Long Post: Analyzing Tilt

[Harv72b]

I (obviously) didn't know your hole cards when you were playing last night, but it did seem like you were raising from LP to isolate on the loose guy quite a bit at the one table we were on (Table 67042). Obviously if you've got the cards you have to raise, but especially when you're running cold and having to fold a lot postflop, you want to narrow your raising range a bit vs. what you'd normally use to isolate with. Your continuation bets just aren't going to work when you've folded to a ton of a turn check/raises, and especially not when the player in question is loose to begin with. I could definitely feel your frustration in the chat, and of course I've been there, too (as have we all). What I'll often do when I hit that stage is either quit playing for a while (maybe for the night, maybe for 30 mins, whatever), or at least find a new table. Even if the table you're currently on seems highly profitable, if nobody respects your PFRs or postflop bets, that takes away a pretty big part of our game (and invariably leads to even more suckouts which trash your table image more so).

As for your hands, I remember seeing Hand 1 and trying to will you to fold to the turn c/r. I have that opponent as being pretty straightforward in his/her postflop play over a significant sample; while he didn't necessarily have a 6 when he check/raised the turn, he almost certainly did have a pair of some sort, and the pot isn't big enough to draw to an iffy 6-outer.

I remember Hand 2 as well; I don't know who, but villain's screenname sure as hell looks like a 2+2'er. The turn raise would be sweet if you really did get him to fold an underpair (and I can see why you'd think he had that based on the preflop action), but I'm not a big fan of the move when you really don't have much hope when he calls the turn raise. I actually think this puts you into one of those river scenarios where you pretty much have to bet, because you're never going to win the hand without making him fold (and a river continuation could get a hand like 66 to finally give it up).

Villain in hand 3 is mad passive; I actually would have folded to his flop bet. The way the hand turned out really sucked, but I don't blame you at all for checking through the turn here.

I play Hand 4 the same given the opponent.

Tough to lead the flop in Hand 5 given that he acts first, but yes...3-bet preflop, and raise the flop. The turn friggin' blows, so not much more you can do there but fold when he leads into you given the small pot.

If you check through the turn, you have to call the river bet in Hand 6. Otherwise you might as well have folded the flop, because there's no way in hell you have enough equity to continue if you're putting him squarely on a K/flopped set.

No other way to play Hand 7. I don't normally cap with AKo OOP, especially if the pot is going to be heads up.

Hand 8 is tough, as you can't be sure that he doesn't have something like A[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] Kx, even after the turn 3-bet (he has to figure that you wouldn't 3-bet with something like Q[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] J[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] preflop, right?). So you still sort of have to call down...which of course means that you shouldn't be raising the turn. Easier said than done when you're running cold & finally catch AA, though. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

I dunno....like I said, I didn't see anything from when I was at the table last night that looked terrible or anything (your AJ hand was the closest thing, but god knows we've all tried that a few times). I would highly recommend trying other tables when you're running cold and not tilting badly, though--being able to craft a new table image can work wonders for your short term win rate. And so can just winning your first pot at a new table & suddenly seeing a green figure on your sessions tab. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]