So I'm dealing better with tilt these days, and I'm mostly able to shrug off losses. I am getting into a good mental place. But one thing that I think is hard to accept is when you make a good, creative play, which isn't easy in an STT, and are not rewarded for it.
Here's an example, which made me pretty angry actually:
PokerStars Game #20290830241: Tournament #107327943, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level VI (100/200) - 2008/09/10 4:38:06 ET
Table '107327943 1' 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 3: weepeel (4005 in chips)
Seat 6: FR Vessant (1640 in chips)
I'm short because I've been so card dead. The one time I did have a hand, weepeel completed his SB and I raised, only for him to fold.
I can't figure him out actually. He is the winningmost player I've seen at the 10s and plays pretty LAGgy. I think I'll have to look through his game to see what he's doing that I'm not, because his results are very good.
Seat 7: xSoujirox (3000 in chips)
Seat 9: badbeatfrank (4855 in chips)
This guy has raised my blind four or five times in a row, each time to 450 or 455. At 150, this was a standard raise. I have had rags each time.
weepeel: posts small blind 100
FR Vessant: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FR Vessant [9h 5c]
Nice hand!
xSoujirox: folds
badbeatfrank: raises 255 to 455
Again to 455, but this time it's barely more than the minimum.
Still, I have 95, so instafold, right?
Wrong. He is clearly stealing and it's time to play back. Cards don't matter because I should have fold equity. I expect him to be folding most of the time, maybe 3/4 of the time. The other 1/4, I will suck out 1/3 of it, and lose the other 2/3. So the risk/reward is good.
weepeel: folds
FR Vessant: raises 1185 to 1640 and is all-in
I shove.
badbeatfrank: calls 1185
His call is atrocious. He has Q6s. I am not kidding you. I have played maybe four hands all tourney and shown down only monsters. He has no reason at all to put me on a weaker hand than his, and at least 19/20 times in this spot I would have a hand that crushed his.
So the poker gods reward me for my good play and punish him for his bad, right?
*** FLOP *** [Qc 8s Kh]
Wrong.
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5 comments:
boots sez:
"But one thing that I think is hard to accept is when you make a good, creative play, which isn't easy in an STT, and are not rewarded for it."
"So the poker gods reward me for my good play and punish him for his bad, right?"
Exactly right yet all wrong.
The poker gods are rewarding you for your skill by reminding you that skill is not everything, and they are punishing him for his stupidity by patting him on the back while grinning snidely over their shoulders about what his inflated ego will do to him next.
The poker gods know it isn't about the money, they control access to unlimited amounts of money, they know it's about who you are.
The fact that you act like a doggie wanting a bone gets you a slap upside the head. To get something beyond a slap upside the head you have to reside in a more objective place.
Believe it or not, I am getting there. It's tough when you have a lot of ego tied up in it though, and I'm not likely to be able to withdraw ego before succeeding.
boots sez:
"...and I'm not likely to be able to withdraw ego before succeeding."
If you think you can "succeed" without losing most of that ego, you're not getting there at all.
boots, I know, but it's a paradox. I need to succeed for my ego's sake, but to do so, I need to be able to let go of the ego.
It's not a simple puzzle to resolve.
You know, nearly all the people I'm connected with through poker think I'm going to make it. But I know that in a real sense you are seeing right to the core of my problem, so you are balancing their (unwarranted) positivity, not with negativity, but with reality, and I'm thankful for it.
boots sez:
You want to resolve the paradox?
Redefine what 'success' means.
If you don't, I suspect that it will be redefined for you, so no matter really.
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