Specific tilt issue
Posted by SPrince
Posted by
SPrince
posted in
Mental Game
Specific tilt issue
Hi guys.
I'v been playing poker off and on for a couple of years, mostly mid stakes cash and mtts.
Tilt has always been a major issue in my game but a very special kind of tilt.
What i mean by this is that i almost never tilt after a normal loss or a suckout for example.I might get sad from time to time if i lose a really big pot or i get knocked out in the late game of a tourney but it almost never lasts for long or is problematic and i usually forget about it in a matter or seconds.
What has always got me to the point of boiling - is playing against the players who play lightning fast.The usual greedy, toxic, kamikaze fish or reg fish who take poker personally.
You know what i mean...the spew, spazz monkeys who play like they snorted a kilo of coke and think the point of poker is to win every hand in any way, snap action every street and take every bit of equity to the grave.
I just hate those type of players.
Just having them at my table and watching them throw shit at each other even without playing a single hand vs them, induces a type of soft tilt that seriously hurts me game and if i lose vs them i can usually kiss my session goodbye.
Now the problem is that there's a lot of those type of players in poker (especially at the low-mid stakes), and are almost unavoidable.You almost always get at least one-two per 6 max table and more on 9 max.
This has become a major problem for me and is making poker unenjoyable.Even winning against them ends up to be bittersweet b/c they usually fill me up with so much negative energy that it's becoming almost not worth to even play.
If any of you guys have experienced similar issues and recommend some tips or tricks on how to deal with them i would really appreciate it.
Peace
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What would you say is the true, deep down answer as to why these guys annoy you so much?
Dan asks a good question, you have to find the root of the problem and work from there.
I can see how this can tilt you, I would approach it in the same way as you approach a bad bead or cooler. You do not have controle over this event. The choice is your's how you want to respond.
One of the things that first pops up is that - Lets say for example you faced an equivalent of that type of player in real life and he was yelling randomly in the street, throwing fits etc.You would either ignore him and never see him again or stomped him if he tried to attack you.
But at the poker table you can't do either.You're stuck with them until either of you quits or you get a table change (MTT's) which can last for hours and you still might get more of the same at the new table.You can't ignore them and you can't sanction them.
I think my personality and how i was raised is also important.I/most of us were thought to be well mannered, respectful and kind to others.But also to hold our ground and sanction the ones who try to disrespect us and defend others who are either weaker and can't defend themselves or are taught to take the passive route.
So to me the way they play the game seems disrespectful to the game itself and to others.And they do it knowing no one's gonna sanction them.It's also demoralizing that so many people (knowing/being aware that they are weak and their actions and behavior is not gonna bring them anything good in the future), continue to live like that instead of making an effort in trying to better themselves.
Like if they tried to be a spazzy, jumpy piece of shit in the streets they would get beaten up, stabbed or shot.And if they survived they would either learn their lesson and never do it again, or just get killed the next time they try to act like that.
If they did it with their peers, lets say in their class, school, uni - they would get shunned and have no friends.
But on the internet and at the poker table, they can be the biggest piece of shit and not face any repercussions.
Ultimately, i think there is no solution for me when it comes to this issue so i decided to quit nlhe all together and switch to PLO where there climate is much more healthier.There's little to none of those types of players and if they exist they play much slower b/c PLO is much more complicated and they need to think for at least few seconds before making a move.
I honestly never really felt good while playing nlhe past the stage i learned more complex theory and strategies and was able to beat the game for x amount of money.Even though i made decent money (from some standards) from the game, it only had a negative impact on me and made me miserable most of the times i played.The last straw came last month when i was forced to grind low stakes spins where 9/10 players are complete spazzes, just spewing around with no real concepts or strategy looking to hit the magic multiplier not aware they have a bigger shot to get hit by a lightning.
Most importantly i feel really good while playing the great game (as Joey calls it) of PLO and the game is fun again.I know very little past the basic strategies and hand selections but the game feels tailor made for me and everything makes sense.I'm just going to start from the lowest stakes and take my time to improve while hustling and working on the side and not focus on winning/losing at all.
You must see that the problem is entirely in your (somewhat warped) perception of these players, and not the players themselves? They're not being 'impolite' lol, they're just doing their own thing.
I didn't say they were "impolite" you missed my point.I couldn't care less what they did as long as i didn't have to watch it.
How would you feel if you were forced to live in a building under construction and had to listen to hammers banging and drilling for 8 hours.They're not impolite, just doing their thing but it would still bother you and you'd probably move out.
I never liked spazzy, fast talking/acting, jumpy people.I'm a pretty chill dude and i don't need someone spazzing next to me all the time and the snap button clicking/spewing players fit the poker equivalent of those kinda people.Maybe not the picture perfect but it's the best comparison i can give you.
I know most of them don't realize that the way they play might bother somebody but it doesn't change the fact that it does.I might'v went on a random ramble here or there, but that was pretty much my point.
Also different people have different sensibility and therefore different perceptions so you can't say that someones is warped unless he tries to twists a constant i.e claims a black wall to be yellow or w/e.If people are raised in different cultures, had different education and faced different challenges trough life, their perceptions, opinions and view points are also gonna be different on many things more often then not.
Anyway like i said, i'm done with nlhe so none of it really matters now.I feel really good while playing PLO and that's the only thing that matters to me.
Here is nice series of articles on 2+2 about psychology in poker that can help you make some new insights:
https://www.twoplustwo.com/magazine/issue152/robert-samuels-bad-beat-therapy.php
https://www.twoplustwo.com/magazine/issue153/robert-samuels-bad-beat-lying-about-lying.php
https://www.twoplustwo.com/magazine/issue154/robert-samuels-bad-beat-thinking.php
https://www.twoplustwo.com/magazine/issue155/robert-samuels-bad-beat-part-4.php
https://www.twoplustwo.com/magazine/issue157/robert-samuels-bad-beat-part-5.php
Learn to love them.
How are YOU creating all of this?
They are not making you tilt, however much it seems they are. When you accept that you are creating 100% of this you will start to find answers.
Yeah it was up to me after all.
After posting in this thread i thought about this and other things more consciously for some time and managed to draw some very important conclusions about not only poker but life related stuff as well.I needed to resolve some inner conflicts after which the whole thing seemed like a big joke.
A huge load has been lifted and this thread served as a catalyst for a much needed cleansing on my part.My firsts post are pretty much just random venting rambles but i'm gonna leave them so they can serve as reminder if i ever go down that road again.
Peace
That's amazing!! The power of introspection. Great stuff dude! Keep it up.
Good stuff. :) Mind sharing details?
The story of the Russian cosmonaut may inspire you...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hX1Mff4XrUA
I had to take it back to the beginning and ask myself why did i start playing this game and why did i like it.
When i first started - I didn't know about the bad beats, i had no clue about any theory, about ranges, pot odds, card removal, expected value, any of that stuff.
I just wanted to play.The game was fun and that was all that mattered.
But once i reached certain stakes where i saw that i could make some serious money if i really dedicate myself to my craft that's where the problems started.Even though i improved upon the fundamental aspect of my game, i lost the true love for the game.
And trough the years of grinding a variety of different stakes, games and formats i completely forgot about what it was all about in the beginning.Trough that time i/my subconscious picked up so much useless, negative and toxic stuff about the game and other players, from friends, coaches, training videos etc and developed a very unhealthy relationship with the game.
Even though my game has improved trough grinding and absorbing new information, i still somehow felt i was a much better overall poker player when i first started playing then with all of this "knowledge".And that was because the game has lost it's true essence and became all about percentages, dollars and cents.
You see we think we make our own decisions but more often then not it's our subconscious that governs most of our daily life decisions, choices and actions.And just like it helps us with performing the simple/automatic tasks it can also hurt us if we don't keep it in check because it is a sponge that absorbs the quality and the trash information alike and stores it into our hard drive.
The most valuable asset of our brains is not being able to automatically perform different tasks while on autopilot but rather staying present, filtering out all of the junk and focusing on the now while trying to consciously make the best decisions.
So having understood all of that i will now just try and take it one hand at a time, filter out all of the unnecessary information, while solely focusing on playing my best and having fun in the process.That's what it's all about.
HEadphones or earmuffs my man
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