Can thinking like a businessman stop us from going on tilt?

Over the past few months, on more than one occasion, my fellow blogger ‘Diamond’ has discussed the difference between winning and losing poker players. I guess this is the million dollar question we’d all like answering! Over the past few weeks I’ve given it some thought and want to throw another idea into the ever increasing reasons why we win or lose. Of course, as ever, I am more than happy to except my opinion could be narrow minded, naive or even wrong. Let me know if you agree or disagree and the reasons why.

Many years ago I read an article in the Sunday Times about the characteristics of a successful business person. More importantly, how these traits can be developed and used successfully in all businesses. There were many qualities on the list but two stood out; the ability to not recognise failure and the ability to look at the ‘big picture’ and realise what’s important.

The ability not to recognise f...

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I haven’t played a single hand for a week and a half, so I don’t have anything to report. However I wouldn’t mind discussing a hand that appeared on the forum in a little more detail, specifically my opinion. The forum received plenty of comments but for different reasons. As I expected, I was the only person who thought the way I did. Everyone else said the exact opposite. This is the hand;

Seat 1: Plochman ($28)
Seat 2: noseeds ($6.10), is sitting out
Seat 3: Cdn Chris ($34.80)
Seat 4: kibbles n bits ($46.80)
Seat 5: ICanJamThePot ($52.60)
Seat 6: Big Kahuna Dude ($28.05)
Seat 7: warcoug ($67)
Seat 8: RedFury0o7 ($57.75), is sitting out
Seat 9: Krukmakargatan2 ($25)
Cdn Chris posts the small blind of $0.10
kibbles n bits posts the big blind of $0.25
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Plochman [Qc Jc]
ICanJamThePot calls $0.25
Big Kahuna Dude has 15 seconds left to act
Big Kahuna Dude raises to $0.85
warcoug folds
Plochman calls $0.85
Cdn Chr...

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Really enjoying the rocky ride at the mo. Last night had some good fights over the blinds and today I ended up playing some really good ultra loose poker.

I was limping from position with any two cards and was lucky enough to hit a full house on the flop with Q2. One other pushed all-in but was really small stacked. This started the usual chat about how much of an idiot I was.

Knowing I'd been caught with my trousers down, I knew I had to play tight for a while. However I didn't get the chance. I got dealt pocket rockets, raised pf and got one caller. He hit trips on the flop and once again, my stack took a hit. My stack dropped to $9 so I re-loaded to the max.

Over the next 20 minutes I build my stack from $25 to $31, then I get dealt pocket aces again. This time I get all my money in the pot on the flop and they hold up to win $52 hand. The other guy hand Kings.

I know I really need to still play tight, so over the following hour i only play three hands. On all three occations...

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It's a mixture of two stories tonight. Once again I played a $0.10-$0.25 NLHE cash table. I’d been down the pub for a few hours and had a few pints of guinness, so realised I would probably play slightly looser than usual. Therefore I knew I would have to tighten up a little more on my usual game.

I lost a few big hands early on. I’ve posted one of them on the forum. I’m a little concerned there was some dishonest poker being played. The guy sat to my right seemed to call, raise or fold in all the right places. Let me give you a few examples. I had QQ and hit AQ4 on the flop. He min bet on the flop. I min raised and he then folded. I wrote "Nice fold", and he wrote "Was it. I had AK". This could mean nothing but the question I have for you is; would he fold AK to a min raise? I don’t think so.

Later on he folded a marginal hand again to another player even though admitting he had top pair- with quite good kicker.

The "topping on the cake" came when, on the river, he ca...

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Yeah, Yeah, I guess the outcome was pretty obvious.

I end up pushing all-in with pocket queens lose to when the other guy hits trips on the flop.

I'm back down to +$6.

I'm really pissed off about this. I was killing this game so there was no need for me to be so reckless.

Oh well. Back to the grinding.

180 seater sng’s = -$26.40, 9 & 45 seater sng’s = $0, cash tables = $6