As everybody of us have had downswings, i had mine too. The biggest downswing in my poker career happend to me some time ago, it was 10 buy-ins. Shure it wasn't variance alone, there was also a good portion of tilt and bad play. It's very hard to stay on your A-Game when you got your ass kicked over and over again.
Ok, so step down one level to 100NL to practice good bankroll management and take a break of a few days. After the break i sat down at a table only to get my pocket rockets allin-preflop cracked by a pair of 66, which hit a set on the turn. Woooohooo those breaks really help!
As i wasnt in good shape to continue playing after this hand i sat back and analyzed what happend with my game and here are some things i've learned:
1) A huge downswing is almost never only a result of bad luck!
Most of the time it's simply bad play. You have to know this and work continually on your game. There are things that will help you immediatly (for example, don't call a allin-reraise preflop from a solid tight player with JJ, at best your facing a coinflip whith AK) and there are leaks in your game, which you have to search for, as they aren't so obvious and you bleed off money very slow (smallblind play comes to mind).
So always look to improve your game, make session reviews, use pokertracker, read books, post hands and so an. As you get better, you will have a greater edge on your opponents and you will see your variance drop, which also helps avoiding tilt.
2) Know when you are on tilt!
You are holding J9 suited in late position. There is a raise (4BB) and a reraise to 16BB in front of you. You call, hoping for the perfect flop to get all the money from your opponent...
This preflop call needs two things to be profitable: first, you and your opponents need to have really big stacks (much more than 100BB) and second, your oppenent must be dumb enough to pay you off with an overpair if you hit the flop hard. You'll nearly never find those perfect conditions for this play.
What i'm trying to say is, if you find yourself "hoping" at the table, chasing your draws against all odds (pot odds and implied odds) it's a good sign for tilt. If you have thoughts like "this last 12 dollars of my stack doesn't make any difference anymore" you are probably on tilt. Most of us know when we make a obvious bad play and unless you have a very good reason to make it, simply don't do it. By the way, trying to get even is never! a good reason. You are even. Everytime. For more information on "trying to get even" take a look at Mike Caros section in Super System II.
As you know you are on tilt or play bad poker, get away from the table. Immeditaly. You will only hurt your bankroll if you continue playing in a bad mental state.
3) Don't play scared!
This was the hardest part for me to achieve. If you get a few bad beats, you'll loose confidence in your hands, in your reads and sometimes in your whole game. As a result you might get passive at the table, which will make things even worse. If you don't play aggressive, you'll maybe give your opponent a free card when you shouldn't or let them draw for cheap and they will draw out on you more than ever. Not because you're an unlucky poker player but rather then you played your hand to passive to protect it against those draws.
In my opinion being aggressive is key to successful poker, especially in shorthanded games. Push yourself to play your aggressive style, don't get passive cause you got a few bad beats.
4) Fold, when you know it!
Folding a flopped set to a opponent, who chased the obvious flushdraw against odds and got it on the river is sometimes hard to do. It's even harder if you're on a downswing and finally got a really good hand. You check the river or make a blocking bet and he pushes for the rest of his chips.
Don't call, when you KNOW you are beaten. Don't lie to yourself, that there's a 40% chance he is bluffing that river scare card. This calls will highly hurt your bankroll and even worse, will make the bad calls your opponent made profitable in the long term because you gave him the right implied odds to chase the flush, if you pay him off.
I wrote this mainly to clear my mind and remind myself of some usefull things. Hopefully it helps some of you and i would greatly appreciate your experiences and feedback!
