I discovered something last night. I have always noticed that I pick up more pots than normal when I am winning. That is, when I am winning, I seem to play better. What I noticed last night is that I play worse when I am losing. I don’t lose because I am playing badly but rather the outcome of the first big hands tends to determine how I play. I don’t tilt, per se…but I guess this is a form of tilt. When I lose a big pot I tend to sit back, say “that sucks” and somewhat disengage. Whereas, if I win I en-gage and sit forward and watch everything closely which tends to allow me to pickup pots I wouldn’t have when they are up for sale.

Last night started as a continuation of a previous losing session. Somehow I camped it out until I won an AI PF AA hand. By this time I was down several buyins though. At that point I became excited and managed to get both tables to > $100 (at $25 NL). [only two full tables were in play on the site].

This self discovery has been a long time in coming. The first part is now solved….recognizing the problem. Now I just need a way to counteract it and maybe figure out how to engage before I start my play. I just thought I would post this so that others that may have the same behavior could hope to benefit and maybe recognize it in themselves.