All poker players eventually go through a tough period where they string together many losing sessions or can’t seem to 2️⃣ make the money in a succession of tournaments. Even the best players in the game have had significant downswings in 2️⃣ their careers. One of the questions that the CLC coaches get most is “How do you deal with and recover 2️⃣ from downswings?”. We asked 2 of the most successful MTT players on the planet, CLC’s Chance Kornuth and Alex Foxen 2️⃣ about their personal experiences with downswings. Let’s dive into their responses! Justin Lynch: What Was The Worst Downswing Of Your 2️⃣ Career? Alex Foxen: I’d say the worst downswing of my career probably came in 2024. I definitely overextended a bit 2️⃣ from a bankroll perspective, probably playing overconfident and not critical enough of my own game and that is the perfect 2️⃣ recipe to create a big downswing. I don’t have an exact number but probably a couple million lost in that 2️⃣ one. Chance Kornuth: I have taken the shots and went up to a million and then down toR$100-$200k before I 2️⃣ stayed over a million when games were softer and I thought I should have taken a lot more but now 2️⃣ that I’m a family man, I don’t do that anymore (laughs). Justin Lynch: What is your go to activity to 2️⃣ reset during a downswing? Alex Foxen: Absolutely working out and doing something physical. Getting your mind out of whatever state 2️⃣ it is in. Anything that creates that meditative singular focus that a workout or maybe doing something with your hands 2️⃣ does. Something that can get you out of your head and into your body, that gets you into the present 2️⃣ moment as much as possible. I think physical movement is really really good for that. Chance Kornuth: I like working 2️⃣ out and spending time with my friends and family, watching movies and playing games. Doing anything nonpoker to get 100% 2️⃣ of your focus onto other things. Justin Lynch: How Do You Measure if you’re running bad vs not playing your 2️⃣ best? Alex Foxen: I don’t think that there is a perfect way to measure these two things. That’s why it 2️⃣ is really important to be constantly critical and the best way to avoid a downswing is to always act like 2️⃣ you are in a downswing, always put work into your game, always question everything you do even when it works. 2️⃣ Ask the questions “Could I have made more on that line?”, “Could I have possibly bet bigger here?”, “What if 2️⃣ he had this hand?”, “How would I approach it if the turn was this?”. All these different varying questions to 2️⃣ ask yourself to keep yourself in a state of growth instead of stagnation. For me and I also feel it 2️⃣ is true for most people, downswings always come after a period of stagnation and then the downswing almost always end 2️⃣ after a period of effort into change. I know so many people who decided to work with a mental game 2️⃣ coach or decided to seek coaching for the fundamental side of their poker game or start working with a solver. 2️⃣ So many of these people get instant results and I think there is an energetic aspect of that, putting your 2️⃣ effort into productive things allows you to be at your best in the game and to be more open minded 2️⃣ which leads you with more room for growth. If you just think what you are doing is right and you’re 2️⃣ not questioning it constantly then when something comes across that someone else does or that is an option to do 2️⃣ something it will be harder for you to accept it or consider it as an option for you just because 2️⃣ of the nature of it and the state that your brain is in at the time. Chance Kornuth: I think 2️⃣ that’s actually something that people mess up as far as running bad vs not playing your best. Focusing on the 2️⃣ things that you can control as opposed to things you can’t is imperative Justin Lynch: During a downswing do you 2️⃣ put in more study vs more volume- what’s the mix there? Alex Foxen: For me it’s mostly playing, I am 2️⃣ doing a little bit of both all the time. So I think that studying is valuable, however without regular play 2️⃣ it’s pretty worthless. There is too much to think about in poker, you need some things to be automatic, so 2️⃣ if you just study when you get to play none of those things are going to be automatic, if you 2️⃣ just play you are not as likely to question your decision making and improve on what you are doing and 2️⃣ your process in the game. That side is pretty heavy in favor of playing over study, but you can’t optimize 2️⃣ one without the other. Chance Kornuth: I would say definitely put in a little more study, it is definitely easiest 2️⃣ for us to want to study more when we haven’t been losing, however for me it’s like preparing for a 2️⃣ stop. I study for the WSOP or before I do certain things and if I notice that I was inadequate 2️⃣ on a certain board texture and I didnt know what to do, I tell Foxen,”Let’s go through the spot and 2️⃣ do a webinar on it.” Justin Lynch: What do you consider a downswing at this point in your career? Alex 2️⃣ Foxen: Honestly, I don’t have any kind of metric for it. I don’t think about that in that way at 2️⃣ all. I consider a downswing when I look at how much cash I have and I am surprised with how 2️⃣ low it is. I am not super meticulous with managing my bankroll, I have an idea where it is and 2️⃣ I take risks accordingly but I am not necessarily looking at my results and saying “Oh wow, I am on 2️⃣ a 23 buyin downswing”. The moral of what I am saying is downswings are only in your head, they are 2️⃣ a construct they don’t exist. Yeah we go up and down in the chart but if you zoom out no 2️⃣ downswing is actually real on a players graph, they just go up and down. There is only the present moment, 2️⃣ that is the only thing that exists in whatever kind of esoteric principle. If the present moment only exists there 2️⃣ is no such thing as a downswing and there is no such thing as feeling bad about it. So if 2️⃣ you stay in this present focused ideology of constant improvement and constant growth, then yeah downswings will happen but then 2️⃣ you wont notice them because all you are doing is trying to improve your current self and trying to improve 2️⃣ your current bankroll not worrying about what it was yesterday. Chance Kornuth: I consider a downswing more of a monetary 2️⃣ percentage. For example If I lost 60k today that’s more how I measure it. I never really thought about it 2️⃣ in terms of not cashing X amount of tournaments or losing X amount of buy-ins.
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