If it weren't for tilt ...

... my bankroll would have reached six figures by now. When I'm playing well, I'm that good.

Emphasis on "When I'm playing well."

It’s amazing how easy it is to go on tilt. I was playing at Hollywood Park last night (of all places). I’d been in a bit of a slump playing Stud at Commerce, so I thought perhaps a change of venue would help me turn things around. For a while, the plan was working beautifully. Over the first hour, I won every hand that I showed down, and I was up about $110. I wasn’t in complete control of the table, but I had definitely claimed my share of the easy money. I had my little fortress of chips built. I was doing well, and feeling confident again about my Stud play.

The hand that sent things back in the other direction looked good on 3rd St, as you might imagine. I had Aces in the hole, with a King showing – a monster. None of my cards were showing on anyone else’s boards. The tight-aggressive player on my right and I raised and re-raised one another to get it heads up by 4th St, just as you’re supposed to do. You want to play big pairs against as few players as possible. Well, we got it heads up, and since his door card was a 7 I knew that I had him beat (unless he had rolled up trips, which was unlikely). On 4th St, I caught a 7, and the way he stared at the card made me feel pretty sure that he was holding a pair of 7s and could have used a third. I had him.

My King showing was high on 4th St, so I bet, and he raised me. However, the dealer didn’t see the raise, so he dealt my opponent his next card, which turned out to be the case 7. Fuck. Out of frustration with the dealer’s error, I re-raised the guy anyway, knowing that he was going to make trips on 5th St. I called him all the way down, and blew a bunch of my chips.

While I didn’t blow up after that, I definitely started playing pretty poorly. Overplaying weak pairs, chasing bad flush and straight draws, representing big pairs when I was only holding big connectors. About every mistake I could have made at a Stud table. Over the next 20 minutes I watched all the profit I had just earned evaporate due to my tilting.

Then my cell phone went off. It was my girlfriend, and she wanted me to come home. I glanced at my stack. Exactly even. What are the odds of that? I had a chance to walk away from the table with at least the money that I sat down with. A chance to call it a night, and escape an evening of horrible play unscathed.

Did I take that opportunity? Of course not. I proceeded to blow my $60 buy-in with the same type of crappy play, just so I could have the pleasure of kicking myself on the way out.

I hate tilt. Even when I’m conscious of the fact that I’m not playing my best poker, I can’t walk away from the table until I’m staring at the felt. Why is that? Anyone got any suggestions, other than quitting poker for good?

Anyone?

Billy, I could really use the next installment of your “On Tilt” series. As in, ASAP.