Frustration and Tilting

T

Tieferausch

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Hi,
like mentioned in some other post I have won my way up in a WSOPC Tournament. This opportunity I will probably not get again with my 250$ bankroll.

I was playing a quiet good tournament with about 3000 people. 250$ buy-in. Had some problems at the beginning to get a feeling for the pressure but started fighting for my blinds and increased my aggression.
I ended up being 30th of about 500 left. Then I lost nearly half of my stack with a K high flush against A high flush. That guy covered me, so I was lucky too keep the pot small. Then I lost an preflop all-in with AKs against AQo to loose another third of my stack.

Finally I got busted by a blind stealer who was a littler bigger than me who could not fold 67o on my defend all-in with AJs. I had about 19BB at this point. Ace came up in the flop and river card was his gud-shot. Thats it.. Out 40 before the money.


I know the tourneys have high variance and usually I can smile when I get kicked out again of a tournament after i see 94% against 6%. Basicly when I see 94% I already see it coming. =) I take it when I am playing a 2 or 5$ Tournaments.

But the bad luck in such important situations really makes me frustrated.

I have the feeling of beeing very unlucky in important situations. So many times I do the right move like calling a very aggressiv player, have the better hand and then get kicked out cause he right away gets his second pair. AK against AQ.. AK against pockets. Poxkets against overcards. Basicly the coinflips are not on my side. At least not in the number it should be accordin the equity.

Like u can clearly notice from my words.. I lost the cool head.

That was the start of a really bad downswing.
I lost half of my bankroll and had to go down a level. Even my cash game curve which was going up for about 8000 hands.. Completly lost it in 4000 hands without even notice that tilting was effecting my game.

I loose the faith that its possible to win a tournament one day. Even by playing the 100-150 buy-ins I have. Also playing perfect will not bring succsess like this.


Does someone have an idea how to get out of that?
Do i need to increase numbers to get a payout some day? Or should I better slow down, read books and start new after some weeks.. I actualy dont think that I am such a bad player. Also not getting really angry.. But as I see, frustration is enough to destroy my game.


Greetings,
Sebastian
 
foran

foran

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get angry when you know you played badly, but something if I can tell you, poker returns what it takes away, just dedicate yourself to learning and playing well, the rest comes in addition.
 
F

fundiver199

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It sounds to me like, you had to much hope resting on doing well in this particular tournament. And while that is understandible, its unfortunately not, how poker works. Most MTTs pay around 1 in 7 entries, so rather than being unlucky, when we dont cash, we are actually lucky, when we cash.

The truth is, building a poker bankroll from scratch playing online poker is a long and to some extend boring grind. We are talking tousinds of tournaments, and you also need to study away from the table to gradually improve your skills, as you attempt to move up. A lot of people however want fast results like that big win from the 250$ MTT, you managed to win an entry to. And of course its ok to chase a dream now and then. But if not winning in the lottery then cause you to spew away half your bankroll on tilt, its an issue.
 
Austria7

Austria7

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Hi, currently it doesn't seem to work for you at all. When I read your story, I thought of similar phases in my poker career. A few years ago I was very motivated. But after an extended streak of bad luck, I lost interest and motivation. I stopped for a long time and now play again - mainly for fun and at the smallest limits or the smallest buy-ins. Sometimes it happens again to be eliminated from a tournament with the much better starting hand. At the moment, I very often lose with over pair against my opponent who flopped trips, and there are currently no draws which complete at turn or river. Since I manage my bankroll in a very disciplined way, the small losses do not really matter, especially since they are even small amounts. Still, it's frustrating. As first aid service, I always take a break (a few hours, 1 - 2 days or longer if necessary). Having fun in the game is my motivation - the possibility of paying the buy-in for the main event made of a mini bankroll is my mission. I always make it clear to myself that a long MTT also consists of many individual decisions. For example, if you get 350 hands in a tournament and only play 20% of those hands, that's 70 decisions to make. And if I make about 50 of 70 in a right way, there are 20 still wrong. Try to play constant and try to avoid wrong decisions, the result is getting closer to the prize money. I also motivate myself to go far in the tournament with good decisions and bad luck at the same time. If you continue to avoid bad decisions, be able to control your emotions and at the same time be lucky, you should get very far into the prize money - maybe even to the final table or to first place. Check the 2006 wsop, in which Jamie Gold won the main event - you need a lot of luck to win such a tournament ... you just have to win big and important coin flips (and lose the small and unimportant flips), convert more draws into straight or flushes and get more sets on the flop than statistic says, and, another important aspect ... give you opponent pocket AA or pocket KK which are really hard to fold. Good hands has to collide to get action. Poker is very often 2 steps ahead and one step back - but at some point the freight train comes and catapults you to the very front - hopefully at the WSOP in Vegas. Hope that helps. :)
 
mkdrummey

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Happens to me all the time, fortunately only in freerolls or cheap buy ins. I usually find if I'm playing a few games and get knocked out of one it follows to the other games as well. Best to not chase losses and step away for a while, a day, a week, whatever.
 
K

karl coakley

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My advice is stop playing.

Take 2 weeks off. Take a month off. Work on other things in your life and do things you enjoy. Come back fresh.

You can be your own worst enemy in poker. Yes, there are times where you run bad. Last night I took beat after beat late in 3 separate tournaments and simply was done for the night. Trying to play through a bad streak is NOT a good way to deal with the frustration.

Trying again later when fresh is much more effective.
 
C

colino17

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In the infinite words of The Gambler...know when to walk away.

The good news is you recognize the issue. You just have to act on that knowledge by stepping away when you fall into that mindset.
 
swimbles

swimbles

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Tilt and frustration is just part of the game. You have to learn how to keep it contained.

We've all experienced some form of downswing and we've alike all been sucked out on more times than we can recall, it's just about continuing to play to the best of your ability.

Gl out there.
 
T

Tieferausch

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Thanks

Thank you for your input. I will take a few days off and then play my tickets with a clear head. In the meantime, I'll finish reading Harrington on Modern Tournament Poker. Let's see if I can get out of this hole.

Good luck to you!
 
whiskers77

whiskers77

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I had once a similar situation, well, I was freerolling to the 888 Live Event in London.I was playing there 3 days until the final day and I dropped out at the last day with a coin flip short before the money. By my stack I had to push, but my pocked pair did not hold. Voilá.

But in my opinion, it does not matter, even if I missed to cash good there. It is the experience, that we gain, which matters.
And actually, I don't like to have the attitude, that I am on a down-swing now.
Actually, I am never on a down-swing. If I would start to think, that I am on a down-swing, it would feed my feeling of being on tilt greatly, if I had a tilt.

I think, this is a problem of attitude feeling on down-swing or on tilt.
I loose games and this is normal, it is just part of the game. I loose often and this is also normal by variance. But I also win games, which is also normal.
I can have bad days and think, oh well, it is not my day. Tomorrow is another one. I will win soon again, it does not matter, what I lost today. As I think, it is normal to loose and there can be many reasons for this. Bad decisions, bad luck and so on.
And also when you think at the end it was bad luck, maybe it was just a bad decision that you made at the beginning by playing away some valuable chips or not being able to collect enough chips... Well, it happens.
Next day you can improve yourself. But the only thing that is important, that you have a proper bankroll management. You need to be able to afford, that you can loose some games on the limit, that you play.

Good luck!
 
6

63burner

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Slow down, you are not an outlier..

You were kickboxing it, 30th place is nothing to be upset about. It is frustrating to get your EV hopes by succeeding in a tourney for a long time, building stack. Probabilities tell us, eventually there is a downswing
Instead of focusing on what went wrong, think of what went right, how many on the ladder finished way behind you?
If you are so focused on winning at poker, ask yourself, "am I having fun?" It isn't fun to lose when it's a binary yes/no situation. A third way is "play to enjoy, both winning and losing."
 
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fundiver199

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Thank you for your input. I will take a few days off and then play my tickets with a clear head. In the meantime, I'll finish reading Harrington on Modern Tournament Poker. Let's see if I can get out of this hole.

Sounds like a good plan. About the way, you busted from that 250$ tournament, surely it was unlucky to run a K high flush into a A high flush. Classic cooler, and this will just happen from time to time in poker. Its also a little unlucky to get it in twice with 60-75% equity and lose.

But there is another side to this also. To build that big stack in the first place you almost certainly got lucky in a number of spots. And the AKs vs. AQ is also a rather standard cooler with typical tournament stacks. It might as well have been you, who had AQ vs. AK and got it in behind. In spots like that its not really any more unfair, when the worst hand gets there, since the player with the best hand got lucky to be on the good side of a cooler.

In the last hand with AJs your opponent made a bad call, and this can be somewhat annoying, because against your particular holding you would have preferred him to make a correct decision and lay his hand down. But in the long run his mistake benefits you, because he is also going to to do it against other players, and then they are the ones in risk of bubbling. Plus he is almost certainly a big long term loser himself.

The issue here of course is, that for you there is no "long term" in this situation, since you are not regularly playing 250$ events. So you kind of needed your hand to hold here, which unfortunately it did not. But then again this is why, its better to adobt a grinders mentality instead of chasing after a single big win. As you say yourself, if this happened in a 2-5$ tournament, you would just shrug it off and play another.

Good luck to you!

Same to you when you come back from the break :)
 
P

popstani

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Yeah, break sounds fine in situations like yours, I did it myself 2-3 days maybe week or two. It’s good for clearing your mind, spend some time with your friends or family, take some walking through the woods or maybe go to the mountain... etc. Just walk away from the tables, from poker, clear your mind. Then when you think your ready take some study and grind again.
 
M

mortimccarthy

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Its crazy what this game can do to people everybody goes through these periods where you think "why me" why so many bad bests all the time, I went through such stages that it effected my play if i got AA or KK i was playing negative thinking my opponent will probably hit two pair or a flush or straight , have to shake the negative taughts if i make all the correct decisions in a hand and get sucked out on the river at least i will know my play was the correct play and continue that way in the end it will pay off...
 
Emily Trott

Emily Trott

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I know it sound corny but the most important thing to have is confidence in your knowledge and abilities at playing. If you have that you aren't going to tilt, and you won't let setbacks frustrate you. :)
 
KRANKES

KRANKES

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The only way is to shake it off and get back in the saddle again. If you need time for that, sur, take some days free to do funny stuff. But you have to say: next time luck will be on my side, and not: OMG, why am I so unlucky. Keep it positive!
 
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