I lost, and it felt...good???

[DrewOnTilt]

A few months ago, as I was working to conquer Tilt, Al Schoonmaker pointed me to his series of articles on Tilt in Cardplayer. I strongly suggest that everyone read these articles:

http://cardplayer.com/poker_magazine...an_Schoonmaker

In the article Tilt, Part I: Avoiding It, our esteemed Al suggests that one identify the "Triggers" of tilt (i.e. what is it that puts me personally on tilt). After some trial and error, I determined that I tend to tilt when I wait for long periods of time for a hand, finally catch a decent hand, but have to lay it down.

Tonight I played in a very loose and potentially profitable $4-$8 game. 7 to 10 players saw the flop on a regular basis, and 2 to 5 would show down. Only one other player besides me was a decent player.

For 3 hours, I went through a run of complete garbage. Then, in my final hour at the table:

-JJ three times, lost to a flopped King once and checked/folded on the flop twice to multiple overcards
-Red AA once, folded on the river to a board 4-straight club flush
-AK three times, top pair or better on the flop all three times, folded on the river twice to a 4-straight and once to a 4-flush
-Flopped broadway straight, folded on the river to a board 4-flush

In all cases, my folds were correct. Nonetheless, the situation irritated me to no end. My last two hands of the night were one of the AK folds and the JJ loss to the pair of kings / no kicker [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

TILT! I felt it coming and immediately left the casino. After grumbling to myself and pounding on my steering wheel for about 15 mintues, I started to feel - good? It was a very weird feeling. I lost 30 BB and felt GOOD about it? I am a very competitive person, and I hate to lose. And yet, I somehow feel like I actually won tonight.

Has anyone else ever experienced this? It almost feels like a more intense version of the relief that I feel when I correctly read an opponent for a stronger hand and make a tough fold. It feels good, but at the same time - very strange.

[Jman28]

I can't say I'm there yet. I can feel apathetic about a loss at best.

Congrats! That's gonna help your game.

[Benman]

That feeling is a good sign. You should get to the point where you judge your sessions by how focused you were and how well you play. My trick is this: every time I'm faced with a decision at the table, I think to myself what's the highest EV choice at this point, despite how I'm running, etc. Then I make that decision. As the session goes on, I pat myself on the back for having made all correct decision so far. I know this sounds simple, but you have to stay focused on it. I'm convinced that if you stay reasonably educated on the game (read books, 2+2, etc.) and always make what you honestly consider the best decision at each juncture, then it isn't very important whether the decisions you make are objectively the best or not. They'll be close enough, and that combined with perfect discipline will be enough to win at almost any game.

[Al Schoonmaker]

Well done.
It is tough to lose, but you handled it very well.
Al

[nolanfan34]

[ QUOTE ]
Has anyone else ever experienced this? It almost feels like a more intense version of the relief that I feel when I correctly read an opponent for a stronger hand and make a tough fold. It feels good, but at the same time - very strange.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, I've been there. The second time around, when you hit a bigger downswing, is the real challenge. I'm there right now, and it ain't fun.

In the past I always read about those 100-200 BB downswings that people talk about, and I thought "nah, not me". Dropped 60 BB in about 90 min tonight 4-tabling, which was the continuation of about a week long stretch of losses. Tough to handle.

So, I'm trying to pound on the steering wheel. Yell and scream. And feel good. But that last part hasn't hit yet. I think it takes a little longer to surface when you're on this merry-go-round for the second time.

Oh, and I just bubbled in a SNG to end the night. Sweet.

[PokerDork]

I can definitely identify, although I tend to feel that way in situations where I did well to cut my losses as much as I did. For example, I've recently been working on my Omaha8 game, and decided to play in a pretty juicy looking 5/10 game tonight. I lost $175 pretty quickly, but was able to keep myself together and finsish down $125. I felt in a way it was a victory, because I just kept folding my bad hands, and I kept my composure. Also I got rivered again and again. Four sets in a row (yeah I know sets are drawing hands in this game- but having the nuts get rivered isnt very fun) and plenty of counterfeited lows. Funny thing is, if on just one of those rivers the straight or flush card missed (like it was supposed to 80%- three of the four occurences were regular open-enders or flush with no straight draw hands) then I would have walked out up on the session. So, I agree, and sometimes I feel "good" when I run bad, don't go on tilt, but lose anyway because the short term random nature of the game got the best of me. Good luck, and try not to feel too "good" about losing in the future, afterall it always feels better to win

[nikeeki]

I have felt like that before. My first month playing seriously, I had a really hard time laying down hands (especially overpairs and sets). I knew it was the biggest problem in my game and I prayed to the poker gods for help.
My next session, I had to muck KK 5 times, AA twice, a set of 9s and a few strong top pair hands. The poker gods even made sure there was a show down each time so I got to know I made the right (non)call (omg he really did have 8 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]5 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] for the straight). For each hand I mucked I put the chips that I saved in a separate pile. I then had to keep track on paper because ALL of my chips were in that pile. I saved 15BB. It almost felt like I was winning.
It was a HORRIBLE session, but I left feeling exhilarated. HA HA!! I'M NOT PAYING YOU PEOPLE OFF ANYMORE!!! It was an expensive lesson but I needed it. I still feel pretty good after losing nights. It kind of feels like when the teacher put a gold star on your homework in grade school.
[img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
Nicole

[Duke]

I'm pretty apathetic one way or the other. I get happy when I'm running good and putting more money into the stash. Beats don't piss me off. Tilt is when I stop actually laughing about the losses, and just shake my head. But I play on.

I'm numb to it. Enough beats and you've seen them all. Really. 6 bets on the turn and you lose to a 2 outer. So? Lose to quads twice in half an hour. So? If anything, I'll internalize the errors that I make and remember why I made said error. Gotta learn, right?

Beats and cold cards/decks are just part of the game, just like running bad is part of the game. Luckily it's not even half of the game.

~D

[nolanfan34]

[ QUOTE ]
Beats and cold cards/decks are just part of the game, just like running bad is part of the game. Luckily it's not even half of the game.

~D

[/ QUOTE ]

I think beats don't upset me that much. But on my run as of late, it hasn't been a cold deck getting to me either. Instead I've been getting a seemingly great run of cards, that either miss the flop or I flop overcards to my QQ-TT pocket pair.

Couple of nights ago I was at a friends house, picked up QQ, raised, etc, and said to him "watch, here comes an AK flop". Flop comes out AK7. He was cracking up.

I'd much rather have a cold deck for a week than be picking up good hands, and watching them miss over and over. It's just leading to poor play on my part right now.