Tilt

Despite be over rolled for $25 NL, I continue to play at those stakes as I improve my game. Last night was a big indicator why. Within the first 10 minutes of hitting the tables, I took two bad beats where I had all of my opponents chips in the pot and I had the best hand....only to lose the hand. It happens. It's poker. However, I need to develop a short memory in these situations. After those hands, I went on tilt and made several bad decisions that cost me even more chips. After 30 minutes at the tables, I was down over 5 buy-ins (BI's).

I managed to regain my composure and played for another hour and avoided some tough decisions and put pressure on my opponents in the right situations. I finished the evening down 3 BI's despite losing another BI+ on a set over set situation. In other words, I turned things around pretty well and I know it could have been much worse. If I could curb my tilting habits, I could have avoided those dumb plays early in the session and ended the night close to even money despite taking three really tough beats.

Speaking of that set over set hand that I lost, I wanted to say a few things about it. I was on the button with 33 and opened the betting by raising 3.5 big blinds. The player in the big blind 3-bet (3B) to a total 10 big blinds. Since I had position, I decided to see a flop. It came 3 5 10 rainbow. I'm thinking jackpot here because I hit my set and with my opponent's 3B, I put him on JJ or better or AQs or better. You can debate whether or not it was right to call the 3B, but with position, calling here is usually profitable in the long run. On this night, however, it turned out that the villian 3B with 55 and hit a higher set. These hands are tough to swallow because the situation is rare and I seem to be on the losing end an awful lot. In fact, it makes me want to review my hand histories to see how many times I have lost with a set to a higher set. I have come across that situation about six or seven times in the past two months and know that I have won only twice. Hopefully my luck turns around.

On the plus side, I learned from my mistake earlier in the evening and took the aforementioned defeat in stride. I left that table with the chips that I lost on that hand. If only I can do that all the time. Note to self: Going on tilt will only make matters worse.