techniques for letting out frustration

[JackedUp]

I've had a string of bad beats lately and it's getting to the point where I'm ready to toss my computer out the window. I recently had my aces cracked by a 56 suited who called my 10BB raise out of position. That's just the beginning of the bad beat stories. Over the past couple days, I've had half a dozen hands where I was at least a 4-1 favorite to win preflop and have lost every single time. Kings getting beat by jacks, AT beat by A7. Getting sucked out on a gut shot draw, etc.

I know my play is correct. I keep getting my chips in with the best of it and yesterday I coached a friend to his first sit and go tournament win. My play is sound and I'm not looking for advice on how to play KK vs. JJ.

What I am looking for is some advice on what people do to let out their aggrevation and frustrations. I know I'm not the first person to run into this, but it is the first time I've hit a string of luck this bad and I'm not used to dealing with it. So please let me know whatever you guys do to let it all out before my tilt factor reaches 100. The more creative the better. I could use a good laugh or two right about now.

[JoshuaD]

Club a baby seal? /images/graemlins/confused.gif

[JackedUp]

Are baby seals better than cats? I thought of getting a cat for the sole purpose of kicking it every time my kings get beat by a JT off suit.

[Frank Zappy]

Glib Answer #1: Read Marcus Aurelius. 2:1 “Being each day by telling yourself: Today I shall be meeting with interference, ingratitude, insolence, disloyalty, ill will, and selfishness (and bad beats at poker) – all of them due to the offenders ignorance of what is good or evil…”

The problem is that you’re thinking like an accountant; that things should always add up and better hands should stand up more often than not, when in reality there’s no such thing as a bad beat.

I view the cards I’m dealt as my life; you’ve heard the phrase "play the hand you're dealt" before, right? The Community Cards are the World, or if you’re expansive, the Universe. Sometimes, they coincide perfectly, most times they simply don’t.

A friend of mine once told me, “On paper my life is perfect, until I walk out my front door.”

The key is don’t take “Bad Beats” so personally; luck is perfectly impersonal.

Never forget: Life deals us all the ultimate "Bad Beat" at the end of it all, so compared to that losing a few poker chips is laughable.

[lil_o]

few ideas and/or methods tried by myself:

1) punch a wall hard, when your knuckles swells up and hurts for a week you realize how dumb it is to get crazy

2) goto the gym and run or lift weights; use all negative energy to have a kick-a$$ workout

3) stop playing poker for a long time and treat yourself to a beer; remember you aren't playing poker to go insane you are playing it for love of the game. if you can't have fun or control yourself when playing then poker isn't for you.

[TStoneMBD]

meditate. you wont build up frustration, and therefore wont need to let it out through violence.

[JackedUp]

I've got scars from going a few rounds toe to toe with my wall. Lately I've tried keeping a pillow next to my seat and I just beat that down. It seems to have a lot more forgiveness than the wall but there's really not a lot of satisfaction in it. I'm still leaning towards getting the baby seal.

All kidding aside, I tried moving down to the microlimits and will played there for about 30 minutes just playing wacky hands very loose aggressively. Nothing like all in for 96 cents with 36 off suit to a board of JKA for a whopping 34 cent pot. Of course I got called, but it was worth a good laugh on the chat.

[JihadOnTheRiver]

Declare, and fight, a Jihad.

-Durka

[htc1278]

Clubbing baby seals=+EV. Hurting cats=-EV (the cats will get you back when your back is turned)...

[willie]

i play sitting in bed, so i hit the back of my head against my wall

the wall has some definite cracking and divits goin on... oh f'n well

[chalimac]

[ QUOTE ]
I view the cards I’m dealt as my life; you’ve heard the phrase "play the hand you're dealt" before, right? The Community Cards are the World, or if you’re expansive, the Universe. Sometimes, they coincide perfectly, most times they simply don’t.

[/ QUOTE ]

Great 1st post, man, you are a poet of the game. /images/graemlins/ooo.gif

[Reef]

look at porn. seriously.

[bilyin]

"The problem is that you’re thinking like an accountant"

That is very ignorant of you.

Bill Ying, C.P.A.

[Pokrok]

Start hitting the gym at least three times a week and your bad beats will no longer hurt as much as they used to.

[brendons31]

I have found that the best way of getting out of a poker slump is to do a "quattro". A quattro basicly is 4 nights in a row out drinking. You must get very pissed (drunk) every night in the quattro and stay out in the clubs till at least 3 am. After the 4 nights you will feel like a new person and have a good clear head for poker. This is a proven strategy, I have done 2 quattros in the last 4 months after some horror poker beats, after the quattros i came back and had a very big week on the poker.

[olavfo]

One added benefit is that you kill off your weaker neurons and keep your brain in good shape through a natural selection process.

olavfo

[JKDStudent]

Build something out of legos. Nothing specific, just something. Hurl it against a wall. It's satisfying, but you're not breaking anything that you shouldn't break. Of course, walking around barefoot afterwards isn't recommended.

Do NOT throw a bouncy ball against a wall.

[Brain]

You can do this if you're good enough to get out of the way when it comes speeding back at you.

[phoenix6]

Play a Heads Up match at a limit where the money is significantly below what you would normally play for your bankroll. As in, you really don't care if you win or throw away your "small" entry fee.

Run your opponent over, shift gears for a bit to confuse him, run him over again, make it a war, take it personal, hate him, beat him, flog him... put every bit of your emotional energy into kicking his butt.

Then, when you have taken out your frustrations in this meaningless match, go back and play your best game with a cool head.

[johnc]

Excellant words! Although my at the table quote to myself isn't near as profound it works for me especially when I see my stack getting lower & lower to river gutshots with 5-2 to my trips aces (real hand) I always remind myself that playing solid poker "is like novacaine - just give it time - it always works" Densel Washington, "Remember the Titans".

[witeknite]

I've been running bad playing 5-10 6-max. For a change of pace I 8 tabled 2-4 for about 30 minutes. I ran those poor bastards over. I value bet every chance I got and was paid well, and I didn't feel bad about folding in a medium sized pot when a LP c/r me on the turn. It's amazing how easy the game is when you barely care about the results.

WiteKnite

[bunky9590]

[ QUOTE ]
I thought of getting a cat for the sole purpose of kicking it every time my kings get beat by a JT off suit

[/ QUOTE ]

My cat is my bad beat detector, if all of a sudden my cat bolts out of the room, I know its coming. /images/graemlins/smirk.gif

Stress balls are okay, even better is I have a large comfy chair in the room that I can throw the stress ball at. /images/graemlins/wink.gif

I haven't been that way in a while, but after this month I'm starting to get there. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Mez]

[ QUOTE ]

My cat is my bad beat detector, if all of a sudden my cat bolts out of the room, I know its coming. /images/graemlins/smirk.gif


[/ QUOTE ]

And I thought that only my dog has that talent.

I like to find hand histories of the ridiculously bad beats I put on others. Makes me feel like all is right with the world.

[Klak]

nothing works for me like a little chemical happiness. liquer, pot, pain perscriptions. dont play after taking these...

[JKetzer]

If you have a spare nonfunctional CRT monitor sitting around, throw it into the street or at a deck or something. If that doesn't break it in a satisfying manner (it won't), then throw bricks at it until it's completely destroyed.

If your walls are cheap drywall like mine, I must recommend against punching them. I've had to patch the walls two or three times.

When shopping for a cat, ask the people at the pet store which breed is most aerodynamic. I bet they'll help you right out.

[JaysonWeberFCP]

My favorite technique is summed up in Daniel Negreanu's Article named Nutbar.

I just love going to a lower limit and doing this.. it also helped my game a lot, I call is constructive tilt (I think daniel actually said that in his article too lol).

Just read the article you'll understand, heres a link
http://www.fullcontactpoker.com/cparticles_archives.php?id=00022

[Schwartzy61]

[ QUOTE ]
My favorite technique is summed up in Daniel Negreanu's Article named Nutbar.

I just love going to a lower limit and doing this.. it also helped my game a lot, I call is constructive tilt (I think daniel actually said that in his article too lol).

Just read the article you'll understand, heres a link
http://www.fullcontactpoker.com/cparticles_archives.php?id=00022

[/ QUOTE ]

Excellent article, that was going to be my suggestion until I read his post. Give it a shot, you may even come up with some of those miracle bad beats yourself which will make you feel like the world is balanced again.

Just remember that the reason you have bad beats is because your opponents are making mistakes. Which down the line will turn into profits for yourself. Everytime you have a so called bad beat just tell the other guy NH and then think to yourself, yeah NH keep playing that trash and I'll have you broke in a couple of hours.

[rdu $teve]

While Daniel's Nutbar does help with hand reading, I find it useless for releasing my anger of when 39o cracks my set of aces (he hit the back door flush, capping every round)

I have an over-sized dice that I use as my card marker in B&M. I usually throw that at my golf bag; it helps. If I take a run of beats at the same time while multi-tabling, I have to find other stuff to throw.

Aerodynamic cat, lol Im a cat person, but that's still funny.

[rdu $teve]

As a side note of my reply on throwing objects at my golf bag:
Bad beat = Mad $teve
Throwing pens = not good
Thrown pens shattering = bad
Ink, from thrown pen shattering = very bad
Ink, from thrown pen shattering, on wall and carpet = very mad $teve
Cleaning up ink, from thrown pen shattering, on wall and carpet = fooking evil and less playing time

In short, dont throw objects that can break and cause lots of damage to your house. Not only did that loser take the pot, when my flopped boat lost to a back door royal flush, but now I have to paint the wall and probably replace the carpet. Gotta find that over-sized dice......

[TheBusiness]

[ QUOTE ]
I've had a string of bad beats lately and it's getting to the point where I'm ready to toss my computer out the window. I recently had my aces cracked by a 56 suited who called my 10BB raise out of position. That's just the beginning of the bad beat stories. Over the past couple days, I've had half a dozen hands where I was at least a 4-1 favorite to win preflop and have lost every single time. Kings getting beat by jacks, AT beat by A7. Getting sucked out on a gut shot draw, etc.

I know my play is correct. I keep getting my chips in with the best of it and yesterday I coached a friend to his first sit and go tournament win. My play is sound and I'm not looking for advice on how to play KK vs. JJ.

What I am looking for is some advice on what people do to let out their aggrevation and frustrations. I know I'm not the first person to run into this, but it is the first time I've hit a string of luck this bad and I'm not used to dealing with it. So please let me know whatever you guys do to let it all out before my tilt factor reaches 100. The more creative the better. I could use a good laugh or two right about now.

[/ QUOTE ]


If you're playing online in the privacy of your own home, I have actually found that doing pushups is a great way to relieve the anger/stress of horrible beats. They are good for you, they help satisfy the urge to do something physical, they don't break anything, they don't cost any of your chips/money, and as it turns out, you can do a ton of them when you are really pissed about a bad beat. Lots of positives, no negatives. Obviously, the best poker players pull the ultimate jedi mind trick of turning their anger over a bad beat into pure happiness instantaneously by contemplating how much money they are going to take from their opponent who went all in with JJ against KK and just got lucky spiking a jack. But for us lesser players, that will only come with experience, and some pushups will do the trick until then.

[dokomoy]

Buy a punching bag. it's like hitting only it won't cost you a zillion dollars to fix it every week.

It's also good exercise, and good excersize makes you play better(or at least makes me play better).

[ojsdaman]

in live games i always get up and throw cold water on my face and come back a new man...i just keep telling myself that it is good because that moron is going to lose a whole lot more throughout the next 2 hours as I did on that one hand