Pretty bad month obviously. Been tilting way too much this month, especially in the 200 and some in the 330s as well. Moreover I only cashed in two FPP sats this month, which is about 1K less than excpectation. I will try to take the FPP tourneys more seriously now.
As always I'm optimistic about getting better with my tilt-problems. I believe self discipline is the only thing that seperates me from becoming a big winner now.
To be able to deal with it I gotta accept that i can't toally controll my feelings, I can only controll my behavior. When I'm losing multiple games vs. the same opponent I want to crush his brain with a baseball bat, and when I downswing more than 500 dollars I tend to get quite frustrated and my stomach get's harder and harder. Thats my feeling, and its hard to change that. I also need to accept that I can't play my A-game when I'm feeling that way. Forcing an A-game when running terrible is just as difficult as playing your "social A-game" in a social setting at school if you have not been sleeping the last 30 hours. It's simply not possible because our brain is working suboptimaly.
So the only way I can become a big winner is to be able to aviod re-matching players when losing and quit the day when I downswing more than 500 dollars. Sounds easy, but its obviously very difficult. Especially quitting the day when down. The anger will stell be there when i go to bed, and probably a bit of it will stell be there the morning after as well. But a night sleep helps alot. The pain by accepting an idividual loss vs an opponent and accepting losing days can't be avoided. A professional player prefer to go to bed in pain and frustration, instead of playing with pain and frustration.
Somtimes quitting is the most profitable move you've made the whole month.
May goal: +6K.
Best, Thomas.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
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8 comments:
This game has always been and will always be so much a mental battle. I think every player deals with tilt issues at some point. The game can just be so frustrating. I know that I have thrown thousands of $$ in profits away due to tilt over the years. In a $115 every time you lose a game because if tilt that you otherwise would have won it costs you $220 in profit. Do that 10 times a month, that's $2200. In a yr that would be over $26,000 in lost profits. It always helps me to think of it in those kind of terms, just so I know just how much a tilt problem potentially costs me. GL in May
Read Tommy Angelo´s Elements of Poker.
You have it all wrong. You are extremely results oriented as much as you would hate to admit it. That is the problem, and it is costing you money.
When you take a +$500 loss, the reason it hurts is because you feel threatened. If you weren't being results oriented, when you are running bad, you would feel fine because you got the money in good. If you were simply playing bad, you would feel fine because it lets you find stuff that you need to work on.
Tilt can be a good thing, as long as you use it to work on your game in some way.
huh?
Being result orientated, fustration, etc..all leads to tilt. Tilt is never a good thing.
There is nothing wrong with being too/extremely result orientated as long as you know you will win in the long run with solid play..Thomas is very focused on reaching his goals.
Gamblin Jo...I think you have it all wrong. I think where Thomas has issues is boredom/burn out times/short term thinking/fustration like the best and worst players online/live play.
Even than, he is still a winning player.
So I might agree with the short-term view problem that Thomas may have, but I don't get where "tilt" is ever good for anyone.
Hi, sorry for not replying much lately. I've been a bit blog-unmotivated after a weak april.
Some very interesting oponions here.
Agree with bartchalker that tilt can have an major negative impact every month. Tilting in some few individual games is OK, it wont matter that much. But the problem is when the tilt leads to 24 hours non-stop sessions 3-4 tabling, playing vs other good players, dont care about sharkscoping, playing way too loose, moving up in stakes to win money back, etc etc. PrimordialAA know all about this. That was his problem before he became a big player.
Onno. Im sure its a good book. but i hate books. (So its Strange I got an high verbal IQ, at least in norwegian language).
Gamblin Jo. youre pretty much on the dot. I am extremly result oriented indeed. And when i lose a lot its always a bit threatening. However I gotta agree with seachign that tilting is always bad. It hurts you profit, confidence and self-respect.
It feels better to lose a lot of money if you know you have played good and not tilted. When you tilt off money you feel unlucky, robbed, and stupid. When you lose a lot of money without tilting you only feel unlucky and robbed (not stupid).
I should have expanded on my last comment. Tilt can be a good thing because you are emotional. When you are emotional, the skills that are unconcious will remain.
For example, if you are a basketball player, you might be able to shoot freethrows with an 80%+ accuracy in practice, but when the pressure is on, you might not be keeping your elbow in enough, or your follow through is bad, ect.
What that means is that those skills haven't reached the unconcious competance level. And that means that while you are conciously competant, when the pressure is on, those skills disapear when you get emotional.
My last statement in my last comment is that you can use the tilt state to help find your leaks.
For example,if you find you are calling 3 bets too light when you are tilting, your pf play in 3 bet pots are not unconciously competent. I.E. it is taking you mental energy whenever these pots come up.
So when I say tilt can be a good thing, you can use it to find areas that you need to improve. Continuing with my example, if have identified the leak, then you make an effort to play 3 bet pots well even when tilting, the skill will enter the unconcious competance stage.
The benefit of this is that once the skill is there, nothing can touch it. What's more, is that you won't need to use mental energy on these decisions, and you can use that energy elsewhere.
I also wanted to add that if you find you are doing numerous things when tilting (not scoping, playing too many tables, thinkging too quickly, ect) just pick one or two of these things to work on for the next time you tilt and forget the rest.
You won't be able to eliminate all the bad tilt habits in your next tilting session, but you can eliminate one or two in a very short period of time.
For example, next time the tilt shows up, have a plan to sharkscope every game. Keep that as your ONLY goal when tilting. Then congratulate yourself when you pull it off.
Tilt doesn't go away easily, so just break it down and work on it one part at a time.
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