Some questions, just got poker tracker

[fmsr]

[ QUOTE ]
I had a 122 [$] downswing in 1000 hands

[/ QUOTE ]

You should think in terms of big bets instead of dollars. At 1/2 this is a mere 61 BB swing, which I have like every other day (up and down). Make sure you play within bankroll requirements and, given you play well, this is not something to worry about.

[thrasher789]

Yeah I understand that variance at 1/2 shothanded is absolutly sick, I had been having 100bb up and down days but after a continued to downswing that involved incredible runner runner straights, flushes, and obscure overcalls I really feel I need a good break. Do you guys ever get truely frustrated when people call down with complete air over and over and get there everytime? I'm sure you do but I need some time to recollect myself. I still have about 1200 dollars total offline from fulltilt that I can spend, which I feel is a fine roll for 1/2 and getting towards 2/4. But for my own sanity I need a break.

Here is a typical 'tilt' session I played monday...

AK<AQ
AK<AJ
AA<3T
KK<KJ
AA<A5
AA<KJ
QQ<66
-also in this session I flopped a straight twice only for the board to go runner runner for a 4 suit board, both times a villain that had absouly nothing on the flop called down and won with a 10 or lower to the flush
-I made the nut flush, either flopped, or on 4th street, twice and both times the board paired on the river for someone to fill up
-I flopped a set of 5's and capped flop against QT on 35Q flop, turn and river are tens
-I flopped two pair against AK and the turn/river came AA

this was one session, and I just can't get myself to believe that this is normal, I really think that I just need to take a break and also learn to deal with tilt when sessions like this go down.

[mvoss]

First of all, you shouldn't even be close to thinking about 2/4 with your current mindset and LHE skills!

You've played 1000 hands of SHLHE, if you want to kill yourself now please stop playing, because it'll only get worse. You aint seen nothing yet [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

You don't need a 2 month break. Maybe you need a 1 week break. Maybe you just need to play shorter sessions (I think this can reduce tilt).

I'm nowhere tilt free but I'm sure I'm a hell of a lot less emotional at the tables than you are and I have a few tips I think could help you. It's not easy, I may make it sound easy but I know it's not.

My opponents play pretty much never tilts me (bad play on my part will tilt me somewhat - still working on that). When a loose/bad player makes horrible calls and beats me on the river my first thought is often something like "[censored] this goddamn piece of [censored] always hits against me god he's horrible". My second thought is probably "Wait, he's horrible, I've won hundreds of BB's from him and in fact he's the reason I sat here. I played that hand perfectly, keep up the good play". The second thought here is key, if you can say this every time a fish beats you chances are you're playing pretty well, and will get your money back. Don't worry about winning pots, worry about making the correct play every time. If you do this, feel proud you've come a long way and the money will follow.

If you get pissed off every time you take a beat does that mean you feel really happy when you dish out a beat as well? You probably don't because it usually means you played the hand poorly.

And again everything you've described is perfectly normal, every single one of us on this forum has had bad stretches where we can tell the same story you're telling, go post them in the NC thread.

[thrasher789]

Thanks for the tips on tilt, I may have overexagerated how tilted I get but you obviously get the point. I do have those thoughts you talked about, including the second one, but as you know when it happens over and over agian it starts to hurt a little. I have played 10's of thousands of hands of SSLHE, only 1000 were on pokertracker when I made this post. I know everyone claims to be a good player but most arn't but I have read quite a few books and I think my skills really are up to par with at least 2/4, but only time will tell and I compeltly agree that I don't need to be playing there in this mindset. That said I also am having a problem with the fact that I pay about 1000 a month in rake becuase I 3 table 1-2 limit for 3 or 4 hours a day when I play and that is what really makes me feel the need to move up to levels where the rake isn't just destroying me, becuase even with rakeback I find it pretty rediculous that I can pay more in rake than my entire starting BR in a month of play. Thank you so much for the tips and information, what is the NC thread?

[mvoss]

The NC thread is the no content thread. The mods start a new on every month and you'll find it on the front page pretty much always.

The rake at 2/4 won't be lower than at 1/2 (in terms of BB/100) I think. Keep playing and grind away at 1/2 until you feel confident and tilt free, then start taking shots at 2/4.

[thrasher789]

Alright sounds like a sound plan, thanks for all your help mvoss I've found most of what you've said very helpful.