The Swing of Things

[BagONickels]

Anyone who has played cash games for more than a week, knows all about swing... specifically though, I'm talking about very short term swing... swing within any given session swing.

For the last few days I have built my stack up in the first 10-20 minutes only to watch it dwindle away in the next 20-30. Some times I will build it back up for a second time, and think I've got the table wired so I'll stick around just to watch my stack shrink back down to it's original size or smaller. Then I am forced to leave the table because of time constraints or possibly just out of pure frustration.

Other days I have simply told myself, self... "If I get up $x, I'm done for the day, and believe me x is a modest number, playing 5/10 I may say $5. And although this seems to work ok, I feel like I'm missing out on a lot of potential winnings.

Is this just a matter of too much variance in my game? Maybe my game is too transparent and everyone picks up on my habits after the first few minutes.

Has anyone else experienced this same thing? If so, how do you approach it?

I'm very curious as to how others approach their daily time at the tables...
Do you set a time limit?
Do you set a winning limit? (this just makes no sense to me... but I've done it, and it seems to work)
Do you set a loss limit?(There have been days when I should have done this)

Thanks

[andy-akb]

When you say "playing 5/10..." you do mean $0.05/$0.10 blinds in no limit, correct?

A time limit technically isnt really a bad thing, it just depends on how you implement it. Ideally you would play for as long as you were alert and the tables were good, but in the real world there are time constraints and we cant really do much to change that. When I put in my sessions I try to have them last 2-3 hours or so but I dont necessarily hold myself to them if the tables are good.

Never set a winning limit, this is going to really limit your progress as a player and the amount of money you make. Play until you dont think you are making good decisions anymore, not because you reached some arbitrary number.

A loss limit is better than a winning limit but not really for the same reasons. I dont have a particular number that I leave after, but I leave when I know however much Ive lost is mentally affecting me and my play. I think setting a number on this may make you _more_ mentally susceptible to losses as when you reach that number you feel like you have to be affected by it.

Basically what Im saying is this, dont set limits on your game regardless of whether or not they are for good or bad reasons. Play when you have the time and stop if something else comes up that you would rather do, you are tired and not playing your best or the losses are mentally affecting you.

I really doubt that the fact that all of your sessions start out up and then slowly your profits drain away is solely because of variance. I think the fact that it is so consistent shows there are a lot of leaks in your game that need to be plugged. Start posting some hands where you are bleeding chips from your stack. Read the stickies to get a better grasp on the theory behind the game. Sign up for session reviews to have somebody's input on _all_ of the hands from your session. There are a lot of things you can do to work on this and you seem to have the attitude that will make that easier. The sooner you start these things, the sooner you will become a successful player.

EDIT: That was a lot longer than I thought it was.

[Miffed22001]

I set a time limit.
So no maximum amount i cn be up, until my time limit finishes.
If i drop 3buy ins i take a break and come back a few hours later (on a perosnal note if i drop 3buyins im probably playig poorly/on the verge of getting emotional which = -ev)

[eugmac]

I definitely need to learn to be more disciplined in my sessions. If I have nothing to do all day I'd easily convince myself that it's totally ok to sit there for well over 4 hours, at which point i'm DEFINITELY tired, making bad decisions and getting emotional.

Just now, I played from 2 PM till 7 PM without really taking an significant breaks, and I guess i'm lucky that I only lost 2 buy-ins from it all. the last hand I played, I was still fuming that I donked off my stack to a set with TPTK. I get KK, UTG who is solid and only raises about 4.5% PF raises, there's a caller so I reraise, then it's all in from UTG. I'm 99% confident that he has AA, and yet i said, "fuck it. might as well lose more." I think that was the exact train of thought. fucking stupid. my read was perfect by the way.
[ edit: sanity check on the last bit please. would i actually be wrong in thinking he HAS to have AA? it was at pokerroom, $25 NL. he's 19/5 over 300 hands and isn't very aggressive. maybe i did for once make the right play today?]

so yeah, i still have yet to learn my limits, both in terms of stamina and ability to cope with downswings...

Here's a question for you all, do any of you have like a general daily routine with regards to playing poker? I think i definitely need to implement one.

[Big-EZ]

Same problem here man. I go on a hot streak and double and sometimes triple my buy-in. Then all of a sudden it shrinks...and shrinks...and shrinks some more.

I think I am going to try setting a time limit like Miffed said he does. That sounds like a pretty good idea.

[Scrimmage]

In my mind the biggest thing I see people with big stacks (say 3-4 buyins) do is begin to play way too loose, so even though their play (other than being too loose) is still fine, they're slowly letting their winnings slip away by limping J4o from early position (etc).

I've also seen really large stacks all of a sudden become very willing to pay off anyone, they start to see showdowns for what seems like just for the hell of it.

[jazzzik]

I cannot play too long cause I get tired. But my main problem is first 10-20 minutes. I tend to get stacked with AA and of course lose these pots. After like 20 minutes I have to say to myself:

"You lost a buyin (or 2) playing like a donk, now stop it."

It usually works.
Lately I've tried to be very focused from the very beginning. I just say to myself before even starting:

"You have to play your A game in every single hand after seating at the table"

Setting winning or losing limits is very bad for your game. You don't think about the hand, instead you think that you could get to the limit if you win this pot (even if youre calling with bad odds). I wouldn't recommend anyone setting winning or losing limits.

Time limit is goot. But usually I tend to stay a bit longer than my time limit. Well, what can I do. I love POKER.