How do you control swings/tilt/FEELINGS

[insyder19]

Okay guys, we all know that.

Some days or even weeks are running terrible, your AA/KK/etc don't win, your sets get outdrawn although you made the right play.

But we all know as well that if we make the right decision, it doesn't even matter if we lose once or even ten times in a row, because in the LONG run we make money.

But if you get bad beated like 10 times in a row don't you want to freaking kick the [censored] out of these guys who play like complete donks?

But how do you control your feelings..

The correct question would be, HOW DO YOU SEPERATE YOUR FEELINGS FROM POKER?

Let me know your thoughts.

[Hoi Polloi]

You have to make your peace with variance. It's not easy when you're on a big downswing, but it's the only way you can keep playing. Poker is only beatable because of donkeys, so it's not their fault you losing; it's their fault you're winning most of the time.

Find a way to deal with the gap between the quality of your play and the quality of your results or you will not last. Period.

A downswing is a great time to challenge yourself to improve your game and tighten up any leaks you have.

Good luck.

[BigPhish]

If you get bad beat 10x in a row you're either the unluckiest player on the planet or you're not nearly as good as you think you are.

It's taken a while but I'm at the point where I laugh off the odd bad beat or two. If I get to a point where I'm down more than 2 buy-ins for a session, I quit for the day.

[dwf76]

Not sure if it helps but I read a book called The Poker Mindset that really helped my emotional control when I play, i'm sure you can find something about it in the book/publication forum.

[sdfsdf]

first, recognize when you are tilting. if you want to get revenge on another player, you're tilting. if you are anxious to get a good hand, you're tilting. if you're constantly dwelling about how bad you're running, you're tilting. once you recognize that you're tilting, then you basically have to concentrate on calming down. breathe deeply. dont make angry faces, dont hit things, that will just make you angrier. if you concentrate for like a minute straight on calming down then that will make it go away.

[Bats]

[ QUOTE ]
first, recognize when you are tilting. if you want to get revenge on another player, you're tilting. if you are anxious to get a good hand, you're tilting. if you're constantly dwelling about how bad you're running, you're tilting.

[/ QUOTE ]

Man did this hit home for me because I was doing all these things. Last couple of days I was running cold and just grumbling about it when I took some really bad suck-out beats from one particular player who was playing the crappiest hands and hitting one after the other. I wanted to "get him", was getting angry at my lousy hole cards, and worrying about how much I was losing. So I started chasing 2-outers and losing more. It hit me that I was on my worst tilt ever. I'm taking a week off and even uninstalled my site software to make it harder to "cheat" on my layoff week. I'm going to spend the week re-reading some poker books and I hope I'll get my head back on straight.

[tvta]

i start tilting, or rather get a case of the boredom tilts when im playing the same type of cash game(online that is) for weeks on end. i normally play plo8, but i realized that after a few weeks of dead even play, i just dont want to play anymore - and if i do, i will get bored and play badly. but mixing it up and playing a tourney or another type of cash game helps me out alot.

now speaking of straight getting suckedout on when you had the nuts??? i just take a break and play counterstrike. shooting ppl in the face makes me feel alot better.

[insyder19]

There is nothing you can do if you have AA, raise, one guy calls another reraises BIG i flat call, flop comes kqj, you cant do much if he has KK. You could have went all in he would have won it either way.

Or you have AK, reraise preflop flop comes ak4 and he has KK, nothing you can do.

OR; i reraise with KK pre, he calls, flop is q98 he has QQ, how can I play wrong?

OKAY; just now:

I got AQ clubs

flop: q44, ONE CLUB

i raise he reraises i reraise he calls.

TURN: 7 of clubs, he goes all in I call.

HE shows JQ, i have AQ of clubs, he has 2 outs.

river: j not clubs, BANG.

THIS IS A [censored] JOKE, seriuosly.

It's not that I am tilting but HOW CAN THIS [censored] HAPPEN FOR 3 days?

[the_rookie]

Just think in terms of probability. Browse that forum when you get the chance. Don't think of winning a hand as acutally winning the total amount of money in the pot. So in a 100 dollar pot, if you are 60% to win and put in half the amount in the pot, then regardless of the result you win 60 dollars - the 50 dollars you put in which is a net of 10.

That's what I've been doing and it helps with the downswings.

[ImsaKidd]

[ QUOTE ]
There is nothing you can do if you have AA, raise, one guy calls another reraises BIG i flat call, flop comes kqj, you cant do much if he has KK. You could have went all in he would have won it either way.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is a fold on the flop under most circumstances fwiw.