How to reduce tournament downswings

Dara O'Kearney shares how he likes to keep MTT downswings to a minimum.

I often get asked how to reduce variance when on a downswing.

There are lots of suggestions, including fewer tables and dropping down the stakes. Both of which will help a lot of players.

My suggestion, however, would be to play smaller fields. If you go on a variance calculator, it will agree with me, but I think most of the benefits are mindset ones.

You'll get more experience of playing second last tables and final tables, which will be very valuable when you're ready to tackle the bigger fields again and make a deep run.

Why smaller fields improve consistency

The first online tournaments I played were single tables. When I started dipping my toes in MTTs, I felt very comfortable around bubbles and on final tables as I had a good, practised knowledge of ICM. At some point, STTs pretty much died, and I found myself just playing MTTs with huge fields.

I distinctly remember making a big final table after a prolonged drought and feeling very unsure as I was out of practice. That's when I realised I needed to start playing more smaller field MTTs, even if my expectation was lower as it gave me more practice at the business end.

It doesn't have to be all one or the other: you should always play a certain amount of both, but you can adjust the ratio based on how you're running.

It also depends on how badly downswings affect you: I know a few pros who only play smaller fields because downswings and the variance of the massive runner fields stress them out too much.

You can get Dara's free book on effective poker study by joining his mailing list.