Upswings, downswings and playground swings. (Long .. sorry)
Lots of talk about upswings and downswings and BR managment. I realy don't want to discourage anyone here from playing this great game, but I think my experience might emphazise some of the points the more experienced players have been making about these things.
I started out online about 10 months ago. I am still very much a beginner now and, of course, was even more so then. So of course I started with too small BR and played way above the amount I had. And, of course, the beginners luck elf was working overtime for me and I actually won quite a bit and my BR went up. And, of course, *I* thought all the good stuff was due to my inspired, increadable talent and the wonderness of my being.
And then the beginners luck elf decided he had better places to be and I went on a downswing. Not for 4 days, not for 4 weeks .... nope .... my downswing lasted 4 MONTHS! Bad cards, bad beats, and some real stupid playing. I couldn't win at 10 bucks (I'm a sng player almost exclusively), I couldn't win at 5 bucks, I couldn't win at 1 buck.
I did a lot of reading and tried everything suggested. I analyzed my game, I had others analyze my game. Found my picture in the poker dictionary under LAG and Fish. Got better. Still lost. Analyzed my self. Found I'd adopted the "loosers mentality". Worked on that. Still lost. Took a break from the game. Came back ready to go. Still lost. Anyway, you get the picture.
Finally that BR I had was gone, gone, gone. My account on UB had 8 cents in it. And I was 3 weeks away from payday and a chance to start all over again. So I started playing freerolls (UB and Absolute have quite a few) and, after loosng for a few more days, things started to turn around a bit. I was ITM in the last 7 I played (next goal is the final table! :)). And today I'm starting my BR over with a very small amount (financial constraints) and a new attitude.
You can bet :D that from now on I'm sticking WELL inside the convention of 30 buy ins for SNG's and, if I do play a few ring games, 300 BB's. And patience has, I hope, been added to my, as yet very small, repitiore of poker skills. If it takes a couple of months to move up in stakes, so be it. If it takes longer ... so be it. Luckily I'm NOT even thinking about doing this for a living so that pressure is not a factor. I do, however, want to be the best player I possibly can be.
I now have two goals. One is to never have to reload my BR again and the other is to cash out, a bit at a time or all at once, $3000. (There's a reason for that particular amount that I may or may not go into someday if there's a reason to.)
Welp, there you have it (and probably a lot more than you wanted to hear :)). Sorry for the length of this. I'm a little surprized myself at how much this stuff has been on my brain. :)
Dean
