Woo woo.. Revisiting Bad Beats and Tilt.

It's Sunday, soon to be Monday, the start of another workday for me. Normally, I'd probably get in a couple hours of Zs before going to work but a headache is keeping me up. Took 3 asprin, and still I feel as if the left side of my head is going to explode. No worries though.

I probably have swine flu. Everyone has it! It's the new plague. It's going to cause the extinction of the human race. Couldn't stay way from the pigs, could you, pigfuckers?

For real though.. as you may or may not have seen from my last post (if anyone is in fact reading this), I had a bad session from last you knew. Ended it down about ~$7 (including rake). I was playing earlier today however, and didn't do so bad. Won $4. So this month I'm down $1! But that's the norm. I usually have a "rocky" start at the beginning of every month. I expect good things from this month. I just need to focus on my own play, and be consistent. Switching styles can be beneficial, but only when the game dynamic changes.. not the card dynamic. -_-;

One of my biggest leaks is probably becoming impatient while i'm card-dead, and start opening up with a variety of random-ass shit like J4 suited. Why not? J4 suited or not seemed to be rigged in the home games I played over at a friend's in LA. Hit everytime. Fold J4? Flop would come JJ4, or 44J, or J4K, with a 4 on the turn, or a jack on the river. Fuckin' hax.

But I seemed to have gotten off-track. Not only did I open up and start playing too loose when I was card-dead, but also when I saw other idiots winning big pots. I literally saw a guy in a game a couple weeks ago with something like a 70% VPIP (voluntarily put money in pot, meaning he was playing over 70% of his hands) win ~$11 dollars in less than 10 minutes. I couldn't believe this idiot was running the game over. I opened up a little looser to get in a pot with him and ended up having to fold because he was betting too aggressively for me to get the right odds with my draws. He shit-talked me as I fold. I was getting a bit annoyed. Then I get dealt pocket Kings. I make a big raise ~20 cents(normally, it's ~8 cents) because i'm 90% sure he'll call it, and 90% sure he'll have jack and diddly when the flop comes. Sure enough he calls it, the flop comes.. Qc8cTd. I bet a little over 2/3rds the pot. He raises. (Now I probably should have bet pot sized, and reraised him here.) I'm pretty sure he has a flushdraw. Turn comes and puts another flushdraw on the board. 2 of diamonds. There's around 2 bucks in the pot, and I got 5 behind, he's got 6. Any decent sized bet is going to commit me here, so I shove my $5 into the pot. He calls and the river comes a Jc. OF COURSE. Practically the worst card in the deck, completing any straight or flush draws OR STRAIGHT-FLUSH draws. He turns over 23s, of clubs, and scoops the pot. I go looking for a barf bag. I had no choice but to quit playing thereafter. I couldn't if i wanted to. A player I'm clearly better than was shit talking me, and then taking all my money on a draw he head nowhere near the odds to chase, getting less than 2-1 on a 4-1 shot.

Situations like the above are things i've been dealing with all week. But with each day, I grow more and more knowledgable from this game. I figure with the growing experience at the table, I'll be able to develop a thick skin needed to deal with bad beats, and not go on tilt after. Most of the time I take an absurd beat, like the one mentioned, I stop playing. I realize that I'm going to be rattled by it and that my concentration is going to be off. I'm just thankful I'm able to realize that where others are not. I'm honest with myself, and I know myself pretty well. Poker takes supreme patience, and great observation. I believe that this long road I'm traveling with 01/02 micros at the moment will lead to shorter paths to higher limits in short time. One can only hope! ;) See ya tomorrow, kids.