GTO_SALERNO22

Hi guys and gals! I had some time to reflect after a recent run in with tilt, and I thought I would share my thoughts. I was playing 30nl on Pokerstars on Sunday, and found success early on. I manged to double up twice from made hands, and I was making successful bluffs as well. I was game selecting like a boss, and firing on all cylinders. I had spent a good bit of time studying on this site, watching youtube videos, and also managed to read a well known poker book. I was pumped to implement the new tactics I had learned over the past 2 weeks. After a successful day of jumping in and out of six max tables, I decided 1 more session would be a good idea. I had time left in the day and things were going well. I sat down heads up with a an unknown reg(i do not use a hud I play from my phone) and could tell he was fairly aggro. He started throwing tissue emojis at me after pushing me off a turn, which I xraised on the flop. The next hand I found AA on the button, and lead out 3bb, and he 3bet me 9bbs. I snap jammed, and was heads up vs JJ. My joy quickly turned into frustration after I found myself 4 flushed on the river. He then packed up shop and left the table. Irritated out of my mind I finely managed to find a full six max ring to sit in. Not long into this table, I had picked up AK suited on the button. I ended up heads up with the bb (who was sitting with around 56bb). Flop came 962 two toned giving me the flush draw. I lead out 1/3 pot and was xraised, and I almost instantly snap jammed. He had flopped 2 pair w 96off and i missed my draw. I know the way I played Ak was poor. Fortunately after much frustration I found it in me to simply stop playing. I started the day today looking to get back where I left off, and could not find what i wanted. I decided I was still being a little tilted and read a couple short poker books instead in between calls at my office job. I went about my day, then finally could play in the evening level headed. After the time to reflect I realized what was technically going on in my brain! When I am not titled, I am fine with winning small pots. However, when I am tilted from losing an all in, I am only satisfied if I can win huge all in pots. You maybe saying...no shit, thats what tilt is. You want to win back what you lost which is not rational. Too me this is a big realization about myself. If I lose small pots, I dont care and do not get tilted. However if i lose a whole buy in or multiple buy ins, winning small pots or hands has no meaning what so ever to me. This is a good sign I am tilted and it is time to go. Maybe this is just common sense to most of you, but to those who are still trying to zero in on their tilt it maybe something to examine. Looking to win at showdown and showdown only is not rational! Anyways, thanks for giving me an oitlet to vent and I hope this can help someone as well!

Hey fellow grinders! Story time! I have been playing online poker for the past 8 years. I started off on Carbon Poker, then moved on to ACR. Lucklily i live in Pa, where online poker is legal, so now I play on Pokerstars. Unfortunately, I am still stuck in the micros. It has gotten to the point where i am embarrassed to admit it, but i am still stuck in lower stakes. I have put a lot of effort into becoming a better player. I come from an educated family, where my dad had a phd in Eurpoean history, and my mom a Masters in education. I was diagnosed with ocd when I was 12, and have learned i have a tendency to go all out when i get into different HOBBIES. I have looked at this game from many differnet angles. I have learned via books, playing, youtube, and hear say. Peter Clarke made a great video explaining how the cycle of expecting the same results while doing the same thing can lead to insanity. Unfortunately, in poker it can be difficult to pin point what that same thing is. For the first time in my 8 years of playing I took a long break from poker. I was so frustrated that no matter how hard I tried at figuring out what the solutions to my game were, they never worked in the long run. Fortunately, during my break i started to see a pattern. Every time i stepped away from poker, then came back with a new idea, it worked! I realized the problem could be how often I was playing. I have always had this idea that this needs to fix everything in my game NOW!! That is not the right aproach. I decided this time around to sign up for some training. Thankfully, Phil made the lower stake course extremely inexpensive! No $999 pay up front bullshit. I was studying more than playing. I went to go apply these new techniques, and like always, they worked right away! However, my old bad habit crept right back in. I had moved to .25 .50, and i decided to play just one more session at 1am. My roll ended up cut in half, almost immediately after the first hand. I had told myself, now that i know i do not need to play like a nit and wait for every single hand to connect, No excuses, I can educationally bluff when i do not have it. I ran into a wall! Just because you know how to bluff and also know how to value bet, does not mean you will always should win!! Seriously! If anyone else can relate to my tale of woe, please let this sink in. No matter what you learn, you will not always win!!! It takes time. If you can relate to this story, just take a break. Cut your play time in half. Coming from an educated family, I believe I convince myself taking a break is a copout. I am making some kind of technical error. While this maybe true or maybe not, the errors will always pile up if you do not give your mind some rest! In order to concentrate your brain needs a break. Expecting to win every session, at every table, every day, is not a realistic expectation. I look foward to finally having some accountability for my impulsive behavior, and finally moving on to mid stakes! Thanks for listening and good luck to all!!

Hi guys! On the river there is a lot of information we are to be analyzing before acting. For simplicity I will focus on deciding to hero call or fold, facing villians bet. We all know the questions that we are to ask ourselves. Example: What is villians range from this postion? how did he act on the previous streets? what parts of his range missed? do my cards block his value range? do my cards unblock his bluffs? What is his range with this bet sizing? My question is how do I organize all of these questions? Should I be asking them in a particular order? I understand it will take repitition and practice, and organizing helps me stick to a plan. Any advice is appreciated!