Do you ever make a play against better judgement? Tempted by a big score, or the desire to bluff your way out of a loss, you shove those chips into the middle. A good example is 'semibluffing' with the Ace-high flush draw when your opponent just made a big checkraise screaming 'set'.

But this time he doesn't have the set, he has the open-ended straight flush draw. And he wins by pairing his six on the river. Or...

5-handed 10/20 PL. Folded to Villain (2600) in CO who raises to 60. I (3600) call with AK. I have been playing very aggressively, Villain seems fed up, and I don't want to have to play guessing games. I'll reraise with a connector or nothing and represent a big pair, but not AK. My game plan is to catch and scoop a decent but not huge pot, or miss and bluff Villain out of a somewhat smaller pot.

Flop: AKT r.
Pot ~150

Villain bets 80 I think (PT broken), I raise to 160. He pots it, 470 more to me. I reraise, he thinks for a while and moves in, I feel a little sick as I call the rest of his stack.

He had AT and beat me. I wanted to smash something. Now I've been dealt worse beats, and these things aren't supposed to bother me this much. I quit playing, something I haven't had to do for a few weeks.

Then I realized why I was so mad. I wasn't mad at the cards, I was mad at myself:

Probability that Villain is [censored] arouund is negligible, based on earlier reads. From Pokerstove:

<font class="small">Code:</font><hr /><pre>
Board: As Kh Td
Dead:

equity (%) win (%) tie (%)
Hand 1: 55.8832 % 49.90% 05.99% { KK+, TT, AKs, ATs, KTs, QJs, AKo, ATo, KTo, QJo }
Hand 2: 44.1168 % 38.13% 05.99% { AdKc }
</pre><hr />

And that's the optimistic version. He probably wouldn't make the reraise, much less the call, with KT. Without that hand, Villain has about 65%.

Intuitively, I knew I was behind if he played. But I chose to ignore this, and fired away, feeling all smug about showing my tired-of-my-LAG-play opponent a hand.

When he put his chips in I felt a little awkward. When that second ten came on the turn I knew I was done. But seeing his hand made me furious - I could have tricked myself into believing I made the right play, thinking I deserved to win that pot. But the poker gods showed no mercy. I realized this as I counted the combinations a few minutes later. That is what put me on tilt, not doubling up my opponent. I believe that fully understanding these things is a big step towards eliminating, or at least reducing, the adverse effects of tilt on my play.

I feel much better now.