Tilting because of a bad decision

[jason_t]

Tonight at Commerce 6/12 I made a read that one of my villains turned me drawing dead or very slim and I wanted to fold. My mentor and many others have tried to teach me that I might fold too much so because of this and the size of the pot I decided to call his raise and fold the river unimproved. I didn't improve on the river and somehow couldn't bring myself to fold. I called, he showed the turned two-outer and I instantly went on tilt not because of the beat but because I was so mad at myself for at first making the right read, backing out of it and making the decision to call but fold the river and then failing to follow through with that plan. This is frankly the worst decision I've made in a long time and I can't get it out of my head. Have you experienced this? How do you get past your terrible errors?

[SNOWBALL138]

You say you went on tilt after the hand. I think that you may have been on tilt beforehand.

Without knowing anything about the hand besides your description, it seems that you called against your active judgment, viz., you made a move that you KNEW was wrong. This shows a lack of control. Since it wasn't your rational mind telling you to call, it was your emotions.

When you can't control yourself at the poker table, you should feel bad about it. When you fight or ignore the knowledge that you are out of control, you spin farther out of control. Its this phase 2 that most people see as tilt. This is more acute. In this phase you will make silly isolation raise, begin to feel paranoid that you are being bluffed, become angry at opponents for doing stupid things, etc.

I think your reaction to the bad call was probably positive. Its almost like your mind sounding an alert "walk away from the table idiot".

I just want to restate that I don't know whether your call was bad or not. Maybe you were getting the pot odds to call. I'm just going off of what you said in your post.

[sfer]

[censored] a stripper.

[GreywolfNYC]

[ QUOTE ]
[censored] two strippers.

[/ QUOTE ]
FYP

[GreywolfNYC]

Actually, I suspect most of us have made mistakes like this. I know I certainly have. When it happens I will go over and over the play in my head until I'm reasonably sure I won't make the same mistake again.
Don't beat yourself up over things like this and, more importantly, don't let them put you on tilt. It sounds more like an isolated blunder than a serious leak.
Good luck.

[Dan Mezick]

[ QUOTE ]
I instantly went on tilt not because of the beat but because I was so mad at myself for at first making the right read, backing out of it and making the decision to call but fold the river and then failing to follow through with that plan.

[/ QUOTE ]

Now you are in a situation where the required self-trust needed to play well is in doubt. Interally.

Alot of people understand about keeping promises to others; only traders and poker players understand the importance of promises made and kept to yourself.

It is no coincidence that these same people (traders and players) have jobs where they get to go to work and lose their money as an aspect of the business they are in.

Without self-trust you are in no-mans land. Stop playing, restart after a time with renewed promises and keep them. If you "go to work" with this trust issue outstanding you will surely do more damage. And it will be 100% self-inflicted.

Re-establish your trust in yourself to make difficult multi-step decisions based on probabilities. The only way to do this is to make experience-- make promises, and keep them. Which you didn't do here. Which led to 110% tilt both during and after the game.

Mark Douglas calls these experiences "references". They are essential to build, collect and refer to, along the way.

The Disciplined Trader
Learn from a trader that lost all his money, rebuilt all his beliefs, and came all the way back-- permanently.

From a review on Amazon:
"If you are comfortable with your trading psychology and have the discipline to follow your methodology without fail, you probably don't need this book. But if you still struggle with issues of discipline and/or mental blocks, (as a majority of traders do), then the insights in this book may very well be worth the price."


"If you could have, you would have. It's really that simple." - Mark Douglas

[TStoneMBD]

i think you make a good point here that jasont was probably already on tilt before the hand started.

its common for competitive people to get mad at themselves when they make mistakes. there is a fine line that must be drawn however, that distinguishes when your anger leads you play worse because of it.

[creedofhubris]

[ QUOTE ]
This is frankly the worst decision I've made in a long time

[/ QUOTE ]

Calling to the end can never be the worst decision you've made in a long time, because incorrectly folding on a pot that you would've won is far more expensive than calling 2 BBs.

[jason_t]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
This is frankly the worst decision I've made in a long time

[/ QUOTE ]

Calling to the end can never be the worst decision you've made in a long time, because incorrectly folding on a pot that you would've won is far more expensive than calling 2 BBs.

[/ QUOTE ]

This isn't correct. It depends on the likelihood that I am beat in relation to the size of the pot how big the mistake of folding in a large pot is.

[wildwood]

I have a video where Jennifer Harman says she used to be a tilter. You're in good company. None of us are perfect. Experience the anger and then let it go. Don't go to beat up. It doesn't serve you. Don't see it as a "terrible error"; just see it as a momentary lapse in your better judgement. It's all about how you frame the incident.