It can't rain all the time

When I went to bed on Monday night I was sure that I had put my losing streak behind me, so when I sat down at about 9pm on Tuesday night I was looking forward to seeing my bankroll and ROI starting to climb again. Alas this wasn’t to be. Tuesday night was another horrible session.

I started playing 10 player SNGs and only cashed in one of them for 3rd place. I then moved back to the 6 Max tables and played 7 of them only managing to cash once in 2nd. This has to be the worst streak I’ve had in SNGs in well over a year, if not ever and I have to say it’s got me feeling pretty frustrated. I’m sure it’s just variance but I’ll be spending a little while in Poker Tracker reviewing some of my critical hands before I play any more of my challenge.

I also have a bankroll related decision to make before I play any more. The last 3 sessions have been sufficiently bad that my bankroll has taken a hit. I should probably have stepped down a level after Monday night but I was pretty sure that Tuesday’s session would reverse the trend, I was wrong. I still have $170 in my Party Account, I think I have 3 options:

1) Try and ride out the variance, continuing to play the $11’s. I’m tempted but logic tells me not to. I’ve always been quite good at bankroll management, just because this is a challenge doesn’t mean I need to throw my normal bankroll rules out the window.

2) I’m having a particularly bad run on Party but have decent funds on quite a few other sites, why not switch my challenge to another site. I could but it seems like a bit of a cop out. Normally if I was selecting an SNG or a cash table I will go where I feel I am most likely to win. Poker tracker shows me which sites / levels / structures I have historically done best at so I normally wouldn’t think twice about staying on a site where I was having a tough time. However, I have historically done well on Party and I don’t feel I have played badly or that my opponents have outplayed me, I certainly know the latter isn’t true, I’ve got the Hand Histories to prove it.

3) Manage my bankroll sensibly and step down to the $6 SNGs on Party. The number of Donktastic muppets I’m going to encounter will be frustrating but if I’m going to take heed of all the wise words I’ve read, then I need to choose this option.

I’m tending towards option 3, just knuckle down, ride it out and don’t let it get me down.

Having said that, I won’t be able to play online tonight because it’s the final in the local poker league that I run with a couple of my poker buddies. I will defer my bankroll decision until just before my Thursday session. Until then, here’s the sorry stats.

11th Sep : Played 10 / 8 x DNC / 1 x 3rd ($11 10 player) / 1 x 2nd ($11 6-Max)

Running Total: Played 67 / ITM 30% / ROI -10% / Profit -$70.20