An Insane Game We Play

After losing 682 big bets over the course of 31,000 hands, I've won 526 big bets in roughly 8000 hands.



It's hard to put into words what losing ~700 BB's over 31,000 hands feels like. I don't think I had a single winning day in two weeks of playing which is easily a record for me. Even though I knew I was running exceptionally bad, I started questioning everything I was doing including my eating, sleep, and exercise habits. Most of all, I questioned every aspect of my game. It's really hard not to when you don't record a winning day for thirty thousand hands. To put that in perspective, if a live player were to play 45 hands an hour, forty hours a week, for 17 weeks, they could be down 700 big bets. I'd guess the vast majority of people would quit poker long before they'd get to the seventeenth week. People might argue their win rates are higher live but I also have a pretty high win rate that's been substantiated by millions of hands.

And now suddenly I've won over 100 big bets 4 days in a row. Nothing changed, it's still me playing against pretty much all the same opponents at the same stakes. I did make some changes to my game but nothing that should affect my bottom line more than a fraction of a big bet.

The lesson to take away and I've probably said this at least ten times since I started this blog is do not ever underestimate variance. However bad you think things can get, they can get worse, much worse. I nearly busted my account playing and I'm one of, if not the, most conservative mid/high stakes player in terms of bankroll management.

I'm still not out of the woods, although I've had a great 4 days the majority of it has come at low limits. Up until today I've continued to run poorly at high limits. I certainly feel a whole let better, it's comforting to know I haven't lost my mind.

Good luck at the tables.