Other Aspects of My Life Affecting my Play

[mockingbird]

I started playing fairly recently and am able to beat the lower small stakes games at Party at a respectable rate.

The problem is that when something happens in my life that upsets me - particulartly when relationships arent going well - I sort of tilt in a weird way and will lose enough so that I end up just staying even.

My brother has been coming to my area on business or with his family quite a bit recently, every month for the last 3 months. Every time he visits, after he leaves I lose everything or almost everything that I have won in the previsious week or longer. The second time it happened I thought maybe there was a pattern. The next time I definitely thought there was a connection. Then I noticed that I was not really concentrating, that in a weird way I was almost doing it on purpose without realizing it.

Anyone else notice wierd sort of destructive patterns like this or correlations between how life is going and how poker is going?

[Spaded]

In the middle of may my college spring quarter was about to end, and I was all psyched up about getting to play more poker than I normally could. Of course, I lost half of the money that I'd built up over 8 months in a span of 1 month.

Also, I was experimenting with new limits, I jumped into $2/$4 limit and $1/$2 6max limit after not playing $.50/$1 for 4 months! I was in to $25NL 6max, and the transition from NL back to limit plus the psychological hit of being able to play more poker and moving up in limits at the same time hit me hard [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

I just moved back to $.50/$1 limit and have made a cool $80 over 750 hands, gonna play 1,000 more then take a stab at $2/$4 again.

I just had to have the discipline to take a step back!

[bernie]

It's good you can recognize this. Now act on it. Don't play unless you can play well. After a death of someone close to me, I took a couple weeks off until I made sure I would be ok to play w/o thoughts of that person interfering.

Be honest with yourself when you start having that feeling.

b

[SNOWBALL138]

If you're having trouble beating the .50/1 games, then there is something wrong with your play. These games are usually so soft that you should be able to beat them 8
tabling drunk, tired, and talking on the phone.
I recommend that you spend a lot of time on the micro-limits forum, read small stakes hold em a few times, memorize the example hands in the back and regularly go through the questions and answers section also.

I'm not saying that you aren't a winner when you are in a good mood. I'm just saying that tilt can only reduce the quality of your play. If you play very well, then tilting really bad will make you play at like 70 percent capacity, which is enough to beat these games.
If you continue to read books, think about the game, be honest about your abilities, and spend time posting hand histories, responding to posts, and reading posts, and discussing hands then you won't have this problem.
If you gain a thorough understanding of low limit hold em then you will be absolutely incapable of making the kind of extremely bad plays necessary to lose in these games.
You will turbomuck your dominated hands preflop, be unable to continue after the flop with a weak draw, etc. Seriously, study a lot. It will eventually cause you physical and mental pain to pursue a draw with bad odds, or bet AK high on the river, or cap on the turn with middle pair. You simply won't be able to do these things anymore than you would be able to pull money out of your pocket and set it on fire.
The effects of tilt are always worsened when the player doesn't understand what is going on. When I play backgammon, I go on tilt a lot because I really have no idea how to play the game, and have an emotional and confused reaction when I lose.

All the best,
Snowball

[SNOWBALL138]

You might be assuming too much in thinking that the guy you are playing against has a gambling problem. Maybe he can afford to lose. Maybe he only plays every couple months.

One time a friend of mine called all in with 9-4 offsuit in a .25/.50 no limit game preflop when the pot was small. He ended up making a 1 card straight, and sent his opponent steaming. The pot was only $50 or so. Anyway, calling all in with 9-4 in a cash game is just about the worst mistake you can ever make in a poker game, but lemme tell you. My friend does not have a gambling problem AT ALL. He almost never plays, doesn't steam when he loses, doesn't rebuy excessively, and always goes home happy. Not everyone who plays carelessly and loses money is a problem gambler.

[mockingbird]

You're right that I'm not a particularly good player. I'm o.k. at the low limits and am working on getting better. Wanted to clarify that I usually play 2/4 Party not .5/1.

But your point is well taken that I need to work on my game.

Sorry to hear about your insomnia problem.

[LoosenUp]

[ QUOTE ]
You might be assuming too much in thinking that the guy you are playing against has a gambling problem. Maybe he can afford to lose. Maybe he only plays every couple months.


One time a friend of mine called all in with 9-4 offsuit in a .25/.50 no limit game preflop when the pot was small. He ended up making a 1 card straight, and sent his opponent steaming. The pot was only $50 or so. Anyway, calling all in with 9-4 in a cash game is just about the worst mistake you can ever make in a poker game, but lemme tell you. My friend does not have a gambling problem AT ALL. He almost never plays, doesn't steam when he loses, doesn't rebuy excessively, and always goes home happy. Not everyone who plays carelessly and loses money is a problem gambler.

[/ QUOTE ]

I Agree totally snowball, but wrong thread. [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]