Running bad and injustice tilt

In the last 6 months I think I have had 3 days with losses of 7-10 stacks. And not many hands, 2k or less.
Those days were tilting and sad.. Half of the losses were tilt and another half bad luck imo.

I used to have tilting problems a lot but reading TMGP helped me a lot. Also studying poker and knowing you make the right decisions help control tilt. When you know you played correctly you don't get tilted so easily.

Originally posted by la55i

Also studying poker and knowing you make the right decisions help control tilt. When you know you played correctly you don't get tilted so easily.

I do study poker a lot, i love the game, I'm just struggling with the bad runs, witch kind of tilt did you suffer with and how did you resolve it?

I just played a 500 hand zoom session and recieved another sick run of cards lmao, i kept repeating to myself "I cannot control the cards, i can only control how i play them"

This could be bad play on my part, maybe i should of played for pot control once the queen comes on the river.

Meh!

Meh!

For some reason i convinced to myself that he has got a busted flush draw in his range, i said he got QQ KQ or a busted flush draw, i think i made a bad play here, although its still a sick river card to hit a 3 outer

I have recently changed my game to more aggressive style since they call with so much trash, on the last hand i would normally check back the turn and bet/call the river.

I feel that whenever i am more aggressive like i was there, i get turned over, what is the flaw in this way of thinking?

I still believe deep down inside that the game is rigged, i have for years, I have tried to convince myself otherwise many times, but always come out with the same answer "the site is rigged" when i have a bad run, why is this?

When ever i try to bet too much with hands like TPTK and a set like that AJ on the flop of JJ2, i get beaten, thats how i feel, so i usually play more cautiously, but i have been more agressive the last few days, and thats the results above, I feel im doing somthing wrong but i have no idea what

Hey FrozenElf,

your picture and name remind me of the good old Warcraft 3 TFT days. : )
Anyways...
I know how you feel or at least I know my own version of the feeling, so I'd like to just give some quick comments that may help or not.

Take a (longer) break and maybe work on your mindset (I see you have a good book) instead of going through the same stuff again and again. It's better if you are refreshed and stronger the next time this shit keeps happening to you.

I see you play cash, so: whenever you tilt, try to stop and just leave as soon as you are pissed. It's like trying to stop drinking when you're too drunk to care. But if you can do it, you will feel good about it later.

If you deep down think poker is rigged, the problem is really deep. Either that, or it really is rigged, so why would you continue to play?
To me it seems that you take it personal and get emotional, therefore you block yourself and struggle to understand an important aspect of the game, or at least you completely forget about while being on tilt.

When I tilt, I usually start pressing buttons without thinking and tell myself that villain is bluffing and just make bad calls..
But omg what hands

Maybe on that AJ hand you shouldn't 3bet OTF. It is a paired board and villains raise looks strong or total bluff. He shouldn't be raising many flush draws because the board is paired and 55 is possible. Anyway the result might be the same if you just call. You had very bad luck in these hands

I don't think poker is rigger because the rooms really don't have any incentive to do so.. Players would catch them by reviewing a big database. Also there is no reason to bully recreational/small ball players because those make the most money for poker rooms. There is always a chance you get a bad beat, or several bad beats in a row. We see bad beats in every single poker room and in live games also. When I face one, I just try not to think anything and move on.

You can just think that if fish don't get lucky from time to time they will quit playing and then there will be no fish.

Originally posted by gelevr
If you deep down think poker is rigged, the problem is really deep. Either that, or it really is rigged, so why would you continue to play?

I like that, either you have the problem or it is rigged so why bother playing. Think that will help me when I feel I am running just into bad cards.

Ive probably just won 1 sit and go in the last week and dont feel ive gone on tilt at all, now my entire bankroll is gone..I do feel on tilt now...how does one define the end of a bad run. Im worried to make any more deposits as it will have to come from the housekeeping money. It is quite painful after i slowly and carefully built up the bankroll. I dont know if reading these stories will help.. I think a guide on keeping a positive mindset may help me though.

Originally posted by ptortoise
Ive probably just won 1 sit and go in the last week and dont feel ive gone on tilt at all, now my entire bankroll is gone..I do feel on tilt now...how does one define the end of a bad run. Im worried to make any more deposits as it will have to come from the housekeeping money. It is quite painful after i slowly and carefully built up the bankroll. I dont know if reading these stories will help.. I think a guide on keeping a positive mindset may help me though.

I'd take a look at how you lost your bankroll first, see if it was run bad or some leaks that you could fix. I knew I did a few deposits and kept making same mistakes, most recently I have started studying first before depositing again. Else it will just be repeating the same thing and expecting a different outcome.

@gelevr

Haha! I never played warcraft always wanted to though, i loved diablo and other games like that.

Take a (longer) break and maybe work on your mindset (I see you have a good book) instead of going through the same stuff again and again. It's better if you are refreshed and stronger the next time this shit keeps happening to you.

I see you play cash, so: whenever you tilt, try to stop and just leave as soon as you are pissed. It's like trying to stop drinking when you're too drunk to care. But if you can do it, you will feel good about it later.

Yeah i sort of agree with this, it says in that book you should try and play through your tilt to build mental muscle, however it doesn't say when you have lost control keep trying to play and regain control, so yeah you are right i will look out for that.

If you deep down think poker is rigged, the problem is really deep. Either that, or it really is rigged, so why would you continue to play?
To me it seems that you take it personal and get emotional, therefore you block yourself and struggle to understand an important aspect of the game, or at least you completely forget about while being on tilt.

I have been thinking about what you said here, and i actually dont beleive that online poker is rigged, because, when i am playing my Agame, i am a very strong player, and have a solid win rate, I know this because i have tracked my hands.

This leads me to the question. Why am i trying to accuse the poker site for being rigged, when i know i lost because of my own bad play during tilt?

Maybe it is because I have no idea what is causing me to tilt, and instead of working on it to try and figure out and fix this HUGE leak, it is easier to say the site is rigged, as an excuse not to put the work in.

@la55i

When I tilt, I usually start pressing buttons without thinking and tell myself that villain is bluffing and just make bad calls..
But omg what hands

I do this too, this is a sign were on tilt and should do everything in our power to remain in control and focus on good decisions, to build mental muscle.

Maybe on that AJ hand you shouldn't 3bet OTF. It is a paired board and villains raise looks strong or total bluff. He shouldn't be raising many flush draws because the board is paired and 55 is possible. Anyway the result might be the same if you just call. You had very bad luck in these hands

I agree i never usually play these types, hands this way, however i was tilted and playing very aggressively with all those hands :f_biggrin:.

You can just think that if fish don't get lucky from time to time they will quit playing and then there will be no fish.

I got my head back into that book, and i believe i figured out the problem, i absolutly hate loosing, im constantly checking cashier everytime i lose a hand, i beleive you can win every session, i have some work to do on that i guess.

i kept repeating a simular thing to what you said here.

Originally posted by ptortoise
Ive probably just won 1 sit and go in the last week and dont feel ive gone on tilt at all, now my entire bankroll is gone..I do feel on tilt now...how does one define the end of a bad run. Im worried to make any more deposits as it will have to come from the housekeeping money. It is quite painful after i slowly and carefully built up the bankroll. I dont know if reading these stories will help.. I think a guide on keeping a positive mindset may help me though.

I agree with what catonthemat says, have you lost because of a bad run or is it bad play?

Originally posted by FrozenElf

When I tilt, I usually start pressing buttons without thinking and tell myself that villain is bluffing and just make bad calls..
But omg what hands

I do this too, this is a sign were on tilt and should do everything in our power to remain in control and focus on good decisions, to build mental muscle.

Nope. Just leave the table. I would argue that being able to leave at the right time is already a mental muscle.
The part where you build (other) mental muscle comes much later. You need to work on the foundation of the mental stuff first, and then you can build mental muscle on top of that. In theory, at some point you won't even need to leave the table. : )

Originally posted by FrozenElf
@gelevr

Haha! I never played warcraft always wanted to though, i loved diablo and other games like that.

Warcraft 3 is one of the best games I have ever played, but it's old now. My mind will be blown if they ever announce Warcraft 4. <3
I never played or will play World of Warcraft though. Absolutely not interesting. But then there is Hearthstone...

you can try using tilt breaker to control your play pace. helps you stop playing when your about to tilt

Don't quit poker right now !! you gave me good advice and it worked You play well bro !
Me too yesterday I lost 4 stacks, got set over set twice, KK vs AA, and triple barrel AK vs A4o with hit second pair OTR lol.
I was pissed off too, I just took some time off spend time with friends and family do some stuff I like. And today was a better day.
keep it up the upswing is comig

:why::why:

Bit of a vent about my current situation. I am finding running bad and injustice tilt are becoming serious blockers to me improving. I'll put in some decent studying and put it into use on the tables. I then start to get cooler after cooler, I try and stay calm and keep playing with my new knowledge, when that didn't work I took a break and came back refreshed. I start going ok and slow building back up from the coolers, then in hardly any hands losing flips crushes all the progress that has been made. Again I stop and take a break, come back and same story again. I make 2 steps forward slowly chipping away then lose an all in and all of that work has gone. Makes it hard to see the point in trying really. Yes I have some pretty large leaks as well, but it is hard to get the motivation to work on them. Currently 12k hands (I know small sample but just moved site), and hold'em manager has my at Average all in % of 60%, actually all-in won 50%. That 10% on the graph makes a difference of being a slowly increasing BR to a drastically decreasing BR. I know the answer is to improve those things that I can control and just work through it. But I feel I have never had the chance too without variance taking a big shit on my progress

I need to work on separating the results from the process, but that is hard when the EV difference could take me broke before I hit an upswing.

Fingers crossed can manage it, and am off to read the mental game of poker again.

#EndofRant

Originally posted by SuperChompa
Don't quit poker right now !! you gave me good advice and it worked You play well bro !
Me too yesterday I lost 4 stacks, got set over set twice, KK vs AA, and triple barrel AK vs A4o with hit second pair OTR lol.
I was pissed off too, I just took some time off spend time with friends and family do some stuff I like. And today was a better day.
keep it up the upswing is comig

Haha Thank you.

I dont think i was ever really going to quit i just say that when times are bad, i seem to made some good improvements with this since writing this thread, i feel a lot calmer when i lose a pot after injecting logic.

Originally posted by Catonthemat
:why::why:

Bit of a vent about my current situation. I am finding running bad and injustice tilt are becoming serious blockers to me improving. I'll put in some decent studying and put it into use on the tables. I then start to get cooler after cooler, I try and stay calm and keep playing with my new knowledge, when that didn't work I took a break and came back refreshed. I start going ok and slow building back up from the coolers, then in hardly any hands losing flips crushes all the progress that has been made. Again I stop and take a break, come back and same story again. I make 2 steps forward slowly chipping away then lose an all in and all of that work has gone. Makes it hard to see the point in trying really. Yes I have some pretty large leaks as well, but it is hard to get the motivation to work on them. Currently 12k hands (I know small sample but just moved site), and hold'em manager has my at Average all in % of 60%, actually all-in won 50%. That 10% on the graph makes a difference of being a slowly increasing BR to a drastically decreasing BR. I know the answer is to improve those things that I can control and just work through it. But I feel I have never had the chance too without variance taking a big shit on my progress

I need to work on separating the results from the process, but that is hard when the EV difference could take me broke before I hit an upswing.

Fingers crossed can manage it, and am off to read the mental game of poker again.

#EndofRant

I understand how you feel, the first advice i could give you is, is it really bad variance, or is it many mistakes you are making, this sounds like something i used to suffer with this, this is how i fixed it, i always thought i was really good, the best poker player ever (i dont think im on my own here), thje thing is, i wasnt, i was making tons of mistakes and blaming them on bad luck/variance, when in fact it was pretty much 95% bad play, after admitting to myself i wasn't a good poker player and needed to learn and analyses my game, things started changing dramatically.

i was achieving graphs like this (ignor the part after 16,500k hands where i tilted for 3 days due to the tilt problem that i made this thread for in the first place)

Basically your using good variance to say your a great player(I.E AAvsKK all in preflop you would say you played great that session), and the mistakes you make as bad variance (i.e calling all in with AQ preflop, you would say i had bad variance this session), this is because you dont want to admit your game isnt as good as you want it to be, fail to admit this and you will constantly be stuck in your vicious cycle

Hey there buddy, definitely a cool insight in what Microstakes players struggle with!

We'll definitely mention this thread and your tonight blog at
https://forums.pokerstrategy.com/forum/thread.php?threadid=402979
when we focus on Mental game and mythbusting that Micros are very hard to beat!

hey, i think you focus to much on bad beats that are going to happen to everyone!
my last blog entry is about the theme, mb it is worth a read for you.
Just remember you are beating your limit and tilts will only hurt you.
Stop when it spreads and work more on prevention.

Also check in Neicky's Cup on Saturday in WC3

Just take a break. When you are rested you can play again.

I think that the most important insight is that you don't have to "win" every session.

Also, as already mentioned, having a solid, fixed strategy helps a lot. If you have a good understanding of the game and good intuition, you can do well in most situations. But then if you run bad you can easily lose confidence in your poker skills and start making bad decisions / adjustments.

Would the mental game come into existence if the results stayed in our favor? Variance is just a result good or bad? Start playing good variance in my favor, stop playing when bad variance is hammering my game? There is no fix because emotion is an inherited part of being a human; this will never change unless we do not exist. To make variance, tilt, a nothing it is not accomplished by control, to control something that is out of the existence of control? Fix something that is not within our control to fix?

To produce our “A” game it takes a certain amount of emotion to focus this amount is unique to each player. To manage emotion is what this player will be continuously working on just like playing poker to perform, compete with the freedom of thought has to be managed then used in the moment to compete or recognize when emotion is using our game. Not control restraint because to have true freedom winning, losing, results, good, bad have the same feel, adversity from success, failure reveals our character it does not build character. Building character takes additional movements from each player that is unique for each person.

This player has been working on the mental game for nine years but the last three seriously after buying Jared Tendler’s The mental game of poker and reading the book three times so far. Journaling my thoughts about poker, life, and my most private thoughts then to see them typed on a page should reveal itself to the “self”. The same way to repent for a sin, repenting does not earn forgiveness but rather it reveals our condition as to look in the mirror of our soul that reveals the conditions of the “self” as to acknowledge itself before, during, and after the sin.

This is a continuous journey for the mental game to be worked on not a start and stop of when it is good or bad that would lead me back to the mental game thus, it is who I am rather than outside my existence that needs to be worked on sometimes as a way to identify.

Then when it comes through my game as negative or positive emotion, this is to recognize emotion, when emotion is using my game rather than managing my emotions in the moment instead, then emotion reveals itself as concept to get to know; the same way as other concepts for example injustice tilt, monkey tilt, or other mental game terms that come from a book.

Get to know your emotions as a way to become better at managing them in the moment as a way to compete rather than a way to fix a concept that has no cure.