Tonight I discovered some new forms of tilt. I don’t know if they’re totally new, but at least they were new to me – until now.

After watching hours of high stakes poker (the GSN show and laughing my ass off at some trash talk at the table) I thought it was time for some low limit SnGs…so I jump on PokerStars and find myself the next best NL Hold’em SnG. Right in/after the first hand I discovered the first new form of tilt:

“I should have played that last hand”-tilt: First hand I’m looking down at 44 in EP. I decide to limp, as do some players after me. LP raises to 160 (10/20 blinds). SB folds, BB pushes All-In. Now the logical move is to fold and so I do. Sure enough LP calls. Showdown: LP = AKs, BB=1010…Flop: A43, turn: x, river: 10. Well…trip 10s win and I’m sitting at my desk and tell myself: you did the right thing…nontheless I would have eliminated two players and tripled up in the very first hand. Still the correct move – no point in risking your whole stack in the first hand with a measly pair of 4s.
All good there, although my head is telling me that I should call down half my stack in the very next hand with second pair. Hmm…I would consider this the new form of tilt – the “I should have played that last hand (although I know that I did nothing wrong it sort of tilts me now although I don’t want it to)” tilt. Sure enough I catch rockets in the next hand and my opponent outdraws me with AK (nice to see a flop with two kings in his spot)…

After this 3 hand experience I should have know better than to play any longer, but still I did. This time for a little higher stakes, a single table PLO8b SnG. After scooping some pots early on I find A2Q10 double suited and “gamble” a little…sure enough I’ve got the nut low draw and hit two pair, just to be outdrawn by a flush on the river…no low, too and there goes a good part of my stack, yikes. Next hand…similar hand, same result…outdrawn on the river, no low. Yikes^2. That’s when I discovered the next new form of tilt:

“Let’s gamb00l as you’re going to outdraw me anyway”-tilt: Next hand I pop it up preflop with 4 low connectors…opponent bets the pot, one caller, folded to me…I push my remaining stack in there…both call…flop: OESD, turn: blank, river: bingo…bad news for me…my bingo card puts three hearts out there…and sure enough my straight is no good. Sigh…the bad thing wasn’t to get outdrawn in that particular hand (after all Omaha, especially H/L split is all about drawing), but that by getting outdrawn in the prior hands I convinced myself that it was bound to happen again anyway, so why care…bad bad!

Note to self: You’re not as tilt-proof as usal when jumping into a game “just for fun”. Your mental preparation before playing in a “normal” setup is invaluable! Stick to it!
This post is brought to you by the letter T for tilt. Time to catch some sleep now…night all…