New Reader

Is it just me or when you are loosing bad and go on "tilt" do you start doing stupid shit? I lost that 15$ when i was holding pocket fives (oh boy) flopped a 5 for trips and got beat by the full house the other guy OBVIOUSLY had by the way he was betting. STUPID donkey move! - nijle

You have asked about my most expert subject: TILT. Alot of times you may not really feel your on tilt. Your face maybe gets a little warm. You chase a flush here and there. After taking a bad beat though it is usually a good idea to take a break. I also like to take a break after I have been playing for a few hours. You can only stay dialed in for so long. So breathers are good.

One thing I am trying to do is take a grinding approach. My goal on average is to make $13 a day playing two tables of 25/NL. I think it is a reasonable goal. Some nights I will hit a nice SNG score or do really well and make more, other nights I will lose a buyin or more and not do as well. I sort of think making a target or a goal is good because you can say: Ok, if I stick to this, I should be able to get to (X) dollars in 6 months. You may not make this goal. However it gives you something to look forward to.

As you make more and more of these small achievable goals you can start moving up the ladder and playing 50/NL and 100/NL or whatever you want. You can see the $13 a day become $26 at 50/NL and $52 at 100/NL and suddenly your bankroll has some momentum and is looking pretty nice. The whole key to making money in poker is grinding out sustainable wins over time and not sweating the variance.

I also am trying to keep my loses down on any given night. I give myself two buyins to play with. If I win great.. If I lose then I am not getting lucky or I am not playing well and so be it.

Check yourself against your goals every two weeks or so and see how your bankroll is growing. If it is not use a tool like poker tracker and figure out where you are losing. In your biggest losses did you tilt off and lose more than you set aside for the night. Did you get frustrated and start chasing every draw and calling all in with TPS(hit)K(icker).

I only gave one peice of advice to Kitty ever and it was this: FOLD. Fold often. Fold frequently. Fold all the time. Be a folding machine. She thought I was talking about a sweater she knitted but when I explained it helped her game. I noticed I was getting stacked way too often with top pair. I went back to the folding ways and it seems to be paying off. Be patient. You will get better hands than top pair to beat your opponent with but only if you give yourself the time to get those hands. In the limits we are playing right now it is especially important to fold. As a matter of fact I do not think it would be a bad thing to say: I will not lose more than 25% of my stack with TPTK or something like that. Getting stacked when your AK flops an Ace and someone else hits a set is just no fun. It is not profitable poker. I see alot of people cackle with glee as they put there whole stacks in on a marginally good read with TPTK and win. In the long run I think you lose more often.

So hang in there. Take it slow. Some people get lucky and win huge MTTs, but the cash grinder just consistantly makes a profit year after year. Play within your bankroll. Good luck.