have more of those in a similar period of time, so in a week we're likely to be closer (percentage-wise) to our true/winrate playing 4 tables than playing 1.
I weep for people that don't understand this.

this won't take long ...

[Tactical Bear]

this won't take long ...

I don't even get it, but I never hang out in the strategy sections, so be nice.