Tell me about swings

What kind of swings have you guys endured in your online play? I am relatively new to playing online. Last week I enjoyed four straight days of nice profitability. Then yesterday through this morning, my luck ran dry, I went on tilt as a result, and roughly half my winnings from last week disappeared. Since then I have been playing more "within myself" (to use a sports cliche) and am back up again. But I want to know if this is just something I can expect to happen periodically. There's no question that most of my cards during this anti-run were miserable, but I was definitely making it worse toward the end. (The low point had to be pushing all in against a guy when there were two pairs on the board and I had a third of the lower pair. Ugh. You know I was in a dark place making THAT move. He called, took my money, and I quit for the night.)

you know why you need 30x the buyin for NL ring? 300BB for limit? and 30x buyin for SnGs?

well it's because even the best players can go on losing streaks of 10 buyins or 100BB. it is very important that you have a big enough bankroll that you don't play scared.

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30x the buyin for NL ring

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Wow is that what we recommend now. I thought it was like 10 or something. I guess better safe than sorry but thinking you need 750 dollars to play in NL25 just seems a little much. Did you mean 10 or 15 maybe?

I'm curious about that too. Right now my bankroll where I play NL is only about 12X.

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Right now my bankroll where I play NL is only about 12X.

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I was fortunate and deposited 50 when I started and have never been in the negative since. I lost 11 bucks right away then just kept working my up up and up and now I could really play 200NL assumming 15x the buy in but my balls need to grow a little more before I start doing that because if lost 4 stacks in a row which I have done many times in 25NL I would be crying my eyes out.

Interesting topic, I had heard 10-15x NL or Tourney buy-in....or 200BB for limit (I dont play limit though) I usually have $400-500 in my account when playing .25/.50NL
I don't take any profits until I double up...then I usually only cash out $200-300 at a time. After I get $500 again I sign up at a new poker site for the bonus - or take advantage of a reload bonus.
I have am on 6 poker sites, but only have 4 funded right now (waiting on reload offers from the others)...probably $1700-1800 spread over four sites, and I feel perfectly comfortable sustaining swings.
Is this too little?? I have not had a problem yet....am I setting myself up for a big fall?
I have money sitting in Neteller...considering opening a Pardise account - or waiting for a reload offer (like Stars just had) Should I just keep it in Neteller or spread it over my accounts?
I am not really interested in moving up levels right now - I'm happy where I'm at (considering trying a few $20+2 MTTs possibly a few more $30 SnGs) but for the most part stick with .25/.50NL and $10 MTTs and SnG's
I hear a lot of talk about bankroll management - but rarely see decisive numbers or detailed discussions.

Dav as long as you have the money available and are comfortable I wouldn't worry about "where the money is"

for players starting out, what i suggested is recommended because you might not know how good you really are. if you overestimate your skill (which many players do) and go in with 100BB or 10x the buyin, you might be in for a surprise...

Disclaimer: the below refers to Limit HE

The 300 BB rule is excessive in most cases. This is the number of BB's that you need to make sure you won't go broke. The better player you are, the number of BB's goes down. If you are barely beating the game you might need more.

If someone put 100.00 at a site to play .50/1.00 and they go broke, I feel relatively certain they will be able to find another 100.00 again to give it another shot. You don't have to have all 300 BB on deposit.

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But I want to know if this is just something I can expect to happen periodically.

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I think you can expect it to happen periodically. It has happened to me 3 times now. One -40 BB swing, one -50 BB swing and one -75 BB swing. Two of these, the -40 and the -75 happened just as I was moving up to the next limit. I think it is natural to struggle at a new limit/level of play. Adjustments need to be made for different stakes.

The worst swing I have had so far has been ~75 BB.. I think I made it worse than it had to be by tilting one night though. My personal opinion is that if you are on a swing bigger than -75 BB, there is probably something wrong with your game.

The good thing about negative swings: it makes you inspect your game closely looking for holes. Maybe you have become lazy in your play after having some success and aren't working as hard. Maybe the cards are just bad. Look at some of the more powerful hands and see how you are doing with them. Are your AA KK AKs hands getting crushed? Probably just bad cards.

I'll post some charts later...