[Mercman572]

Today my game slipped without me noticing it. I posted a bunch of hands, and they are all marginal situations that probably all should have been folds. If I was playing yesterday they likely all would have been, and I would have taken closer to optimal lines as well.

My question is, how can I realize alot faster that I'm off my game? I'm not talking about the tilt that is obvious, more when you coax yourself into calling when it's close ("he probably has a strong ace and my Ax 2 pair is good," when you should just accept that he probably has a set and fold for example). It seems like it takes a few big hits for me to realize I'm doing this and today it cost me 4 buyins when it was all said and done. If I had more discipline it should have been maybe 1.5. Advice and suggestions? How do you stay on your A game, or at least how do you know to get away when you're a bit off of it?

My own advice to myself and others that do this from my experience today is to avoid calls against pressure when you've lost a large pot previously. My reasoning is that you're more likely to subconsciously want to make up for it and make a bad decision, or your big pot loss may have been on a marginally bad decision itself and suggest that you aren't paying enough attention to your play.