Da Swings...Or How do I get my BR over $600?

That number seems to be my mental break point or something. I've been stuck between $400 and $600 for the last 2-3 months. I'll drop to about $450, win $125 in about 2 days and as I close in on $600...BAM drop 6 buyins in a day. It's really quite annoying. I'm thinking it's mental but damn if I've ever had a mental block this bad. Anyone ever been in a similiar situation?

Yup. About 3 times in my poker career I have struggled to get past an arbitrary but obvious "target" - £125, £400 and £900. The only thing you can do is forget about the $600 mark - it IS only arbitrary, after all, just like $152 and $671 are arbitrary, and concentrate hard on playing solid poker. Ignore your bankroll (assuming you don't lose double figure buyins por whatever), just play poker.

When you're close, cash out $200 and go for your $600 goal again

Originally Posted by Thee One

That number seems to be my mental break point or something. I've been stuck between $400 and $600 for the last 2-3 months. I'll drop to about $450, win $125 in about 2 days and as I close in on $600...BAM drop 6 buyins in a day. It's really quite annoying. I'm thinking it's mental but damn if I've ever had a mental block this bad. Anyone ever been in a similiar situation?

what buyin are you playing? I think this may be an indication that something may be wrong with you're game.... you should not be dropping 6 buyins in one day... not that its not possible. there's a post further down on this forum about 19hands perhaps you should give it a try, it should help.

yep try going for 10,000. You'll bust ass like crazy getting from 9,500 to 10,000, you'll finally get there, and then you'll break even for 40,000 hands.

Originally Posted by Renton

yep try going for 10,000. You'll bust ass like crazy getting from 9,500 to 10,000, you'll finally get there, and then you'll break even for 40,000 hands.

Perhaps why Cash goals are bad? Set a goal for a number of hands or hours played and if you're game is solid you're cash goal should come on its own. N e way i want to make 10K by the end of this year

Originally Posted by thnwkd

what buyin are you playing? I think this may be an indication that something may be wrong with you're game.... you should not be dropping 6 buyins in one day... not that its not possible. there's a post further down on this forum about 19hands perhaps you should give it a try, it should help.

Thanks for the advice. I play 25NL and that 6 buy-in day was a VERY bad day. A ton of suck-outs , a few second nut hands and an unwillingness to step away from the computer equals a 6 buyin swing. That's not to say my game doesn't need improvement, it always does, but that's not the main reason I lost 6 buyins that day, otherwise I'd be broke right now or would be asking how do I get my BR over $100 instead of $600.

In any case...my point is I've been floating between $400 and $600 for the last couple months and can't seem to get over the hump. Your advice further down to Renton seems pretty solid, I'll try that and see what happens. Thanks.

I hope you are taking advantage of bonuses. Getting paid to play poker-- can't beat that. Keeps the BR churning upward and takes the sting out of a losing session or two.

I hear ya, I am at that point right now.. still waiting to hit 500, has been fluctuating between 400-470 for a week or two now. But playing MTTs, I know when it does surge it will do it in a big way!

I hit $800 tonight

I hear ya about barriers. I started out with 60$ on Party and in a heartbeat got it up to 4k, then I slowed down a bit, getting up to 5k, dropping down to 3k etc.

A few weeks of solid poker later and my roll was up to 8k..and then the same thing happened. Up 1k, down 3k etc. A few weeks ago I went on a mini-heater and got it up to about 14k only to jump into a sickening downswing. Hopefully this will be followed by the same trend as before. I think the moral of it is that it's sort of the ol' two steps back, three steps forward or whatever. It's only a steady climb if you look at it over a LONG period of time, and most of us aren't that long-sighted to avoid the short term swings. But you'll pass your barrier if you keep to a solid game. GL!

Had trouble getting past 400 myself. For ages I was up and down in the neighbourhood.

In the end I used some bonuses to get myself over 400... and then suddenly bam! BR has now gone over 650.
But I definitely subscribe to to the idea of going for hand goals, not cash goals.

Interesting. I'm exactly in the same boat as you Thee One.

I moved up quickly from 150 to more than 500 playing $10NL. But for the past three months I have fluctuated between a high of around 580 and a low of near to 400. I have dropped back to $10 a couple of times, but I'm now trying to play $25 NL again, with my bankroll back at aroun 500 smackaroonies.

I normally am one to set goals at number of hands, but I'll tell you, it takes a robotic brain to not be able to think of the dollars.

It' s got to end sooner or later, no?

Originally Posted by Jiggus

Interesting. I'm exactly in the same boat as you Thee One.

I moved up quickly from 150 to more than 500 playing $10NL. But for the past three months I have fluctuated between a high of around 580 and a low of near to 400. I have dropped back to $10 a couple of times, but I'm now trying to play $25 NL again, with my bankroll back at aroun 500 smackaroonies.

I normally am one to set goals at number of hands, but I'll tell you, it takes a robotic brain to not be able to think of the dollars.

It' s got to end sooner or later, no?

Did you watch the last season of High Stakes Poker? I'm in the middle of a run like Daniel Negreanu was having...except I don't have his type of money to cushion it. I get my money in with the best of it and just get sucked out on. Then I steam a bit and make a bad decision or two that costs me some extra.

So yes, it had to end sooner or later, I just hope it's not because I go broke. I'm stepping down to 10NL for a while until I feel a bit better about this one.

I had the same swing as you not too long ago and trust me, I was ready to QUIT all together.. I was at $650 and dropped to $350 VERY quickly ... ugly .. and now I've ran back up to $800.. Swings suck but they're part of the game thats for sure..

Originally Posted by Thee One

Did you watch the last season of High Stakes Poker? I'm in the middle of a run like Daniel Negreanu was having...except I don't have his type of money to cushion it. I get my money in with the best of it and just get sucked out on. Then I steam a bit and make a bad decision or two that costs me some extra.

The way I look at these things is like this:

In the long run, I'm expected to get sucked out on as much as I suck out on people. I am expected to flop monsters as often on other people as other people flop monsters on me. So if I get sucked out on.. and trust me, it seems to happen constantly (your mind playing tricks on you, you just remember them better than when it goes normal).. then this is all part of normal variance.

If however, I were to blow money on stupidity, or tilt.. THAT is truely money lost.

Originally Posted by jackvance

In the long run, I'm expected to get sucked out on as much as I suck out on people.

Hopefully not because we should let bad hands go more often than our opponents; that will, in the end, make us the money.

Originally Posted by jackvance

The way I look at these things is like this:

In the long run, I'm expected to get sucked out on as much as I suck out on people. I am expected to flop monsters as often on other people as other people flop monsters on me. So if I get sucked out on.. and trust me, it seems to happen constantly (your mind playing tricks on you, you just remember them better than when it goes normal).. then this is all part of normal variance.

If however, I were to blow money on stupidity, or tilt.. THAT is truely money lost.

Thanks for reminding me. Great post.

How many hands/how much time do you get to play per week?