Background Info
I have been playing poker for 6 months, and studying the game thoroughly. I am seeing a lot of improvement in my game. I used to play live tournaments and online sit n go's, now I play most live cash 1-2NL, 2-3NL, 3-6 no limit. Additionally I mess around in the micro stakes online for practice.
For the most I play pretty well. I am bit of a NIT, I play a tight range and only stack off when I have the nuts or close to it. I do not do anything fancy, I just wait for others to make mistakes, while trying to make as few mistakes as possible. I usually throw in only a few very large bluffs each session at the proper times (villain dependent) .
My Problem
Every few sessions, or perhaps once in a long session I feel as if a bomb goes off and I tilt like no other (usually after a few bad beats or suck outs). Either I spew off most or all of my stack in one big pot with poor holdings, or I play super loose and quickly bleed off. Some times I recover and get my money back, or even make a profit, other times I spew of a couple buy-ins. I played today and bought in for the max $300. Went down to $50 then back up to $300-$350 about 3 times. Eventually I lost it all back. Once I got back to $300 I kept looking for one more big pot, and would make a stupid mistake.
I am reading The Mental Game of Poker in order to improve this leak in my game. I have gotten to the point where I can isolate the main reasons why I tilt, and realize when tilt is coming on. (Injustice tilt=bad beats, Hate losing tilt= not end sessions without a profit/ not being able to quit at when I'm ahead or playing poorly). For some reason though, I have a hard time quitting when I reach my tilt threshold or correcting my playing errors when I reach that threshold. Injustice tilt spurs the emotion of frustration, and hate losing tilt leads to either overconfidence or mild desperation to when money back.
I am so frustrated because I play a low variance style, and yet my bankroll has so many swings. I recognize tilt coming on, and have a hard time preventing it when I reach my threshold. Currently while I am playing, I will recite strategical affirmations in my mind, take a lot of time to slowdown and take deep breaths, take breaks every hour or so to walk around or get a smoke, put in earphones or have a beer or two to calm my nerves. (I usually play my best poker after a few beers.) I also take mental notes of what brought on tilt in order to address it after the session.
I asked my friend, who is a better player than I, and his thoughts were that my lifestyle may play a larger factor in bomb-like tilt. I drink alcohol frequently, drink a lot of caffeine (especially at the tables), smoke a lot of cigarettes, and constantly have different women in and out of my life. Trying to shape up my act lately, and cut back.
Does anyone else share a similar tilting problem, or have any suggestions?
VS 
