Clawing my way back

It feels like my claws are gone from digging in so hard. I haven't updated you all on my poker in a while, so here it is! A couple of weeks ago, I had a pretty big downswing. I have to giggle a bit when I hear someone losing 3 buyins and going on life tilt. Tilt linky.

A buyin in my normal game of no limit holdem is 100 big blinds. Some of the pros play as low as $3/6 no limit. 100 x $6 is $600. So a 3 buyin downswing in that game would be $1800. That may seem like a lot of money. However, good backroll management would suggest that you have 40 to 50 bis for that game. 40 x $600 is $24,000. So you would want that much just to risk 2.5% in a game. Normally, you want at least 40 bis if you are serious about the game. I know a young pro who says you NEED at least 150 bis. That's pretty conservative, but he's making a living too. So, I don't think he's too far off in his situation. If he doesn't have a roll, he can't pay his bills. For a person learning and isn't real worried, the general consensus is 20 to 30 bis.

I had a 13ish bi downswing. That hurt.... a lot! I was trying to keep 35-40bi. It started with a shot. A shot is where you play in a bigger (and tougher) game and see how it goes. If you do well in the first couple of games, you consider moving up. This will take a 40bi roll and cut it to 20bis at the new level. So, you still have to play a bit at the lower game to keep building, but that is only to keep a small cushion for play at the bigger game. Anyway, I took a shot and the first game went well. The second game bent me over. So, I came back to my normal game. I then proceeded to get my butt killed and tossed another chunk away. Now, not all of that was because of bad play. Some of it was the result of variance playing against me. However, I will admit that I wasn't playing my best game. I saw this and immediately took a few days off. I played video games, screwed around, and just generally let my mind rest.

5 days ago, I was feeling better and more focused. So, I sat in and over about 1200 hands earned back 3bis! I was feeling better. Now, 1200 hands is a lot. That was a very tough and long session. But I was back to playing a bit better than break-even. After that, I sat into a Triple Draw 2-7 game and earned another couple of bis! I was elated and called it a night! 3 days ago, I sat and played about 700 hands over two sessions. That was another 3ish bis! I played a bit more last night as I was talking to Heather and it felt so much more like home. I could multi-task (take notes, make moves, and talk on the phone) and that's rare for me.

I've wondered how I would take some of the tougher times in this game. I feel like this has really helped my long-term attitude. This is not an easy thing to be good at, much less make a living. I'm just really encouraged that I'll be able to weather the tough times.