Tilt Profiles

This is just a short entry, I wanted to write about TILT.

It's become clear to me that it's become difficult for me to recognise, or maybe just accept that I'm on tilt and should therefore stop playing. I guess it's just too easy to kid myself that I'm not on tilt, or that I am but if I just CONCENTRATE or DON'T DO ANYTHING STUPID then I'll still be able to make money.

Tilt for me these days manifests fairly subtly. Long gone are the days when I, or anyone else, just starts open shoving hands or 3betting like a maniac. I mean sometimes I will snap 3bet 63s or something VS EP, but it's a clear signal to me to stop and I insta do.

That tells me that I don't actually have a problem with stopping, instead my problem is maybe just recognising when I am on tilt, and accepting the extent of the damage that subtle tilt can cause.

I think there's some sort of belief that I'm SO GOOD that I can be on subtle tilt and still win. I'm excited to put that belief to bed. It can be put to bed by virtue of overwhelming anecdotal evidence.

I. NEVER. WIN. WHEN. ON. SUBTLE. TILT.

EVER.

So, this is exciting, maybe it's just all about recognition! How do I recognise it? Well, simply by identifying all the symptoms and characteristics of subtle tilt.

Here are the symptoms of each of my 'playing mindsets'. Please forgive me for calling my non-tilt mindset 'the magic'. When I'm 'on it', that's what it feels like.

'THE MAGIC':

* it appears always in the current moment, so by definition no 'rushing'
* I easily and constantly bring myself back to what is happening right now
* constant evaluation of the EV of what we're doing
* often leads to a creative play, a big fold bet or call
* easy and simple thinking ahead, stopping us leaking money
* non judgement of situations, or even positive judgement of them
* mind is not on money
* in each decision I wait for the 'magic' answer


'THE SUBTLE TILT':

* a subtle 'desperation' to play and win is present
* 'rushing' through hands trying to get money
* plays are largely standard. never 'terrible', just 2p2 standard which doesn't win at 200nl+
* a false belief that 2p2 standard will be good enough to do well
* technical leaks such as leaking money with poor early calls and un-thought-through bets
* judgement of situations 'stupid turn', I'm so unlucky, poker hates me, his big bet is stupid
* mind is largely on money, current bankroll, annoyed
* buttons are pressed quickly and irrationally, we don't wait for the 'magic' answer

I really believe that if I go through 2016 playing (maybe less) poker without ever being on 'the subtle tilt' that I could print infinite amounts of money. There's more work to do on this probably, but I think recognition and quitting is the most important thing right now. I currently in my low BR state have a lot of 'triggers' of subtle tilt, and they can be identified and addressed some other time.

Probably the easiest of 'the subtle tilt' characteristics to recognise is the desperation that I feel. Quitting doesn't feel like a good option, I NEED to win and I'm good enough to, right? Wrong!

There's probably another profile or two in there somewhere. I should probably write out the 'hasn't drank water, maybe had gluten, is tired' profile, but I simply plan to negate that one occurring by drinking water, avoiding gluten, and sleeping!

2015 Results

+ about $34k rakeback. Actually my worst year as a professional, but still not 'lol bad, terrible' of course. It's all relative, I've had periods of complete meltdown at times this year.

I could talk about several areas of potential improvement going forward, but honestly I think the main improvement is just one of lifestyle. Eat regularly, drink a lot of water, don't play when I'm not feeling it, quit when I'm not feeling it, and always always bring myself back to the hand currently in progress when any other kind of ideas take hold.

I start the year extremely low BR'd, the above graph is deceptive- I basically won infinite at 100 and lost it at 200 and 500 in the latter quarter of the year. I sorta don't wanna stay at 100, a) because of my pride, and b) because I worry that I'll become indoctrinated to that level. There's a good chance though that it's so ridiculously lol-soft that it's better value than 200 atm. 200 is rapeable too though, I just have to grow my BR to the point that I'm not looking over my shoulder when playing it, while also removing the 'need' to play which causes me to play during sub optimal times (aka, my head's done in with something).

Deffo going to aim for lots of hands though, but if I have a single resolution for this year, it's to remember that 'not playing' in certain situations is infinitely preferable to playing. And over the year, I'm going to get decently rewarded for just watching Netflix instead.

Hope you're all well.

Dan