We’ve all been there. Well most of us have. And for those of you who haven’t yet - be prepared for the cruel side of poker. I’m talking about that hole in which we find ourselves at times, struggling to get the A-game back together, if not fully consumed by the tilt.
To be honest I’ve never had swings as big as I’ve had during the last 1½ month. Moving from 2-4 to 30-60 and big pot limit games might have something to do with it, but after two rushes followed by two similar losing periods, I finally find myself in that place I’ve come accustomed to, and truly hate being at.
You know the symptoms. A slight sense of seasickness, the feeling that no matter how you play your hand the rivermonster is going to get you, and a lust to fight back at whoever push you. You probably play for longer periods a day then you usually do, fully determined that you’re going to kick this freaking thing etc. In short - you’re on tilt. Not what is usually implied by the term (a session where you play your C-game after a bad beat or two). No - this is the real thing, as it can last for months. I remember Evenmoney asking some time ago, where all those players he remembered a couple of years ago had gone. The most likely answer is that they hit the big hole, and never recovered psychologically or financially.
Causes
Usually it starts out as a normal tilt in a session. However, when you’ve been tilting or just losing you run a serious risk of it becoming chronic. The causes seem to fall in four categories: Bad beats, cold decks, “money blindness”, and table adjustment problems.
Bad beats are usually the thing putting you on tilt in a session. It’s not that the bad beats are necessarily worse or more frequent. It’s just that it gets to me, in a way that it usually doesn’t. Even on my good periods I suppose that I loose to at least one 1-outer a day.
Cold decks are a serious issue. A basic premise of statistics is that anything that can happen eventually will. And believe me - odd things do happen over time. I’ve had a period of 10,000 hands where I booked a net loss on AA!!! You will have periods where you just get slightly worse cards then average, and there’s nothing you can do about that, except try and limit the losses. Tom McEvoy once had a full year where he booked a net win of 400$ for a full year!!! Needless to say - the mental strain of such a period is tremendous. I think that cold decks are normally a part of the explanation when you hit the hole. Or rather - cold decks is usually what push you down that hole to begin with. As soon as you’re down there, you can stay there until you stop digging, no matter how the cards run.
Money blindness and table adjustment problems are two sides of the same issue. Often when I hit it hard, it’s just after I’ve tried breaking through at a higher limit then my normal one.
Money blindness occurs when I move back to my normal limit. All of a sudden my expectations $-wise have been set way too high, as I’ve become used to some wins (and losses) way higher then can reasonably be expected at this lower limit. And if you expect to make 30$ per hour at a 2-4$ table, chances are that you will push way too hard, and get punished big time for playing too loose and too aggressive. The money blindness cause you to fight vigorously for way more pots then your fair share.
While money blindness gives you a hard time adjusting properly to different table conditions, it’s usually not the only thing doing this. When trying to break through at a higher limit then your normal one, you’ll usually have to learn and apply quite a few new ideas. For instance playing the blinds seem to be a lot different in high limit poker, then it does at the lower limits. Or rather - the importance of good blinds play increases tremendously when you hit the high limits. Also aggressiveness is the name of the game up there, and deception becomes a real issue (which it’s not in any way at 2-4$). When you move from say 10-20$ to 2-4$ to contain damage, you’ll have a tendency to apply some of these new ideas, in situations where they’re not applicable. At 2-4$ you have lots of family pots and numerous calling stations. At 10-20 you play heads up most of the time. Moving down typically makes you bluff way too much, to mention one common mistake. To sum it up - from a high limit tilt, you suddenly find yourself without your A-game at any limit!!!
Effects.
When I find myself digging on the bottom of that hole I typically find myself making the following errors (feel free to add your own errors in replies):
- A refusal to lay down a hand no matter what the opponent does
Basically I don’t break for no one, and pay dearly for it. I find myself incapable of laying down garbage, simply because my attention is on winning the maximum number of pots, not the maximum amount of $.
- Preference for running bluffs when the opponent has shown strength (intimidation)
Ok I admit it. I’m pissed off. And I’m REALLY easily intimidated. Somehow a raise works on me like a red handkerchief on a bull. I re-raise, even when I should know that I’m beat. Also I tend to bluff when someone has shown strength, instead of focusing on the pots no one wants. And worse still. I keep betting when called.
- Loose start hand selection justified in the belief that you can shoot your way through the field after the flop.
My start hand selection tends to be on the loose side. Again if you insist on winning all pots, you got to take a lot of flops. Also I seem to bluff myself into believing that I can ram my way through after the flop, though I should know that this is not very likely against multiple opponents.
- Long hours for too long a period
The sense of seasickness and the intimidation keeps me coming back at the tables “to find that sucker and bust his balls”. Nothing beats a hurt ego in this respect.
- It takes nothing to put you on tilt
Even when I’m well prepared for a session - I’ve read my notes and I’ve done my mental exercises - it takes nothing to get me back on tilt. I guess it’s the ego again....
How to get up?
Well I’m not a shrink, and what works for me might not work for you. However. As poker seems to be designed in a way that mans first instincts always point him in the wrong direction, you should seriously consider not doing all the things that you feel like doing pokerwise. What I mean by this you’ll see shortly.
But before you can start working your way up, you’ll have to realize that you’re in a hole to begin with. It sounds like a banality, but it really isn’t. In my experience the length of time you’ll spend down there can be significantly reduced, if you get better at realizing where you are, as this is a prerequisite for working on getting out of it. My first down period lasted for three full months. Today I think I’d only have lasted a week or two, simply because I’ve been better at realizing when I’m stuck. As it happens I’ve only been losing for four consecutive days while writing this, but all the symptoms are there.
Probably the best of all remedies is to take a complete break from poker. I fully agree with Doyle Brunson when he writes: “Taking a long break because of a big problem is the logical extension of the proven practise of taking a short break because of a little problem. So you’ll be doing yourself a service if you follow this rule: Never play when you’re upset.” The only problem with this is that I’m a gambloholic and ESPECIALLY feel like playing WHEN I’m upset. Nevertheless. Taking a break is the best way to rebuild your shaken confidence.
The sense of moving down limit should be obvious. Yet your instincts tell you to do just the opposite. “It’s all those lucky fishes that get me down - get me up among decent players”. Wrong! If you think it over you know in advance that you wont win no matter what the limit is. The problem is your mental state. Poker is all about utilizing the information available, and when you know that your A-game is not available, you should quit - or failing that, you should at least consider moving down limit where your losses will be smaller.
Finally I can recommend reading and writing. I always find comfort in my old notes at times of trouble. It usually turns out that I’ve been in this hole before. Though most of the problem is usually on the mental side, you’ll often need to rebuild your game skills as well. To get out of the confusion, playing good solid risk aversive poker at a limit where you know your way around. Getting some consistent wins will also help rebuild your confidence.