1. Dealing with Downswings
Elliot Roe
Dealing with Downswings

2. Elliot Roe Hypnotherapist since 2010
Qualified in Hypnotherapy, NLP and EFT
Member of the American Board of Hypnotherapy
Worked with over 400 professional poker players, including those playing at High Stakes, SCOOP, WCOOP and SHRB winners.
Clients include many MMA fighters and multiple martial arts world champions
Focus MP3s are used by 1000’s of poker players world wide

3. What is a Downswing?

4. What’s a true downswing in your game?
Cash or MTTs
PLO vs NLH
SNGs
Spins

5. Under EV Downswing

6. What to look out for Drop in volume A belief the world is against you
Increased emotions around bad beats
Deterioration of game
Loss of love for the game
Inaccurately judging villains range

7. Drop in Volume
Volume is your friend, poker is a long term game and your EV is strong keep playing through whilst you’re winning
Set a playing schedule or if you struggle with structure choose a weekly volume target
Place realistic (and small) prop bets with friends

8. The World’s against me

9. How is this happening This could be called entitlement tilt
You’re over assessing the mathematical edge your positive EV is giving you in a short period of time
How are they beating me? It may frustrate you terribly when a fish or bad reg takes down a pot, especially is if a bad beat.
Watch the video when you feel unlucky

10. Loss of love for the game
Studying stops or becomes far more difficult
Volume becomes a struggle
Video games/DFS/Sports take up what were poker hours
Conversations/messages about the game become negative

11. Degradation of game
Where was the majority of the win rate earned? How do the last 10k hands look
Be honest with yourself this could be the most important moment of your career.
Has your professionalism changed?
Distractions, Drug use, Drop in study, Change in posture etc

12. Loss of love for the game

13. Bad beats feeling amplified
The extended run under EV can create sometimes almost a physical response to bad beats.
Tilt is more likely the longer the downswing continues if not approached correctly
The emotions can lead to reductions in volume

14. Inaccurately judging villains range (pattern recognition)

15. Pattern recognition and ranges
When on a downswing it’s likely you’ve been seeing the top of your opponents ranges for a period of time.
The human mind has an excellent ability to recognize patterns, usually this is a useful in poker.
However we can start to subconsciously adjusting our perceived villains range without realizing it.

16. This can lead to the difficult situation of your play looking like it hasn’t changed although it’s now actually far weaker than before.
I believe this is one of the reasons downswings can last much longer than they statistically should.

17. Downswing following EV line
How long has this been happening
Have you been staying ahead of the curve in your game
Have you been table/game selecting with the same vigor as in the past
How is your focus/confidence at the table?

18. Hypnotherapy for downswings
Can allow you to view your play from a third party perspective.
Can help bring back the higher levels of confidence you had prior to your downswing.
Helps to resolve background confidence issues that the downswing may be amplifying.

19. Next steps Take a break Study, study, study Consider a new coach
Life balance to limit D/S impact
Meditate and move forward
If emotions are out of control consider mindset coaching

20. Contact
Skype elliot.roe