Zeroing: How I Reset My Bankroll After a Catastrophic Month

February 2024 was the worst month of my betting life. A combination of bad variance, emotional decisions, and chasing losses left me down 35% of my bankroll. What had taken me 18 months to build was significantly damaged in four weeks.

I needed to reset, both financially and psychologically. Here's the process I used:

Step 1: Stop betting entirely.

For two full weeks, I placed zero bets. Not even small ones. I removed the sportsbook apps from my phone. I still watched games but without any money on them.

This created distance. By the end of week two, I could think about betting without feeling sick.

Step 2: Analyze what went wrong.

I exported my betting history and went through every bet from the bad month. I categorized them: - Good bets that lost: variance. No changes needed. - Bets made chasing losses: emotional mistakes. These cost me the most. - Bets made without proper research: lazy mistakes. - Bets that violated my own rules: discipline failures.

The chasing and discipline categories were the bulk of my losses. The actual edges I found performed fine.

Step 3: Reset my bankroll number.

This is important. My new bankroll wasn't "my original bankroll minus losses." It was my current balance, period. I had to accept that money was gone and treat what remained as my entire stake.

Psychologically, this was tough. But betting with the goal of "getting back to even" is a trap. You take bad risks trying to recover what's already gone.

Step 4: Reduce my unit size temporarily.

For the first month back, I dropped from 2% units to 1% units. This let me get back into betting rhythm without risk of another catastrophic loss.

Step 5: Re-implement my rules with accountability.

I wrote out my betting rules and shared them with a friend. I committed to reviewing my bets weekly with him. External accountability made it harder to backslide.

Three months later, I had recovered about half my losses through disciplined betting. Six months later, I was back to my prior peak.

The lessons: damage control is a skill. Knowing how to respond to bad runs is as important as knowing how to pick winners.