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.