Dealing with extended downswings in poker
Every poker player knows that they cannot make money from every table they sit at. Even the most successful of poker players will go through stages where they just cannot seem to walk away from the table having made a profit. Sometimes there is nothing you could do about the loss; you may have played absolute perfect poker. Other times you may have made bad decisions as a result of your current downswing.
Luck is of course a huge part of poker. You can make the correct, positive expected value decisions all session and still come away with less money then you started with. Although skill will dictate who wins money over the long term, luck is the main factor in the short term. This is why you may go through moderately large downswings from time to time, which may feel like forever towards the end.
A tournament player can expect to go through a fair amount of tournaments without making any stand out cash, but when suffering from a downswing, they may go through 30 tournaments without even making the money once. The same goes for a cash game player, they may go through 4-5 sessions without making a profit. But during a downswing that figure could rise to 15-20 sessions. This is why bankroll management is so important, if you cannot afford to go through these sorts of downswings, you haven't got a solid bankroll management in place.
It may feel like an eternity, but the bad times do stop. I don't know how many times my aces could get cracked, how many times I miss a flop with AK, how many pocket pairs that don't connect with the flop or how many flush draws do not hit before this stops, but believe me, it will.
The most worrying thing about downswings is when players think they are causing it themselves. They start analysing their hands and overall, just thinking about it too much. Nobody can avoid downswings, no matter how good you are. You may be making one or two mistakes here and there, but if you have been a consistent winning player, it will just be a small period of bad luck.
The best way to overcome a downswing is to stay positive and keep playing winning poker. You luck will change and you will win all the money back, including interest.
