I’m not tilted, sorry it read that way!

Posted by icemonkey9 on Sep 12, 2009 in tilt | 0 comments

Judging by the comments from yesterday's post I take it I came across tilted.  Sorry for that ... I probably exaggerated my mental condition inadvertendly because of the lateness of the hour and the diminshed mental capacity.

The truth is I am doing fine ... and there's something to be said for the question of, "Why are you playing anything but your normal game when your normal game yields a great result?" and I really don't have a good answer for that.  Why play Sit & Gos and Tournaments and dabble in 6max play?  My full ring game is nitty, tight, right and profitable.  When things don't go right outside of that "normal" routine, I'm risking myself and mental balance to keep that normal state.

For example, tonight I got some work done and decided I was too tired to really play a great 6max or full ring game.  Plus at 1am PST the games suck, even on the weekends.  Anyways I decide to play two $7 Ultra Turbo Sit & Gos because they are fun and I feel like I can conquer these no problem because I know how to get my money in good.

Result Game 1: Shoved KK on the BTN with 7 big blinds. 3 callers. One shoves the flop, the rest fold. He shows 66 and gets runner runner flush to take me down, I lose as a 84-16% favorite.

Result Game 2: Shoved UTG with JJ with 8 big blinds, get called by the big blind who shows TT. The T naturally flops, and I lose as a 82-18% favorite.

Result = -$15

So there's something to be said for quantifiably saying I really wasted my time there.  I hear you loud and clear.  I really am just chuckling now for playing those, but I know why I did.

The reason I did is so I don't stay bored with poker.  When I go through long stretches of playing one game exclusively, even if its FR NLHE or NLHE 6max, I get bored. My game gets stagnant.  I need something to shuffle up my game and keep it fresh.  Dabbling in other games does that for me.  What's good is that in the case of 6max for example, I've always shown a profit.  The "problem" is that the profit win-rate isn't as much as it is for full ring, so naturally I gravitate towards what makes me the most money per my time.

I did play a quick session of 6max earlier in the day and won some decent pots that really helped rebound from the last few days.  I saw what happened to Vizer02 today and just shutter to think that something like that could happen to such a good player.

Anyways, sorry to alarm people and get comments like "you need a break" which is usually reserved for my monkey tilt period.  I'm definitely not there (yet?) people.

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Anatomy of a Tilt

Posted by icemonkey9 on Jan 20, 2009 in fish, tilt | 1 comment

The good thing is that after a year I pretty much know what will put me on tilt. When I'm on tilt I am not playing my best (also know as my "A-Game" for you Angelo fans) and my winrate spirals down, thus it isn't in my best interest to play when on tilt. My remedy is that I take a big step back and breathe deeply, and get other tasks for the day done before returning.

So here's what happens in a session that will get me to tilt:

Step 1: Idiot Enjoys Massive Heater at my Expense

Our villain here is one of the worst players I've seen at 100nl full ring. He just loses and spews and makes terrible calls. In this case he posts out of turn with his 75% buyin stack and we stack off ... his 4bet % is 33% so ... yeah ... I can't imagine a self respecting grinder not to get it in during this scenario.

Step 2: Same Idiot Enjoys Another Massive Heater Against a Big Pocket Pair

I've seen this guy play and I know he'd check with that Ace ... obviously on the flop its a WA/WB scenario but the turn check was more metagame than anything since I've seen him check-call with TPTK type of hands ... on the river my call was probably tilt induced. At the river I knew I had sorely underrepresented my hand so making a call there against him may not have been terrible but it was probably bad. Anyways he flopped quads so lucky me.

Step 3: Get a Walk in the BB with a Big Pocket Pair

At this point obviously my faith in AA and KK isn't high but at least I figure it's an opportunity to win a hand. Oh wait, nope.

Step 4: Massive Cold Cards
Just don't get any more hands the rest of the way and sit, wait, and stew while the blood boils.

Anyways judge all you want, I'm just posting this so people know what makes me tilt during a session and the fact that something on here might tilt you too. The opportunity we have is to step away and regroup and fight another day.

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