All good players steam and go on tilt from time to time. It’s unavoidable. It happens to amateurs ad even the top professional players, and when it happens to you, it can have a negative impact on your bankroll. Why is that? Well, for starters, other players know that you are off your game and will try to exploit that. Also, and more importantly, you will find yourself on the short end of the stick of many hands time and time again. This happens because, psychology you want to get back on track and find yourself playing in hands you shouldn’t be in, calling raises with marginal cards and so on.

Keeping this in mind, here is this week’s hand of the week. I was playing at my local $1-$ no limit game against many familiar faces. I had been running quite badly for about a week. My top pairs were getting outkicked, my two pairs were being counterfeited, and my medium strength flushes were being routinely beaten by higher flushes. I hadn’t seen any pair bigger than 9’s and it was just dreadful all around. I tried to not let it get to me, but enough was enough. I felt like I needed to make a stand and turn things around.

One player at the table was a very loose aggressive player who raised so often that no one respected his raises. He would raise with ace-rag, king-rag so often that no one was able to put him on a hand. In this particular hand I was just to the left of the button with 7h-8h. Two players called and the loose player raised to $15 from the Big Blind and was called by all three players, putting $60 in the pot.

The flop came Ah-Qc-4h giving me a flush draw. The small blind checked and the loose player, who we’ll call Jimmy bets $75. I’m thinking he probably holds a weak ace or possible paired his Queen. Without much hesitation I go all in for $150. My rationale was that I could push him off his hand or possibly hit my flush if he were to call. The other two players fold and he agonizes for a minute before calling and showing Ac-Kh. It figures he actually holds a strong hand. I wasn’t too concerned because I just had a gut feeling I was going to hit my flush.

The turn card fell giving me a completed flush and an inside straight flush draw. I figure he has about 5 outs and I’m feeling pretty confident now.

Wouldn’t you know it, the river card brings the Jh giving him a backdoor nut flush draw, the second time he sucked out on me in that session alone. I calmly got up as he apologized and all I could say was “that’s poker,” and I left for the day. I knew right then and thee that if I invested more money, I might as well just burn it because I would have been completely on tilt.

I decided to take a gamble and it backfired. You know what though? Given the same circumstances, I might do the same exact thing. After all, my flush was a good chance of hitting. But unfortunately, this time, it didn’t work out.

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