Interestingly, one hand I won set me off a little bit. Out of position I hit trip 9’s and turned quads. There was very passive action so I was just checking and sure enough got a bet on the river, I raised and both called. The room has a high hand promotion. Hitting promotions are important to my win rate as they help compensate for the terrible rake at these low stakes. Unfortunately, this room has a four player minimum to be eligible so I missed out on a $100 prize. This room allows employees to play, especially when games are short handed to keep the action going. There were two dealers sitting around chatting and not playing. I was pretty pissed.
The truth is, however, that I knew the rules when I sat down. I could have waited until four players turned up to play. I accepted the possibility of hitting a promotion but not getting paid when I agreed to play three handed. AND, I’d do it again because I have a MUCH higher expectation playing against two drunks short handed compared to winning a promotion. This is the equivalent of bad players slow playing sets trying to hit quads to win a promotion. The amount of money you win on the extremely rare occasions your case card hits comes nowhere near making up for all the equity you miss by not betting and raising your sets.
I guess rationality finally won the battle because I was able to move on and keep a handle on my play. I won a few hands and by the time the table filled up I had a decent stack and then “it” happened.
I have been struggling some with entitlement tilt, specifically to great feeling of injustice when I go through long stretches of being dealt nothing but unplayable hands. I know the math says outside of the blinds I should be playing ¼ to 1/3 of the hands I’m dealt. Any more than this range and I’m playing too loose; exposing myself to getting drawn out on and coolers. Any less than ¼ and I’m too tight; risking losing equity and getting run over. But, when a cold deck hits it and I enter the second hour of looking down at 8-3 and 10-2, I start to question my hand selection strategy. This is easy to do since nearly all of my opponents at these low stakes will regularly play hands like these and occasionally win with them. It’s tough to stomach folding hand after hand when my neighbors are raking in huge pots with 7-2. Temptation comes calling when I get dealt A-rag UTG + 2 or suited trash in cutoff with 2 limpers in front.
Another thing that compounds my “card death tilt” is that probability doesn’t take a break along with the trickle of hands I’m “supposed” to get. Stewing in my entitlement I somehow believe that because I’ve waited “SO LONG!” for my pocket 10’s they should hold up. But, as so often happens, the overcards come and I get played back at. Instead of taking my foot off the gas I reraise trying to force the hand but only end up building a bigger pot for my opponent and I end up feeling even more spurned.
One or two of these overplayed hands can often emotionally swing me in the other direction and cause me to feel hopeless about my play. One situation came up yesterday when I found KJ in the big blind with three limpers in front of me. Instead of raising I just checked, I missed the flop and checked. One of the limpers bet out and with such a small pot, I just folded. As played, it wasn’t too bad, I lost the minimum. But, because of my tilt I started feeling hopeless and deviated from my normal aggressive game. My internal talk was, “Why raise? I’m just going to miss anyway. Why should I build a pot for an opponent again?”
The “Why raise, I’m just going to miss…” is very seductive because there’s a lot truth in it. Yes, I am going to miss the flop, 2/3 of the time in fact. It’s also some consolation (in a sick way) when I check fold the flop in these cases that “I lost the minimum there.” When I’m this mode after my fold I’ll watch the turn and river very carefully and smugly gloat to myself as I would have missed those two cards too.
But, the definition of tilt is when emotion causes you to change a winning strategy. Raising preflop with hands that likely have an edge over opponents is standard basic play. Without it I have no chance of winning in the long term. My entitlement and injustice tilt is causing me to play losing poker.
Finally, I caught pocket 8’s in early position. I raised and got called in four spots. The opponent to my right had folded and commented, “You waited a long time for that hand!” Usually, I catch myself giving too much credit to opponents but I forget that sometimes they do pay attention. My c-bet on the flop got raised, I called grumbling about my probable beat again but a sweet 8 fell on the turn. I check raised and the board cooperated on the turn, pairing and giving me a fullhouse.
I could feel myself tilting and I did make some bad plays but my worst play yesterday was far better than the worst I’ve ever played when on tilt. This is really important because while playing better is important, playing less worse is just as crucial. I’m beginning to feel like my A game is improving slowly but I’ve got lots of opportunity improve the back end of my game. Playing better when I’m not at my best is a very worthwhile goal. Staying with a winning strategy, even when it doesn’t “feel” like its winning can be done. What happened yesterday is a good example in staying disciplined, being sorely tempted to play bad hands but resisting. That patience allowed me to stay in the game and eventually get a few of the hands I was looking for.
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