Week 3 of the APA training program is done, and it has been a rough ride.
To catch you up; what does John Grisham, Brian Koppelman / David Levien and Jackie Chan have in common? They can all write a movie about the last 3 weeks of my life. (note: There are plans for a sequel to Rounders, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and is focused on online poker! Cant wait!)
In a mix of legal drama, poker and violence I have managed to keep myself sane - well whatever counts as sane these days. The first week of grinding was OK, I was off to a good start. Week 2 suffered greatly , not money wise, but in the number of hours I spent grinding. Got back in the middle of week 3, which also started out great but then lady luck got all hard to get. I ran bad, and played worse because of tilt. (No grimy details, it's too personal.)
Now, what is tilt? Googling reveals that tilt has more definitions than you can guess. Pop Quiz!
a. A medieval combat sport
b. A blunt instrument
c. A bias or favor to one side
d. The act of making something uneven or sloped or the state thereof.
e. A conflict, spat or debate
f. All of the above
Congratulations to you if you chose letter F. Notice that there's a common theme here: tilt is not pleasant. And all of the definitions seem to tell us tilt can give us a headache, either from falling of a horse, blunt force trauma, screaming, slipping, or from a pistol-whipping communist rebel. (Oh, I see you trying to match these to the list above.)
Tilt, in poker speak, is a state of mental confusion or frustration in which a player adopts a less than optimal strategy. In other words, it's when you bitch about sh*t and you play like sh*t because you're such a bitch. This is every poker player's worst enemy. And coupled with denial, it could suck your bankroll dry like a... well, I'd rather not complete the simile.
I hope there's some drug you can take to make tilt go away, because I need one bad. Unfortunately, the only thing that can help you is discipline. Know you're on tilt and acknowledge it. Stay away from the tables and try to cool down. Think things through and know why you're on tilt. Recall if your play was correct, and if it is, take comfort in the fact that in the long run you'll earn from what you did. Badbeats happen, that's poker. Go over your plan of action again and regain focus. Do not play again until you've done all this and have leveled yourself again. (Get it? Leveled as opposed to Tilt? I did not plan that.)
Reasons why I'm tilted right now:
1. Stupid freakin goalwin missing dollars.
2. Playing while talking to goalwin support who thinks I'm some pathetic asswipe who's crying over $15 freakin dollars that I lost in a game. IT'S A SECURITY ISSUE ASSHOLE!
3. Talking to said asswipe support while running bad.
4. Running bad.
5. Running bad.
Ah, there. I feel better already.
