Pooh Bah Post tl;dr
 

My current downswing is what is inspiring this post from me. This forum talks alot about strategy and when to do this and when to do that. If villain does A then we do B. Of course it also talks about the topic I am going to discuss, but I feel like I should give it a whirl from a personal perspective. Im talking about tilt and what it does to a player.

First lemme give a little background about myself. I have been playing poker for about 5 years or so but never really took it seriously. I thought I did, but I always managed to donk off my money in one way or another. Either it was due to my terrible bankroll management, or it was due to tilt. What is funny is that much more often than not though, the tilt is what lead to the horrible bankroll management.

Fast forward to the last couple of months, I started to really take the game seriously. I put in $300 and started to play NL25. (I could afford more but I wanted to show myself that I could work from the bottom up.) Well obviously I went back to my old ways and I played NL200. Luckily the session went well and I made about 350. This put my roll at 650 and now I forced myself to stick to NL25. No more excuses, just stick to it and work my way up. During NL25, I ran really well but played meh at best. Thankfully to my heater and my willingness to learn, I made about 450 in a few weeks and jumped to NL50.

At NL50, where I currently am, both good and bad things happened. I started out winning over 1k in about 15k hands, not too bad. Then the downswing came and now it feels like I cant win a hand to save my life. Of course came the tilt again, and while I feel like it forces me to make some pretty bad decisions sometimes while playing, I refuse to let it make me put my whole roll at risk. Instead, I do my best to just stop playing if I feel like I am losing control. Then I go over my hands and post some of them here. After that I try to take an hour or so break and then come back here. I look at my own hands and realize that I know what the right moves are about 90% of the time, I just dont think when I get so frustrated. When its all said and done though, I have almost 50 buy ins right now for NL50 and thats with the poor decisions I have made as a result of running bad. This is something I never would have been able to accomplish if I didnt learn to at least control my bankroll.

What Im getting at is that we must learn to have self control. We can read a million posts about strategy and we can learn that we must do this one in spot and that in another. It is all useless if we cant have the control to utilize the information and the control to keep the bankroll sufficient to tough it out. Im not saying by any means that my problem with tilt is over or that it will be over anytime soon. But with enough play time and everyday that passes that I dont take a shot at 5/10 again, I feel like a few more beats roll of my back. If you tilt easily it will kill your roll and your confidence if you let it. Just turn off the game, punch the floor, yell at the screen, who cares, just dont give away all that hard earned cash to the donks because they got lucky. They have to get lucky sometimes or there wouldnt be a game, we all know this. I wish I could contribute more but I feel like I have alot to learn at this point and hope this will suffice for now.

Thanks to everyone at the forum. You guys have definitely increased my poker knowledge a ton so far and I can only imagine how much more I will have. Just gotta learn to utilize it in the right spots.

Re: Pooh Bah Post tl;dr
 

Yeah, I sometimes get life tilted and just want to donk in some HU matches.

Keep it under control and you'll be heading places.

--and try to find the enter key next time.

Thanks and gl

Re: Pooh Bah Post tl;dr
 

Changed it to make it easier to read.

Re: Pooh Bah Post tl;dr
 

I am curious how others handle these problems, or if they have them at all.

Re: Pooh Bah Post tl;dr
 

I play on pokerstars and play with a pretty big bankroll in comparison to my limits. When I run bad or tilt, I withdraw a little bit of money like $100 or $200 on my little paytrucard and donk it off on drinks and a good time. It allows me to gain a little perspective on life and how it's not all about "I'm good at poker and should never lose" and more on "we're all human and we get lucky/unlucky and make mistakes in life just like poker" and I think that spending money on things other than poker is what works best for me.

Re: Pooh Bah Post tl;dr
 

[ QUOTE ]
punch the floor

[/ QUOTE ]

this is very bad advice...I did this once and broke my hand (not from poker tho).

Re: Pooh Bah Post tl;dr
 

The best way too avoid tilt for me is too play with a huge BR and focus on getting as many hands in as possible... After like 50k hands I review my results and then you truely understand that loosing 3-6 BI on bad beats means nothing in the end.

Re: Pooh Bah Post tl;dr
 

Yea my knuckles still hurt lol

Re: Pooh Bah Post tl;dr
 

I never tilt because of variance it is always because I played a hand bad

Re: Pooh Bah Post tl;dr
 

I just tilted so hard.

ack

Re: Pooh Bah Post tl;dr
 

[ QUOTE ]
I never tilt because of variance it is always because I played a hand bad

[/ QUOTE ]

QFT

I can get sucked out on and/or coolered all day and I'm like w/e, but if I call down when I know I'm beat it's like I go on instatilt. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

Re: Pooh Bah Post tl;dr
 

Thats a good point, I definitely go on some pretty big tilt when I make a bad call or whatever also.

Re: Pooh Bah Post tl;dr
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
punch the floor

[/ QUOTE ]

this is very bad advice...I did this once and broke my hand (not from poker tho).

[/ QUOTE ]man ur about an donk as garret

Re: Pooh Bah Post tl;dr
 

I cant freaking believe you are a poohbah

Re: Pooh Bah Post tl;dr
 

I still haven't come to grips with tilt. Poker can be frustrating at times. Those are when I just quit playing for a while. Usually after 30 mins or so I am fine and can play again. I just try to stop myself once start feeling tilted and do something else.

About a week ago was the worst of all. After losing seemingly every hand for two weeks and getting owned every time I sat down it started to affect me outside of poker. I was pissed off at people for no reason, etc. Took a few days off for the holiday and I never want to get like that again.

My best advice is to stop playing. It's the only thing that works for me.

Re: Pooh Bah Post tl;dr
 

I think I play a lot worse if I am playing like I am hanging in front of a tv. For me that's not the best way to approach it. A better way to view poker, at least for me, is seeing it as sport. When you play a match, you need a good warming-up. The same holds true for poker. So I drink a cup of coffee, make sure I am not tired (don't play after having worked for 6 hours behind a computer screen), take a shower, make sure I work out enough (not really a problem for me), don't set goals in terms of money, set a stopping time (my play deteriorates a lot after something like 2 hours) and leave my computer for a while. If I follow this routine I have the feeling I can think about the big picture and accept the loss of a pot better.

Finally, I think it's really important to note that most of the time villains aren't playing back at us, but just have a good run of cards. Don't start a dick measuring contest to find this out at showdown. And if you do feel you are getting outplayed, find a better table. Don't forget we are at microstakes.

Re: Pooh Bah Post tl;dr
 

100% Agreed OP.

Variance/Coolers dont tilt me too much if my money goes to a decent reg, but I just go [censored] nuts when theres some [censored] up 70/10 monkey that sits there 400BB deep who took 3buy ins from me because he hits [censored] cards all day long and outdraws me every single time.

It just doesnt feel fair that the fish is getting the money when he cant play for [censored] [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img].

Re: Pooh Bah Post tl;dr
 

things that cure my tilt:

-running hot

-taking a break

only one of these options is under your control

Re: Pooh Bah Post tl;dr
 

Nice post - I am very prone to tilt and it took me ages to realise it. It's very difficult for some people because of temperament and easy for others because of same. I found the biggest help was making sure you're over-rolled for the level you're playing. I'm a good winner over a large sample at NL100 but I found I was playing very badly for a while - just going into autopilot and not improving anything at all. Meanwhile I was withdrawing and playing on a short bankroll which increased tilt. Enjoying the game and improving so I can appreciate better play is my main goal since poker is just a hobby for me. But I was starting not to enjoy it. I take a break now and then and don't play for a few weeks.

Re: Pooh Bah Post tl;dr
 

In my experience you have to get used to variance at each level individually. (It's not that different but the absolute value is...which can affect your emotions and therefore affect your playing.....disagreements?) I maybe be wrong.


However, let's say 50NL.... I was not good and then I started gettting good and I was beating it...then I was playing 100NL and I was doing dumb [censored] and I was being overagggro and throing away money.

Then I got used to 100NL and got used to having variance at that level which meant bigger swings.


Looking back I find it funny that the swings at 50NL at the imte meant nothing to me and the ones at 100NL were like god hitting me in the face.



In my opinion everything else being equal it is a comfort level thing....and when you immediately move up you will not be comfortable with the the monetary amounts....you should an hopefully will become comfortable with htis very quickly especially if you turn out to be a winner up there.

This is related to your bankroll which needs to be big enough to accomodate you.


Also taking a shot of a set # of BI'S's may help with this....I have never tried this though so I have no personal opinions to offer.

Re: Pooh Bah Post tl;dr
 

My problem with managing my BR as of late has been coming home from the bar and wanting to play. a few weeks ago i came home and decided that it would be ok to move up a level and loose 2 buyins (5 of my normal level). After that i felt dumb and wanted to make some of it back so i droped back down and lost 2 more at my normal level.

The next day i swore never to put my role at risk like that again. Now if i come home UTI and really feel the need to play poker ill play like a $1-$2 SNG or MTT. that way im not risking much and still get to play.

Re: Pooh Bah Post tl;dr
 

[ QUOTE ]
I still haven't come to grips with tilt. Poker can be frustrating at times. Those are when I just quit playing for a while. Usually after 30 mins or so I am fine and can play again. I just try to stop myself once start feeling tilted and do something else.

About a week ago was the worst of all. After losing seemingly every hand for two weeks and getting owned every time I sat down it started to affect me outside of poker. I was pissed off at people for no reason, etc. Took a few days off for the holiday and I never want to get like that again.

My best advice is to stop playing. It's the only thing that works for me.

[/ QUOTE ]


i never used to be able to just quit...
now i´m actually able to play kind of ok poker through those rough spots, im just hopng that this dowsn´t built up to end in one major tilt session

Re: Pooh Bah Post tl;dr
 

Good post OP.

Re: Pooh Bah Post tl;dr
 

very nice post + comments. I find myself shrugging of big losses. It somehow keeps me away from tilting.

Re: Pooh Bah Post tl;dr
 

Profish you are a very solid player (from the posts) and you have a pretty good future in poker.

Whenever I'm about to tilt or play some other games besides 6max, I just tell myself you are taking the long route to HSNL.

Re: Pooh Bah Post tl;dr
 

Yea I became a pooh bah pretty quick. You guys made a good point also about how tilt affects your life outside of poker. When I go on a losing session I feel like Im just pissed off for the whole day and snap at people for no reason sometimes. I dont do that too often the whole snapping at people, but it does happen here and there.

Re: Pooh Bah Post tl;dr
 

[ QUOTE ]
The next day i swore never to put my role at risk like that again. Now if i come home UTI and really feel the need to play poker ill play like a $1-$2 SNG or MTT. that way im not risking much and still get to play.

[/ QUOTE ]


you are a degenrate gambler! [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]


Edit: for certification!

Re: Pooh Bah Post tl;dr
 

I still haven't made a pooh-bah post haha.

As far as not playing hands stupid or whatever, once I started 8+ tabling I began to find very very standard lines for everything. Its weird how playing poker changes if you only have 2-3 seconds max to make a decision (otherwise you'll time out on like 5 tables).

Also tilting while 10 tabling is [censored] nasty. Gotta quit really really fast or bye bye like 2-3 buyins easy.

Re: Pooh Bah Post tl;dr
 

I like the idea about joining a $2 MTT or similar game if you still feel like playing but are tilting. I actually did this last night (played a $2 HU HORSE SNG) and lost but hey, it was only $2 and I had fun and learned about a game I've never played before.

Also, I find that I get lazy when I'm playing well and become more critical of my play when I'm playing bad, so I'll tend to post more hands, read the forums more, think about my game, etc. Basically I think these swings can be +EV in the long run since they make me really take a close look at what I'm doing and why I'm doing it, instead of just playing mindless poker.