Tilting

I’ve played a lot of poker in the past few months.  So much that I’m starting to feel burned out, and not very anxious to go back to the tables anytime soon.  In fact, I’ve submitted a couple of applications for employment that I’m excited about.  Who knows what will happen, but I do know that there are days I feel like if I see another playing card or poker chip I’m going to lose my mind.

One of the effects of being burned out is that I have very little patience for other players, and I find subtle but maybe dangerous ways to verbally make fun of them.  Last night someone mentioned that playing tight is no longer appropriate because poker has changed over the years.  He was saying that the wisdom that used to prevail in the 70s and 80s is no longer valid.  Of course he’s wrong, but I decided to chime in by explaining (or rather, humoring myself) that the laws of statistics are fluid, and change over time.  I explained that for instance, the concept of percentage used to mean “portion of a whole” but now is quite different.  I explained that evidence of such a fact is that you commonly see percentages stated that are above 100%, which used to be impossible because it is impossible to have a portion that is greater than the whole.

Of course everything I said was complete BS and there were other players at the table who smiled at my saarcasm, but to my surprise a few other players chimed in saying that they had read about this, and were trying to remember a word for it.

A friend tells me that one of these days a player is going to understand that I’m really making fun of them, and he’s going to slash my tires or maybe worse…

Anyway, it’s really a form of tilt.  Additionally, I’m having a difficult time staying in the frame of mind that means I understand that skill wins out in the long run.  It really pisses me off to see bad decisions rewarded at my expense.  In truth, intelectually, I really want my opponents making bad decisions, and especially when those rewards reinforce bad decisions.  But in the short term it kind of pisses me off.

I feel like I need to get away from 3/6 and 4/8 and move up to a minimum of 8/16.  At least at those limits I’m averaging a higher hourly rate.

Those are just my random thoughts for the day.  :)