blonde poker forum

Today I was 1.3k down and managed to end the night even. A while back, the beats and cold decks that resulted in that defecit would have tilted me, thereby resulting in a gigantic loss.

However, athough I don't tilt, I find the beats kind of demoalising and can sometimes really get me down.

Does anyone else have this problem?

Any tips?

Prozac.

Malt whiskey, cognac and/or marijuana can be a great comfort during times of stress.

See, Snoops? Auntie Dana has only your best interests at heart.

Seriously though.  Losing is not fun.  Assuming you're not playing at stakes that will endanger your day to day living and adjust your stake levels accordingly after a few hits, you shouldn't worry.  It's only money.  Sometimes you'll have it, sometimes I'll be on your table ;)

It's just a game.  If the game is your job and the job gets you down then change jobs.

 ;mexicanwave;

Good post.
I'm currently experiencing that demoralising feeling, too. I just can't seem to have a hand that holds up at the moment.
Tilt management is a tough part of poker!
I have a blog which a few mates read, and I find that writing about my sessions at the tables really helps to get it out of my system.
Having noticed that you seem to have a very good ability with regards to journalism, I thought maybe this might help you, too.

Two suggestions.

1) Do something you like a lot. (kick a ball/kiss the girlfriend/playstation/sing showtunes/cowtipping/start yet another anti-bush thread ;nana;/e.t.c)

2) Remind yourself when poker was fun. The way I do that is to sit at a micro-micro table (thin 1cent 2 cent NLHE on Stars) and do all that crazy sheeeeet u really want in ur primary game. It can be amazing cathartic to blast $2 into dust (or $8) in 15 mins playing like a deranged banshee.

cowtipping  :dontask:

then i looked it up on Wikepedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cow_tipping

now thats a pastime I had not considered

I have worked very hard on my resistance to the effects of bad beats, and I really believe I have cracked it.

I have had a solid month's worth now, including being horribly outdrawn on the bubble of both the $100 re-buy on Stars and the $100 re-buy on laddies this week.

Last night I went to Walsall and lost all my chips to outrageous bad beats in the only 3 hands I played, and I can honestly say, hand on heart, none of it will affect my game one iota.

Apart from a few minutes dissapointment, they have almost no effect on my mood now either.

I still have to try harder to resist talking about them, unless someone asks. For some reason I am still under the impression that people might find them interesting.

Bad beats are a part of poker, always have been, allways will be. The better you play, the less you inflict, the more are inflicted upon yoiu.

I believe that resistance to the effects of bad beats is is a crucial part of any top players's game. I'm not a top player yet, but I'm trying hard.

 :goodpost:

Take down Dublin Tom. ;)

I like many of you who play professionally or seriously find going through a run of bad beats difficult to take. It takes me a while to tilt and my tilit seems to involve not the standard chuck all in and be silly but more the odd bad (normally hasty)  decision.

I must admit that i sometimes it affects my feeling of self-worth, stupid i know but poker is what i do for a living and therefore should be something im good at. So when things go against me, i start to question whether really any good at this game at all.

Strategies i have developed include going for a walk or going round a mates anything to get me away from my laptop and simmer down. Also now that im 8 tabling sng's i actually don't even watch showdowns, just when i go back to the screen for my next hand i find a pile of chips in front of me or otherwise and i don't know what happened, its often best not to know i find.

Easy to say but concentrate on decision not results, good decisions win money in poker long term.

Thats good going to pull back the deficit Snoops I can openly admit that had that been me I would probably have done the entire bankroll  :D

You and RED have said you have found ways of managing the dreaded Tilt what do you do now that you did differently before??

Good question.

I congratulate myself for getting my chips in with the best hand, and I remind myself that if people didn't make bad calls I would be out of business.

I'm not sure really, I think that I've just learned from playing so many sessions that getting angry is pointless.

No real strategy, I don't get up and walk around, just keep telling myself not to tilt.

I actually do the opposite; I storm around the place when I'm on a bad run, vent the poison completely.

Then I feel so much better and relaxed, and go off and do something else - watch a TV show, or a film (usually). Have a drinkie or two. Few episodes of something light and comedic and beats're gone.

{Next day, business as usual.}

That's not to say that I don't wish I could be more Zen about it all, though...

If I remember rightly I told you when you started out to keep a record of what you were doing in the form of a rising graph.    The reason for this as I said at the time was for those dark days that will come to any serious poker player. Now you can go to this graph and see that it is a steady climb from Zero to what ever you are winning to date. It is now October so the last ten months of steady inclination should look impressive, the real reason for it is to put youin a frame of mind that is positive, you look at it and know you are doing OK so what is giong on with your confidence is without reason. It does sound a bit Rimmerish red felttips etc but believe me it works . Take a couple of days of  after looking at it then come back fresh. Everybody has been there and do not forget about the Massacre that comes after a big get out A game only next session.

Yes, that was very good advice, and I have been constructing that graph as I have gone along. It shows an incline, but even though I know I'm a winning player, the lsoing sessions can still be highly demorlaising. Personally, I just pains me to go into 'work' and come out with less money I went out with. I understand that this is part of the game and that my results should be viewed in the long term, but it can still get you down. What I have definitely learned though in the last 12 months is the importance of being healthy, of sound mind and feeling good in yourself.

Think it was Amerillo Slim who said that anyone who says they win every time they play is lying so sometimes you will go to "work" and come out with less than you went with. If you come out with less instead of just saying it was a badbeat try going through the hand histories or looking at your tracker and see if you could have played the big losing hands any differently. Self criticism is very important imo.

And if it was just a badbeat then do what Red suggests and pat yourself on the back for getting your money in good- if you get it in good over and over they wont always get lucky.

 Hi Snoopy, Try and visualise something really unpleasant  like having to go to a job interview that should cheer you up no end. rotflmfao