Psychotherapy to increase winrate?

[Slimmah]

Although I'm always interested in general life advice, I asked this in a poker forum to get poker-related insight into my issue.

I have never hurt anyone due to rage. In fact, 95% of my friends/acquaintences think I'm happy-go-lucky all the time.
However, it does seriously affect my own health.

To describe the problem, I simply shut-down - my mind freezes up, trapped in the cyclone of mindless fury. hehe. Sounds funny to hear, but best analogy I could muster.

I experience rage with games or activities I feel I am (or should be) good at: golf, chess, poker, etc. The part I can't understand is the poker aspect. If I shank my drive or hang a piece, I have only myself to blame, and I usually react extremely poorly. 2 of those and I'm tilting.

In poker, I get tilted a bit when I make a mistake, but that's quickly recovered. Bad beats are what send me over the edge, which doesn't make any sense to my rational mind. I really can't fathom how someone who makes their living through math can't accept the losing side of probabilities.

Poker comprises approximately 50% of my income right now, so this has career implications as well.

Just wondering if someone else has similar issues. Yes, I will be consulting a therapist, we'll see how it works out.

[Al Schoonmaker]

I'm very glad to hear that you're consulting a therapist about your rage. I must also say that you are WAY ahead of many people with your problem.

Most of them don't ask, as you have done, what is wrong with me? They insist that the reason they are so angry is that the world is such a rotten place.

Because you are looking at yourself, you have a much better chance to solve your problem.

Regards,

Al