Pride issues

sounds like fish tilt 101

It's a mindset thing. You care more about looking good, than making the best play. I had this problem for a while and it came down to my insecurities. I needed validation that I was good because I wasn't confident in my game. It sounds ridiculous but this held me back for a long time.

Work hard on your game away from the table and remember why we play.

i have the same problem in chess, i'm actually a world class chess player, but when i pay nakamura $10 for a blitz game and he starts threatening my king, my pride takes over and i sacrifice all my pieces even though i know i'm the better player, so even though i end up losing the game i know i'm the better player because i can beat him straight up and one day i finally will

seriously santafairly? are u really that good? GM?

oh absolutely, thanks for asking i love talking about my chess career. i'm definitely IM level, would be like a 2700 rating at least, not necessarily top 100 in the world or anything. it's hard to get the GM title because you have to win enough norms, i just don't put in the effort or go to tournaments or win games but if i just glance at a chessboard i instantly know how many squares are on it and stuff. i'm a very intuitive/natural type of player like capablanca, just too busy to fix this leak i have of losing and grind up the levels so i never went pro

On November 06 2015 23:22 Santafairy wrote: i have the same problem in chess, i'm actually a world class chess player, but when i pay nakamura $10 for a blitz game and he starts threatening my king, my pride takes over and i sacrifice all my pieces even though i know i'm the better player, so even though i end up losing the game i know i'm the better player because i can beat him straight up and one day i finally will

da fuq good luck beating naka in blitz lol

I'll take money line on Nakamura.

lol first thing I thought of was Pulp Fiction.

Had the same problem, as 4TM stated above its about your own insecurities. The main problem about those insecurities is that you think you have to prove to yourself that you're better than those insecurities and thus you fall into the ego trap and it goes in an infinite circle. You don't have to prove shit. The thing that helped me the most is to rationalize every move and never act spontaneous, that way you don't leave room for your instincts to act, you can still rely on your instincts, but after you've rationalized them rather than instantly. Doesn't matter if its a 5bb or 500bb pot.

I still fall into that sometimes, but I solve it by alt+f4ing the software and taking a break. We have no room for emotions to take control at any point. Especially destructive ones. The root of that is fear, we initial reaction to most people against fear is to fight it. What works much better is to take it in and let it through so you can release it.

jgallegos_23 u have to be more honest in your evaluation of who has the edge in a match. It sounds like you just bomb in stacks every time it's your turn to act. If it works, you congratulate yourself on outplaying your opponent. If it doesn't work, you say that it was your pride (aka "that didn't count"


How would you play against someone who just continues the aggression endlessly? e.g. the type of guy who sees u fold to 20 cbets in a row but if you checkraise his cbet the 21st time he will 3bet the flop judicously assuming u were due to make a move. Are you going to float flops or c/R light against that guy? No, it is actually correct to give up a lot of small pots against such a person.

This is what your opponents are thinking against u and when u give them ur stack when they finally resist (throwing scissors against their rock if u will) u basically justify their play and vindicate them. If you can simply convince them that endless aggression is coming up (and then dissappoint them when they finally catch and give them a small pot) then u've outplayed them.

Conversely, if your opponents are thinking "this guy is trying to look like a badass, but it's only a ruse and he will show his true nit colours when I fight back" u need to dissappoint them and reply with even more aggression

outplaying =/= aggression/bluffing

u need to stop taking pride in aggroing/bluffing people and start taking pride in outplaying them instead. Sometimes that is the same thing but often not.

On November 07 2015 02:04 K40Cheddar wrote: Show nested quote + On November 06 2015 23:22 Santafairy wrote: i have the same problem in chess, i'm actually a world class chess player, but when i pay nakamura $10 for a blitz game and he starts threatening my king, my pride takes over and i sacrifice all my pieces even though i know i'm the better player, so even though i end up losing the game i know i'm the better player because i can beat him straight up and one day i finally will da fuq good luck beating naka in blitz lol

his days are numbered though, the moment my account gets unbanned for allegedly telling an 11 year old dutch boy to fuck off, i'm taking nakamura down

lol Santafairy A+ posts

--- Nuked ---

why do you say that it's pride causing u to make these mistakes? i guess your thought process is something like "this guy is a newb, i should win every hand"... i think that too sometimes, basically the worse my opponent is the more it tilts me when i dont win lol

All the advice and comment are well taken and thank you all for taking the time to discuss this with me. To be honest with all of you being honest with myself about it and then putting it out there (admitting I have a problem) has been huge for me to come to term with it and move forward. For anyone else who is currently having issues with this; I also contacted Jared Tindler about this (The Mental Game of Poker Author if you are un aware of him). Here is what he wrote back:

Hi J.

It sounds like this is a Revenge Tilt issue that may also be connected to a confidence problem. I would suggest checking out those sections of the book, along with Chapter 4, so you know how to apply the strategy to whatever problems you find in those sections.

All the best,
Jared

I welcome any other suggestions and comments about this and again thank all of you for taking the time to comment on this issues.

Thanks all

J.

He's right. You want to prove your superiority over someone by doing something irrational and counterproductive. It makes you lose money but takes you on an emotional rollercoaster that makes you feel good intermittently and at the same time makes you believe you are better than what you really are. When you are performing a task you need to detach yourself from judgement and expectation, which will yield the best result you can achieve with your level of competence.

wow this has been really eye opening i'll definitely be purchasing that book then maybe it can help me beat nakamura too

On November 10 2015 21:49 ClouD87 wrote: He's right. You want to prove your superiority over someone by doing something irrational and counterproductive. It makes you lose money but takes you on an emotional rollercoaster that makes you feel good intermittently and at the same time makes you believe you are better than what you really are. When you are performing a task you need to detach yourself from judgement and expectation, which will yield the best result you can achieve with your level of competence.

This...

Its much easier to think that you lose becase of pride and not because you are worse than you think... ironically you do this because of pride.

I lol'd pretty good.

Where's digger to save us