The following question was asked in the comment's section of my last post and its something that all mtt players have to deal with one time or another. My answer is anything but definitive, just some rambling thoughts on the issue but relative enough for a post I think.
Could I ask how you deal with the massive swings in tournament poker? I'm on my worst run ever of 31 games without a cash. From the last 18 I have busted from 12 despite being at least a 70/30 fav.
It's really starting to get to me now and I'm thinking I could be a donkey!
Matthew I don't think anyone has the answer and everyone reacts differently to a bad run. I've played thousands of stt and these give you some idea of how bad you can run as the variance can be pretty sick in them and there is even more variance in MTTS. It's conceivable that someone can run good or bad in mtts over there whole life.
The only advice I can give is if you feel how your running is affecting how your playing adversely then take a break. If you feel your still performing to the best of your ability then just play though it as its all you can really do, it can and has for me in the past changed very quickly.
I was asked my expectations for the coming year in a Q&A I did on boards .ie back in January and answered it "because the variance is so much in mtts i wouldn't be surprised if I didn't say have any results that register for all of 2008 on the hendonmob data base on the other hand i wouldn't be surprised to have ten results on it in 2008, thats the nature of being a live mtt tournament player". We have to expect to hit bad patches its just the nature of the beast.
I read an article by Tommy Angelo where he says something along the lines of downswings or upswings for that matter don't exist as you only play in the present. I like what he is getting at as the game your playing or even the hand is what really matters as whats gone before and the future is out of our control, what we should be focusing on is to play in the present the best we can. Anyhow keep the chin up.
