Dealing with Success - Nov 1, 2005
Just wanted to give a quick status report and talk a little about positive tilt. I had a very good October. If you read below you will see that I have had success playing multis. After my big multi win I have decided to play a couple others.
Last Friday I finished 15th out of about 700 in a $30 Multi. Unfortunately, this only nets out at around $100. I have played a couple others where I have been bounced out without cards or got in a coinflip early because I wanted to accumulate chips. My strategy for multis is to try to play a lot of suited connectors and pocket pairs from late position against a lot of players or against aggressive players early in the tournament. The idea is to double up and accumulate chips. Two things happen. Either you never hit your flop and you slowly lose chips or you hit your flop and double up and become the chip leader.
If you become the chip leader, then it is time to find out who is scared of getting knocked out of the tournament. Pick on them and put them to the test. You can buy a lot of pots off these guys. Also, you can buy a lot of small pots because no one wants to mess with you. However, if you are not lucky and end up being mid stacked, it is time to slow down. At this point, I try to wait for a good hand to get all in against one person. I am okay with a coinflip at this point because it is so valuable to accumulate chips before the blinds increase. Basically I wait for a pocket pair or AK, AQ and I reraise all in and isolate against one player. If you win your coinflip, then you are back to able to play more prospective hands and are looking to double up again. If not, you are out of the tourney.
My biggest dissapointment was a multi I was playing this weekend. There were 1100 players that started the tournament and 300 remained. Top 120 made money and I was sitting on 5000 chips. Average stack was 3500 and there was a lot of money at my table which is ideal. The blinds were 75/150 and there were a few guy at the table with around 1000 chips. I pick up KK in EP (early position) and limp in. I am hoping for either an all in raise from someone or a big enough raise that I can move them all in. I don't 6-7 players playing this hand, but I want the opportunity to double up or take someone's stack. Unfortunately, I didn't get a raise from a 1000-2000 chip stack. Everyone folds to the big blind who raises to 300. Only 150 more to call, but I think I can raise the stakes against this guy.
I raise it to 1200 and the bb calls. He had me covered barely so this is an opportunity to double up with only 300 to go and take the tourney chip lead. Flop comes KQ4 with two hearts. As I'm thinking about how I can get more chips out of this guy he moves all in. Wow! I call instantly because not only do I have top set, but I also have the K of hearts. He turns over AA and I'm sitting pretty. Turn is a heart and River is another heart giving me a King high flush and giving my opponent an Ace high flush. Devastating because I would have been able to run over my table for a while and build my stack before the bubble. Oh well, I put myself in a great position so I can't complain. I just understand why my opponent didn't reraise all in before the flop. The result would have been the same however.
The month of October was great to me. I had my big multi win which always helps the bankroll. But even if you take that big win away, my monthly profit was over double any other month's results this year. I should be excited, but I'm a bit worried. I am glad I'm having these feelings because I don't want to experience positive tilt. We all have heard of tilt which is an expression in poker when someone goes off the deep end and starts making very bad decisions. The idea behind the word is that they tilt over and money comes pouring out of them. Usually people suffer a bad beat and they get really really frustrated. They just lost a big hand as a favorite, so instead of congratulating themselves on playing the hand well, they look at the short term results of losing the big hand and panic. They get ultra aggressive and start raising with hands they shouldn't and calling with hands they shouldn't. All of a sudden their $50 loss turns into $400 and they don't know what hit them.
I am thankful that I feel I can control my emotions. I seem to bear down when things are bad and battle back up. I also don't like losing money so if I feel I'm not keeping my composure, I usually quit. The game isn't as fun for me if I'm not winning so I usually play a lot less and thus avoid the negative tilt. However, I have the opposite problem. When I win, I sometimes go on positive tilt. Not during the course of an evening or a week, but if I have had great success over a course of a couple weeks or months, I usually struggle soon thereafter. Last year, I had two months where I felt unstoppable and couldn't lose playing $30 and $50 SNGs. I was in a zone. Lucky for me, when I go on these runs I usually cash some of my winnings out. This is great advice for someone starting out at poker. I get arrogant during my streak and start daydreaming and calculating what I would need to win per day to make it as a poker professional. After my zone ends, I wonder why I'm not winning every game I play, then I start questioning my decisions and changing my game.
This past weekend I noticed that I was playing way too many hands in Limit Hold Em. Maybe it was because I was still in Multi strategy mode and hadn't changed to Limit mode. However, as I was entering my losses into my spreadsheet that tracks all my results, I thought about last year. I had a huge run last year and slowly thereafter lost a lot of my winnings back. I probably had two or three straight losing months after the winning month. I think this was a case of positive tilt, playing differently because I had won money and just getting off my rhythm. Luckily for me it didn't turn into negative tilt where I would be susceptable to a huge losing day. I lost a little over a long period of time and still came out ahead, but it is something I need to realize as it is happening and make my adjustment.
My advice for someone with similar issues? 1) take money out after a big win. It will make you think before you deposit more money. 2) Keep detailed records so you realize how you are playing in the short run. I keep statistics by month, type of game (limit, SNGs, Multis) and where I play (Party Poker, Poker Stars, Pacific Poker, House Games, etc.). 3) Keep short term records. I think I am going to add a results over the past week function to my spreadsheet. Then I can realize if I am on positive tilt after a big score in the middle of the month.
Thankfully I noticed that I was playing looser. I made some adjustments and had some very good Halloween Limit success to end the month. Hopefully, by writing this down and following the three rules above, I will remember this post the next time I feel positive tilt coming.
Last Friday I finished 15th out of about 700 in a $30 Multi. Unfortunately, this only nets out at around $100. I have played a couple others where I have been bounced out without cards or got in a coinflip early because I wanted to accumulate chips. My strategy for multis is to try to play a lot of suited connectors and pocket pairs from late position against a lot of players or against aggressive players early in the tournament. The idea is to double up and accumulate chips. Two things happen. Either you never hit your flop and you slowly lose chips or you hit your flop and double up and become the chip leader.
If you become the chip leader, then it is time to find out who is scared of getting knocked out of the tournament. Pick on them and put them to the test. You can buy a lot of pots off these guys. Also, you can buy a lot of small pots because no one wants to mess with you. However, if you are not lucky and end up being mid stacked, it is time to slow down. At this point, I try to wait for a good hand to get all in against one person. I am okay with a coinflip at this point because it is so valuable to accumulate chips before the blinds increase. Basically I wait for a pocket pair or AK, AQ and I reraise all in and isolate against one player. If you win your coinflip, then you are back to able to play more prospective hands and are looking to double up again. If not, you are out of the tourney.
My biggest dissapointment was a multi I was playing this weekend. There were 1100 players that started the tournament and 300 remained. Top 120 made money and I was sitting on 5000 chips. Average stack was 3500 and there was a lot of money at my table which is ideal. The blinds were 75/150 and there were a few guy at the table with around 1000 chips. I pick up KK in EP (early position) and limp in. I am hoping for either an all in raise from someone or a big enough raise that I can move them all in. I don't 6-7 players playing this hand, but I want the opportunity to double up or take someone's stack. Unfortunately, I didn't get a raise from a 1000-2000 chip stack. Everyone folds to the big blind who raises to 300. Only 150 more to call, but I think I can raise the stakes against this guy.
I raise it to 1200 and the bb calls. He had me covered barely so this is an opportunity to double up with only 300 to go and take the tourney chip lead. Flop comes KQ4 with two hearts. As I'm thinking about how I can get more chips out of this guy he moves all in. Wow! I call instantly because not only do I have top set, but I also have the K of hearts. He turns over AA and I'm sitting pretty. Turn is a heart and River is another heart giving me a King high flush and giving my opponent an Ace high flush. Devastating because I would have been able to run over my table for a while and build my stack before the bubble. Oh well, I put myself in a great position so I can't complain. I just understand why my opponent didn't reraise all in before the flop. The result would have been the same however.
The month of October was great to me. I had my big multi win which always helps the bankroll. But even if you take that big win away, my monthly profit was over double any other month's results this year. I should be excited, but I'm a bit worried. I am glad I'm having these feelings because I don't want to experience positive tilt. We all have heard of tilt which is an expression in poker when someone goes off the deep end and starts making very bad decisions. The idea behind the word is that they tilt over and money comes pouring out of them. Usually people suffer a bad beat and they get really really frustrated. They just lost a big hand as a favorite, so instead of congratulating themselves on playing the hand well, they look at the short term results of losing the big hand and panic. They get ultra aggressive and start raising with hands they shouldn't and calling with hands they shouldn't. All of a sudden their $50 loss turns into $400 and they don't know what hit them.
I am thankful that I feel I can control my emotions. I seem to bear down when things are bad and battle back up. I also don't like losing money so if I feel I'm not keeping my composure, I usually quit. The game isn't as fun for me if I'm not winning so I usually play a lot less and thus avoid the negative tilt. However, I have the opposite problem. When I win, I sometimes go on positive tilt. Not during the course of an evening or a week, but if I have had great success over a course of a couple weeks or months, I usually struggle soon thereafter. Last year, I had two months where I felt unstoppable and couldn't lose playing $30 and $50 SNGs. I was in a zone. Lucky for me, when I go on these runs I usually cash some of my winnings out. This is great advice for someone starting out at poker. I get arrogant during my streak and start daydreaming and calculating what I would need to win per day to make it as a poker professional. After my zone ends, I wonder why I'm not winning every game I play, then I start questioning my decisions and changing my game.
This past weekend I noticed that I was playing way too many hands in Limit Hold Em. Maybe it was because I was still in Multi strategy mode and hadn't changed to Limit mode. However, as I was entering my losses into my spreadsheet that tracks all my results, I thought about last year. I had a huge run last year and slowly thereafter lost a lot of my winnings back. I probably had two or three straight losing months after the winning month. I think this was a case of positive tilt, playing differently because I had won money and just getting off my rhythm. Luckily for me it didn't turn into negative tilt where I would be susceptable to a huge losing day. I lost a little over a long period of time and still came out ahead, but it is something I need to realize as it is happening and make my adjustment.
My advice for someone with similar issues? 1) take money out after a big win. It will make you think before you deposit more money. 2) Keep detailed records so you realize how you are playing in the short run. I keep statistics by month, type of game (limit, SNGs, Multis) and where I play (Party Poker, Poker Stars, Pacific Poker, House Games, etc.). 3) Keep short term records. I think I am going to add a results over the past week function to my spreadsheet. Then I can realize if I am on positive tilt after a big score in the middle of the month.
Thankfully I noticed that I was playing looser. I made some adjustments and had some very good Halloween Limit success to end the month. Hopefully, by writing this down and following the three rules above, I will remember this post the next time I feel positive tilt coming.
posted by Steve K at 9:38 AM
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