Good players sometimes run bad. It’s the nature of this mercurial game. You can be crushing it for months and then go on a long losing streak for no apparent reason. I know. I’ve been there.

Big money on the table. (Image: Reddit)

Just about everyone agrees that if extended downswings put a significant dent in your bankroll, you should consider playing in a smaller game so that you can recover your losses and then move back up to your regular game. That’s the plan. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work out that way.

I’ve noticed that otherwise good players sometimes have a problem realizing that goal. For many reasons, players dropping down in stakes sometimes make one of five key errors when they do so. These errors would be bad under any circumstances, but when they’re made on a depleted bankroll after a long period of running badly, they can spell doom. So, let me first identify the five problems, and then show you five ways to fix them.