Hand 1: 2 limps, Hero ($1k) $15 KsJh OTB, both call

Flop ($45): Jd4h3d
Checks to Hero, Hero $30, fold, CO shoves $160.

I’ve never seen him do anything OOL and I’m a believer of bet/fold, so I fold face up. He shows 87dd and I leave.


Hand 2 from next session: $15 6-way bomb pot, Hero QQdc in CO. $800 effective.

Flop ($90): Ts8s4d
Checks to Hero, Hero $50, buddy on BTN calls, SB nit calls.

Turn (240): Th

Horrrible card since someone has to have a T, SB checks, Hero checks, buddy on BTN $105, fold, I fold because he wouldn’t bluff me.

I fold face up again, he shows Qs8h and genuinely thought he was good since I didn’t bet turn. I was just amazed he called my flop bet with middle pair; he put me on a flush draw. I leave upset again.



How do I deal with this? It seems to get to me. I don’t think I played either of these too wrong.

H1 is a call and you definitely played it wrong. It isn't a slam dunk call, since you'll lose a solid 40% of the time, but calling is +EV.

H2 is ok, but the big mistake in both hands is showing. Stop doing that.

Tilt management is a broad subject. It comes down to having to change your personality. Poker isn't the only activity you do where you tilt. You can't turn it off at the poker table and then turn it back on in the rest of your life. You've been posting long enough that clearly "getting used to it" isn't going to be the answer for you.

Many people never get over it (see Phil Helmuth). But there are books and techniques to reduce it. See which one works for you. Be aware that this is going to be a very long process and could takes years to resolve, if ever.

I think I’m in the “will never get over it” Helmuth camp. It’s the same exact reason I hate playing 2/5, because I see similar patterns of being outplayed often there, whereas it happens so rarely at 1/2 or 1/3 that I can bet/fold to impunity there being correct almost 95%+ of the time, with the exception of some hands like the above.

Which makes me think... why do I worry so much about outliers? I shouldn’t, right?

Grunch: Stop folding face up.

You seem to have all the data necessary to make rational decision on not to tilt...

I think you enjoy showing others how great your fold was, and it works 95%+ of the times as you put it and 95% you feel great.... However, if the 5% of the times you are wrong is affecting you this badly, it's time you stop doing that...

expecting your friend to not bluff you is kinda collusion...also, its unfair to expect a friend not to play poker with you.

I am a firm believer of playing the averages on a typical 1-2/3 table, but I would never say I do it with impunity...the play based on averages is good until you have good reads on V's. Having said that, if I decide to bet and fold I would be proud to see being bluffed or otherwise...

poker is a game of equity...unless someone is drawing dead, there's always equity. don't be surprised if thin equity spans out (thank the V for giving you the opportunity to make money...inside, of course), as you never owned 100% of the pot anyways...if you are folding, know why you are folding...know there's always a chance you are folding the better hand, but know that u r still doing it for long term profitability. Then when the bluff spans out, it's just part of the play...besides it's a valuable data point on the villain...if you are never folding a winning hand, you are playing bad poker.

embrace poker for everything it is...

I’m no psychiatrist, but folding face up is possibly one of your tilt triggers. You are essentially telling everyone how ‘good’ you are and are looking for confirmation. When someone proves you wrong it sends you in a tail spin. If you stop folding face up you will get much less needling.

And on the flip side, never show a bluff that gets through. Even though that’s an instant ‘I’m good’ confirmation, the point of tilt control is to stay as even keeled as possible on both sides.

Just my 2 cents.

Marsh

Mental game weak af if you’re snap getting up after being shown a bluff after making bad folds.

Also, you'll stop telling Vs "look! I can be bluffed!" I mean the amount of free info you are giving just for ego reasons is awful.

You folded TP and pocket Q's when they were good and called the guy in the second hand that bluffed you off the Q's a nit. You were playing kind of nitty there. You're making bad decisions. Get up and walk away. Switch tables or casinos even. Good players are gonna start abusing your hero folds since you showed then you are losing money making hero calls and the downward spiral continues.

H1 spr of 3.5 and have TP on super wet board? Snap call.

H2 is ok

bet 75$ in hand 2 OTF

Hand 1, probably a good fold in the long run. Most bluffs will be pair + FD or some kind of gutshot with FD + an over(ace) which has you flipping and the times you are behind 34/sets will offset this. That being said, I am extremely suspicious when people just jam in their whole stack, it really looks bluffy. A set would not likely play that way on a fairly dry board (one flush draw+ few innocuous straight draws.

h2 wasn't that bad. If people never got bluffs through you then you're a huge station, it's just part of the game. As others said there's absolutely no reason to show especially since the information you're giving for free is so huge (that you tend to nit-fold).

Benzodiazepine.

I've folded face up from time to time because I knew my opponent would show his hand if he was bluffing, and I was more interested in knowing what he had than I was concerned about the info I was giving by showing my hand. In general don't show the hero folds though, especially if you're prone to tilt if you don't like what you get shown.

As for tilt itself, I used to be the king of tilt. To the point that I looked at my sessions and win rate and knew that it would double if I eliminated tilt. For me it was over a year long process of making a concerted effort to not tilt. It started first by having the discipline to walk away when I felt it coming on, and eventually evolved to not tilting at all. It wasn't easy, and it was a matter that for a while I had to focus more effort on that than I did on improving my game in general. In the end it was worth it though, as it was by far the biggest single improvement I've made to my game, and it's really allowed me to grow as a player in a way that I otherwise wouldn't have been able to. There are a lot of ways to deal with tilt and overcome it, but in the end it really is about mind over matter and self accountability.

Never give out free information.

As a matter of fact, if you are on the river and nothing worse can call, bet anyway to avoid showing your hand. It drives me nuts when people justify their "showdown monkey" tendencies by saying "nothing worse can call". Good, then we win without showing our cards. That's a win/win in my book.

Poker is a game of information, and the winner of the information battle is the winner of the war.

I also disagree with the whole "show to make them show" play. While you might gain information, so do your opponents (and they get theirs for free), and in order to gain information on one person, you have given information to 8. Not a good trade.

No one, and I mean no one, is watching you make your "hero folds" (right or wrong), and thinking "Wow, what a great player he is. I wish I could be him!"

Just don't mix them with opioids ..... Bad combination

+3722

Not the right game for you then, not trying to be harsh

Not the right game for Hellmuth then either right? Seems like a silly argument.

I needed this. Never ever showing again.

OMFG.. LMAOOOO

I firmly believe Hellmuth is just a performance artists and thinks he is trying to get in his opponents head. I don't believe 95% of his tilt and tirades are honest.

Reading that you folded face up was cringey. Don't do it.

Also, everyone gets bluffed some times. EVERYONE. The thing to remember is that in theses stakes, people don't bluff big anywhere near an percentage. It's a mix of playing vs. calling stations and a general lack of having big bluffs as part of their game. Tells can be mildly helpful, but usually you just want to fold these marginal spots and not think twice about them.

Always hero calling because "they might be bluffing" is what the fish do. You're not going to make money hero calling at low stakes .

On the basis of hand 1 alone (and a fair amount of your threads) the best thing would probably be to quit poker altogether or at least start working rigorously on your mental game, which is indeed, as Johnny put it so eloquently, "weak af".

stop folding face up

also hand 1: this kind of bet on the flop vs. with this opponent stack size is almost always a flush draw. Jx calls the flop, a set min-raises it.

hand 2 i dont see how you can fold in a bomb pot. your odds are too good, and players will be more aggro trying to steal it.

dude me too, I used to fall for it but after a while you realize that he is just ****ing around

it's not possible for someone to accomplish what he's accomplished with a weak mental game, haven't really seen him blow up and spew off stacks, he just loves the attention I think and doing his whole act, which I find hilarious, maybe it is part genuine lol