Tysun

Lately it seems like the difference between whether or not one of my poker session ends up a winning or losing one can be traced back to a hand or two.  So far this year one of the biggest challenges for me has been keeping my tilt under control.  For the most part the first or second bad beat won’t really get to me, I’ll shrug it off and keep grinding because I know that while the odds were in my favor they are never 100% in my favor unless an opponent is drawing dead.  The problem usually arises after third or fourth beat say when a villian is calling all the way to the river and hits his inside straight when I flopped a set and I end up getting stacked.  A good example happened two nights ago on Full Tilt while playing $100 NL.  I was already running on the bad side when the following hand came up (going on memory, but details aren’t to important).

$100 NL 6-max full table

Key players

MP1 (120BB), stats: 100/25/3 (not sure on the PFR and aggr factor, but through 40 hands or so villain did not fold a single hand)

BTN (150BB), stats: 22/14/3 (again guessing)

Hero in SB (100BB), stats: 18/14/3 (roughly what I run at multi-tabling)

Preflop: MP1 calls $1, BTN raises to $4.5, Hero raises to $15 with A,Ko, MP1 and BTN call

Flop (~$45): Kd, Td, 6x Hero bets around $35, MP1 calls, BTN folds

Turn (~$110): 7x, Hero bets remaining stack, MP1 calls

River (+$200): blank

Outcome: Hero gets fucked in the ass after MP1 shows 77 for the turned set.  Villain leaves after a couple more hands.  Hero is official headed into tilt territory.

At this point I’m starting to tilt and would say that I am tilted for the next 10 to 15 minutes before I cooled off and was able to get hings under control.  Now I can’t say for sure what would have happened if another hand like this occurred shortly after this hand, but most of the time my tilt would continue and get worse and before I know it I would be down 3 to 5 buy-ins.  Luckily my tilt episode was on the short side and I was able to come out 1 buy-in up at $100 NL for the session after my head cleared.

Ok fast forward to last nights session on PlayersOnly.  I am playing 75% $100 NL and 25% $200 NL and between 8 to 10 tables.  I am already tilting at this point after what seems like 6-7 hands don’t end up going my way.  Here’s a hand breakdown (going on memory again)

Hero in CO (130BB) playing on the tight side

Villain in BB (150BB) playing a little looser than me

Preflop: Hero raises to $7 with AA, Villain calls

Flop (~15): Ax, Tx, Jx Villain donk bets half the pot (this is the point where my spider sense starts tingling, but as I am already in a state of tilt I ignore it), Hero raises to ~$25, Villain calls

Turn (~$65): 9x Villain checks, Hero bets ~$60 not wanting to see 8,Q,K on the river, Villain calls

River (~$185): 8x (AWESOME!), Villains instantly shoves remaining stack, Hero (who is ignoring that little voice inside his head) instantly calls

Outcome: Villain shows KQo for the flopped straight and Hero is ready to bash his head into wall for making the river call.

My tilt continues for an extended period before I somewhat turn it around and I end the session down 1.75 buy-ins at $100 NL.  If I had not made that river call I would have ended more or less breakeven for the night.  While I definitely think a call can be made in that situation against specific opponents when you have a good read on them, but this definitely was not one of those times in my opinion.

Well to wrap things up my tilting episodes are a major obstacle that is preventing me from making the profit and improvement in my game that I have been striving for this year.  While I 100% understand that bad beats and cold decks are part of the game and are unaviodable I tend to have a hard time getting over them when they seem to pile up on me.  During the rest of this month and into next month I am going to look at some solutions to this problem and see what works for me.  In some shape or form I believe it will involve me sitting out on my tables and removing myself from that environment for a short period of time.  Perhaps a short killing spree on GTA: IV will be in order to get some my aggresion released or maybe a trip to the bathroom to take a dump for a sense of relaxation, who knows?  The problem now is identifying the moment to remove myself when the tilting starts because once I get a couple minutes in it will usually run its course because I get to the point where I am too stubborn and hard-headed to quit or take a break.  Well I’ll end my rant here.  Tonight it’s back at the tables at Full Tilt.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 19th, 2009 at 7:59 am and is filed under Poker. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.