Tilt control

Tilt is something that has never really impacted me too badly, although I currently have a bad habit of firing off a few words in the text box if I have suffered a few nasty beats. Problem is, by doing that I am either teaching a fish to play slightly better, or even worse, encouraging them to quit the table.

I really need to stop doing it. But I guess it could be worse – my actual play is not hampered too much if I do get annoyed. I have on occasion however sat out for a round to ensure my head is still in the game. Nevertheless tilt has probably cost me quite a few bets in total, so it is something I need to be vigilant on.

I basically broke even in my last session, which was quite annoying given that the table was very fishy. Unfortunately I was sitting to the right of the main fish, which just wasn’t working for me, and if there wasn’t a wait list and the table wasn’t’ so fishy I would have gotten up to shift around. I found that every steal got called, which I guess is expected. Although since I was playing a loose player I had tightened up my stealing requirements slightly, however, still didn’t mange to hit anything. All continuation bets got called, and I seemed to miss every single flop.

My saving grace at the table however, were a couple guys who were big-noting themselves, talking about how they usually played higher and were winners. I even got abused by one of them when I raised 33 on the button, fired a flop and turn bet (very dry board), and checked the river to beat A high. Next time I got abused was when I had 72o on the big blind and hit two pairs when nobody raised preflop. They were sure I was a fish, so I was quite happy for them to have that perception.

Funny thing was these ‘winners’ were pretty consistently just limping into pots, which I thought was the opposite of how higher stakes tables would work. Maybe they thought they could outplay everyone post flop? One of them however, was very aggressive post flop, which allowed me to successfully pull off a number of check raises, as well as some passive play picking off bluffs on the river.

So whilst the ‘fish’ destroyed me, I managed to make it all back from the ‘sharks’.

Unfortunately after a beat where one of the fish called a four bet in the BB with 44 (to my AK and UTG with AQ) and win the hand, I did put a few words into the text box, and she left. Pity really, although I would have been more disappointed if I was the one who had position on her.

However, it really is a wake up call – you’re way better off keeping the mood happy on the table, particularly when there are plenty of fish swimming around – after all – they are the one’s who you make money off when they keep on calling you down without the correct odds, or a relatively weak hand. So what if they suck out a hand or five – in the long run, they are my source of poker winnings!

Only played one SNG, and actually forgot that I was in it. Stupid Cake software brings not only the table to the front of your screen, but also the lobby and hand history whenever action is on a table to you. I had missed 5 hands, and I was very disappointed to see KK in one of my hands, and it would have been up against QQ and possibly one other with AJ. The QQ guy went all in and his hand held up against the AJ. Fortunately I actually played reasonably well, and doubled up anyways, but another lesson learned for the night!

Current bankroll: $4,800