What is the worst you have run?

[melioris]

A wrinkle in scheduling allowed for me to play a shit load of poker this week (for me). It was an opportunity that will not occur in a long time, so I decided to play a ton. It also coincided with me running terrible bad. This concludes the worst week of poker for me. I lost 18 buyins in one week playing 6-max NL. The vast majority was due to variance, looking back I can only attribute 1.5 buyins to tilt, but the ass kicking affected me in another way.

For the last 3-4 days I have been playing scared money. I have heard folks talking about this phenomenon, but I had to drop 18 buyins before I understood what it is. Looking over PT this afternoon, it became clear to me that I was playing with scared money. Now when the two-outers are falling like rain on the river, blaming myself for playing with scared money is akin to blaming the sluttly dressed woman for the rape, neither of us was asking for it (sorry for the bad analogy). But scared money put was putting me in positions where I became vulnerable. Maybe a better analogy is that scared money is the gateway drug for bad beats. Losing is a fundamental part of poker and beyond the control of the player. When you are playing aggressive, mathematically sound poker, losing should be part of maximizing your EV. But losing with scared money is in your control, and most likely is minimizing your EV, or even switching + to a – in terms of EV.

I am not sure what this thread has to offer. The experienced players in TP.com should smile at my naivety. But damn, 20 buyin bankroll is not enough when playing 6-max. Thank god I had around 40 buyins at the start of last week.

So what is the worst you have run?

edit-trying to fix fucked up grammar.

[PShabi]

[Boobie Lover]

Here's the personal records.

Lost 200 BBs at 5/10 LHE (half my role at the time) in January, switched to SNGs.

Went 20-20 out of the money in one table SNGs in Febuary, switched to NLHE cash games.

Lost 17 buy-ins at 400 NL, seriously contemplated giving up poker forever. Won Bodog 25K guaranteed a day after peak of losing. Moved up to 600 NL after that, won 30K that month.

[eejit101]

cash - 12 buyins at $1/$2
Sng - 19/19 losses at $27 turbos, then went on a 16/16 cashing spree, so not bad in the end

[JDMcNugent7]

18 buy ins is hardly ever due to just bad luck.

[ChipFish]

WOW!
Is there even a roll left over?

At 5 buy-ins I'd have to turn the comp off and do some serious evaluation of my play.
I don't know what to say here, but I certainly hope you drop levels Meloris.

Good luck building it back. It'll be tough but can be done.
Whenever you do get going again, make sure you get that loss out of your head.

[Talking Poker]

I'm reading the numbers in this thread, and I agree:

I just don't think I could habdle dropping that many buy ins. I mean, that's a LOT... I think after about 4-5, I'd HAVE to take a break. I just wouldn't be able to stomach much more... I can certainly see how variance could account for even a 10 buy in downswing (and maybe more), but these numbers approaching 20 - that's a freaking BAD run.

I have no idea what my worst records are... I could probably find out, but I don't think I want to.

[Penguinfan]

Well, I was born in 1971......................

[melioris]

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t consider myself a good player. I have a ton to learn and I am actually pretty excited about learning, particularly after this bad run.

maybe with some more distance from it I will have a different take, but after each session I spent a lot of time in review and as far as I can tell, I was playing well for well over half of this run. It seemed like I lost every large pot I was involved with. The stats are incredible. In one week I had four sets hold up on the river. I had three flushes hold up on the river. I don’t remember the number of times I took a full house to the river only to lose to a larger house, but it was definitely more than than the number of times I won with a full house on the river. But most of the time I won really small pots with these hands, and these are the numbers I am remembering off the top of my head, the list goes on and on.

Granted, I know played scared the last couple of days and therefore a lot less optimal that I could (which still probably isn’t that good). But this means I was playing more tight that I should, and maybe respecting bets more than I should. Keep in my that I was playing 1-3 hrs a day for this week. It is a ton for me, but not that much by tp.com standards.

[Talking Poker]

Post some PT stats (especially the main ones). You might get some really good feedback about something you didn't even realize was a problem.