Tilt Is A Four Letter Word

I’ve just had my first overall loss for a week since moving to the 1/2 tables. My loss was not as great as last weeks win but close enough to make me worry. As those of you who have been following along know the entire week had been a struggle. I had managed to hold my own though and keep the losses to a minimum. That all changed on Friday night.

To set things up a player two to my right stated that he was having a problem chasing cards. Everyone chimed in on the chat and I stated something to the affect that it’s fine as long as I’m not in the pot. The comment was in jest but I should have taken it as a sign of things to come. Another player who was seated across from me was chatting freely and often showing his cards or telling everyone what he had when he was in a pot. The chatter seemed a little loose but was always talking and showing good cards so he appeared to be on a good run.

I decided to play tight (as it turns out a bad weak/tight) in preparation for the chasers play but was receiving a horrible run of cards. Looking at Poker Tracker I see that I got just about every combination of hands I could get with very few duplicates. I was not doing a good job of holding my own and found myself approaching my 20BB stop loss.

I saw what appeared to be a questionably played hand by the earlier chatter and decided to look at the hand histories. It turns out that the chatter had been lying about his hands a majority of the time and I was laying down to him. This started the tilting process as I knew I was being ignorant for taking him at his word. I wasn’t tilting because of the other player, I was tilting because of myself. He was deploying a strategy to hook the fishes and I was right there with them nibbling at the bait.

There was now no way I’m going to lay down to this guy and it would have been a sound strategy. I say would have been because this is also the time that the chaser decided to come alive. I would beat down chatter only to be beaten down by chaser catching his flush when 4 hit the board or making his bottom pair a set or any other possible suckout you can think of. I literally started yelling at the screen for the first time in months and actually was poised to throw my mouse at one time. If the week had been different up to that point I might not have reacted so harshly but enough was enough.

I blew through my loss limit and gave away the entire $50 that I sat down with. A sane and normal person would have stopped at that point but I was pissed and fired up another table and another $50. Then the amazing happened. My tilting led to aggression which led to pushing the table around which led to pots. I found myself on a roll and I took down the biggest pot I’ve ever had at $52. I didn’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth and after calming down I decided to call it quits for the night. I had not recovered my whole $50 loss yet but close enough that I could feel alright with it.

Saturday night would be more of the losing as I met my loss limit in a very uneventful manner. I can truly attribute Saturdays loss to cold cards and I don’t think I ‘ve really been able to do that up this point. I usually can pinpoint something I’ve done wrong but Saturday was played the way I play my game. In order to try to pull a winning night out I’m going to try to tighten up my starting hand selection. This should help minimize my swing and hopefully give me a confidence boost. I didn’t play Sunday night and as I’m at this moment on a plane headed home I don’t know if I will play tonight either. I really don’t want to take two nights off but a two day break may be in order.

Friday Night:
Table One – 108 minutes, -25BB, -13.89BB/Hr, 130 hands
Table Two – 82 minutes, 18.86BB, 13.81BB/Hr, 97 hands
Total – 190 minutes, -6.13BB, -1.93BB/Hr, 127 hands

Saturday – 98 minutes, -21.5BB, -13.16BB/Hr, 91 hands

Big Pot of the Weekend

Party Poker 1/2 Hold'em (10 handed) converter

Preflop: lifesagrind is SB with Ad, Jc.

UTG folds, UTG+1 folds, UTG+2 calls, MP1 calls, MP2 folds, MP3 folds, CO folds, Button calls, lifesagrind completes, BB checks.

Flop: (5 SB) Jh, 5s, 8h (5 players)

lifesagrind bets, BB calls, UTG+2 calls, MP1 calls, Button raises, lifesagrind calls, BB calls, UTG+2 calls, MP1 calls.

Turn: (7.50 BB) Ac (5 players)

lifesagrind bets, BB raises, UTG+2 folds, MP1 calls, Button calls, lifesagrind 3-bets, BB caps, MP1 calls, Button calls, lifesagrind calls.

River: (23.50 BB) 2c (4 players)

lifesagrind bets, BB calls, MP1 calls, Button folds.

Final Pot: 26.50 BB

lifesagrind shows Ad Jc (two pair, aces and jacks).

BB shows Ah 5c (two pair, aces and fives).

MP1 shows As 5d (two pair, aces and fives).

Outcome: lifesagrind wins 26.50 BB.