diff --git a/pageserver/src/page_cache.rs b/pageserver/src/page_cache.rs
index 299575f792..c485e46f47 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/page_cache.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/page_cache.rs
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ use std::{
     convert::TryInto,
     sync::{
         atomic::{AtomicU8, AtomicUsize, Ordering},
-        RwLock, RwLockReadGuard, RwLockWriteGuard,
+        RwLock, RwLockReadGuard, RwLockWriteGuard, TryLockError,
     },
 };
 
@@ -683,16 +683,33 @@ impl PageCache {
     ///
     /// On return, the slot is empty and write-locked.
     fn find_victim(&self) -> (usize, RwLockWriteGuard<SlotInner>) {
-        let iter_limit = self.slots.len() * 2;
+        let iter_limit = self.slots.len() * 10;
         let mut iters = 0;
         loop {
+            iters += 1;
             let slot_idx = self.next_evict_slot.fetch_add(1, Ordering::Relaxed) % self.slots.len();
 
             let slot = &self.slots[slot_idx];
 
-            if slot.dec_usage_count() == 0 || iters >= iter_limit {
-                let mut inner = slot.inner.write().unwrap();
-
+            if slot.dec_usage_count() == 0 {
+                let mut inner = match slot.inner.try_write() {
+                    Ok(inner) => inner,
+                    Err(TryLockError::Poisoned(err)) => {
+                        panic!("buffer lock was poisoned: {:?}", err)
+                    }
+                    Err(TryLockError::WouldBlock) => {
+                        // If we have looped through the whole buffer pool 10 times
+                        // and still haven't found a victim buffer, something's wrong.
+                        // Maybe all the buffers were in locked. That could happen in
+                        // theory, if you have more threads holding buffers locked than
+                        // there are buffers in the pool. In practice, with a reasonably
+                        // large buffer pool it really shouldn't happen.
+                        if iters > iter_limit {
+                            panic!("could not find a victim buffer to evict");
+                        }
+                        continue;
+                    }
+                };
                 if let Some(old_key) = &inner.key {
                     if inner.dirty {
                         if let Err(err) = Self::writeback(old_key, inner.buf) {
@@ -717,8 +734,6 @@ impl PageCache {
                 }
                 return (slot_idx, inner);
             }
-
-            iters += 1;
         }
     }