Missives From A Pretend Professional Poker Player - Part 3. Tilt

I've never had much of a problem with tilt. At least not in the 'smashing the lot in with entirely irrational play' sense.

I'm sure I've occasionally suffered from 'winner's tilt' and made over optimistic plays when running good.

Equally when running bad I DO get frustrated. I DO curse at the monitor. I DO bemoan my luck and swear vengeance on the villains.

What I don't do is throw my money away in an entirely random manner.

I'm not sure whether I've just got a good temperament, or whether I'm so stingy I simply can't bear to drop any cash unnecessarily. Either way, I know it's a good way to be, and I was worried that playing much more intensively than I'm used to might have a negative impact on this trait.

Fortunately, so far it seems, so good. Which may have been helped by a striking incident I was a beneficiary of in more ways than one...

A new Scandie player joined one of my many tables and was seated directly to my right.

Almost immediately we tangled in a few blind v button type hands, where he raised me off a couple of hands post-flop with what I soon came to realise were most probably 'moves'.

Having dropped a few dollars to him, I paid close attention as his aggressive style chipped him up to double his buy-in.

My thoughts were that he seemed a player, but I might be able to trap him if the right hand came along. I needn't have worried. His implosion was imminent.

His downfall began in what probably seemed like a dreamily perfect scenario, as he picked up KK v QQ in an all-in pre coup. His all-action style no doubt ensuring his opponent was eager to commit pre-flop.

The dream was shattered, however, as a third queen returned him to parity.

Ouch, I thought. That's got to hurt. Which it clearly did, as he immediately open shoved 100BB pre-flop in the next hand, and the next, and the next...

Whereupon my prayers were answered as I picked up KK and crushed his Q3o, to almost double me through. That was the end of my Scandie pal, as he disappeared without a word.

We tend to remember the bad beats and gloss over the good ones, but I think the memory of this little adventure has served me well over the couple of weeks since it happened.

The lesson I drew was that talent and skill alone are not enough. A dispassionate temperament is required too.

There's no point winning money with good play, only to throw it away through tilt. Two steps forward followed by two steps back equals a long walk to nowhere.

That's a path I do not intend to tread.