Camouflage

“Just then a big marine, a giant with a pair of friendly eyes,appeared there at my shoulder and said wait”

Well actually ( unlike Stan Ridgeways classic 80’s hit) he didn’t appear at all and I tilted away just over $100 late last night.


The night began pleasantly enough with the S-man visiting and a few turbos being played at Pokerroom.I worried when I started playing poker that it would be addictive in the way that fruit machines can be, and I gave myself a monthly budget that I would spend on my hobby.Luckily for me I’ve been able to make a profit at the micro-limits but the S-man and I have discovered the crack cocaine of poker that is Laddys $2, 1 chip all in or fold sngs.( auto all in when in small blind or big blind).There’s a tiny amount of skill ( if not in sb or bb at start of sng) but really it’s just a gamble.


That wasn’t where I did my tilting though as I actually won $14 for my two 1 chip games.I think the trigger was a cash game at PR whilst waiting on Miami Mark to finish his game.It was only a $25 nl full ring game and I’d just won a pot with queens ( raised preflop and forced two callers to fold with a continuation bet on an Ace high flop) when I get 8c9c and call a raise.The flop paired my 9, and gave me a flush draw, so I reckoned even if the villain had hit his ace, I had plenty of outs.Bottom line was I missed and my stack went from $30 to $16.I’m not even sure why this pushed me over the edge, as it wasn’t as if it was even a bad beat of any type.


Moved to Party and sat down at a $50 6 max table and woke up to AK in the bb as my first hand.I’m not sure if I was on “greedy tilt” ,”lost a pot at PR and not happy tilt” or “turbo sng mode tilt” but whatever happened when the small blind raised me ,I reraised and before I knew it I was pushing hard on a missed flop and losing a buy in to the villains 1010.


Next it was off to an Inter £100 6 max table where I bought in for £80 and once again faced a raise on my first hand.Any sane person would have folded 76 off but I reraised and when the villain bet out weakly on an Ace high flop I decided he didn’t have the Ace and I would force him off.Hitting a 6 on the turn “gave me outs” in my head and I reckoned I pushed even harder to shove him out before checking the river to see I was beaten by A9.

Fortunately I recovered my senses enough to switch off at that point and headed to bed to contemplate my 10 minutes of madness.Loads of excuses came to mind from the aforementioned possible tilt types to the fact I was hungry,tired and a little bored.Knowing I only needed $146 to reach my goal of equalling last years profit maybe meant that after a few failed sng’s and no serious poker played I felt I needed to push too hard to lodge a quick cash boost before bed.

It could have been due to arrogance ,a trait I usually detest.I’d also played ( 75th) in Inters $3k gtd and remember playing a hand so well I nearly saved the history to write it up here.It was just one of those hands where my read was spot on ,the cards fell into place and my check raise induced an all in which I geefully called with the winning hand.Maybe hands like that led to "daft cocky numpty winners tilt".


Anyway whatever the root cause it was the most destructive 10-15 mins of tilt I’ve experienced in a long time.Sure I’ve maybe played a little scared when running bad but I’ve not been on full on self destruct tilt like this.


I’m usually my own worst critic and get really down on myself after tilting like this but as I mentioned it has been a long time since my tilt monster reared its head in such a fashion and I don’t suppose there’s many players that manage to banish it entirely ,so I’m trying to be philosophical about it and will jump back on the horse this evening to test the waters.

Here's a few wee funnies from the paper afore I go...


The Scotland-France game reminded retired police officer turned author Les Brown of a previous encounter with France at Hampden when six French supporters missed their coach home and had nowhere to stay.
The police wanted to give them a cell for the night but were dismayed to discover they couldn't do so under health and safety regulations.
So one officer had the bright idea of asking them to jump up and down waving their arms about. When this strange instruction was translated to them, they did as they were asked – and were promptly arrested for breach of the peace and put in the observation cell with the door left open for the night, and then given breakfast in the morning.The cops even received a letter of thanks from the French Embassy.


A chap having a quiet drink with pals in Hamilton last week received a phone call on his mobile from the wife explaining that she was on the train back from Glasgow after a day's shopping, and could he pick her up in the car at the station.
His drinking buddies are still laughing after hearing him gently explain to her down the phone that the reason he couldn't pick her up is that he did not have the car as she had, in fact, driven to Glasgow that morning.

Bumper stickers continued. Spotted by Paul Scott in Dubai while visiting Colorado: "QUICK! Employ all the teenagers while they still know everything."

Forgot to mention my wallet suffered a bad beat today,paying out £116 for four "Pink" tickets for her Glasgow show on Nov 30th.It'll be Step A's first live gig and being a generous Acorn she's bringing a friend.

Yeah just £116!! It had better be some show!

Back soon..