overconfidence tilt

[Jeebus]

I know I am a victim of this. I sit down at the table ready to play a cautious super agg. style. I read my opponents well and manage to make a few steals and get paid off on a big hand or two. I start to feel like I can outplay everyone at the table (which I probably can but thats not the issue) so I open up my hands even more to where I really am playing any two cards. Then I stop trying to read hands since all I am doing is playing my game and pushing people off hands. Inevitably I do something stupid and pay off a hand that I would have normally gotten away from.
I know I go on tilt like this, I can feel it once it has happened. But it is so much like the confidence required to play ultra agg. that it is hard to prevent the tilt. Anybody got ideas on how to keep yourself grounded while playing?

[vexvelour]

I sometimes find myself in this situation as well...although it usually happens to me when I try to get a particular person.

You need to identify: are you going on this tilt because of a chip lead? Or is it just because you've won a few hands? Neither is a good reason to throw chips out on losing hands. Don't get bored. Look at your mediocre hand twice before you go crazy. If you're feeling loose and like your hand a bit, sometimes you can see the flop for fairly cheap, and *then* reel 'em in. As an impulsive person in such a situation I make myself look at the flop good and hard and get real with myself: I'm not gonna catch runner-runner and I know I'm beat. Fold. Don't let your concentration wander.

Just some thoughts.

[Cerril]

I sometimes do something similar. I get away with some steals or just notice the two to my left don't defend their blinds and I start open raising with hands I really can't play well enough postflop to justify. Or I'll see an opponent is far too aggressive preflop, so I'll open up my three betting hands to the point where I start getting confused about where I'm likely to be when they keep up their aggression on later streets.

As for advice, get yourself a chart or something, maybe two or three for different conditions, but never let yourself play looser than your loosest standards, and if you find yourself playing too many hands jump to a tighter table. Of course in the long run you'll be able to discard the tables, but you'll still be able to look at cards and go 'wait, I shouldn't be playing these'.

And there's always the mantras you need to keep running through your head, about 'stealing is only part of the value of the raise,' to keep yourself from putting 1BB into a .75BB pot with junk. Same thing on later streets, just remember that bad players get the same cards as good players.