A distressed online poker tournament player on Full Tilt Poker gets some hard advice in the poker forum as noted below from JP.

Post: I have watched Marty's Mzone series and own Tournament indicator. I have also read the Bankroll series and tried to follow it (with not much success).

My story is below but my user name on full tilt is ______ - my Sharkscope graph will corroborate the story below.

I mostly played 9 Man SnGs and was a losing player but getting better. One day, I started playing Heads Up and I won alot and my winnings climbed up. So a month ago, I clicked on a $5 heads up match and somehow ended up in a $500 heads up match, I lost it, tilted and lost my whole roll of $750. I really did not intend to play for $500 and was devastated for a couple of hours after that.

After I recovered, I started bankroll building my way back up and got into HU matches again. Now here's the problem...every time I lose, I get this uncontrollable urge to double the stakes and play again. Mostly this happens when I'm in with the best hand and end up taking a bad beat.

Today, I lost my whole roll of $505 after I tilted when I took several bad beats in a row and lost 6 HU matches in a row. So I bought back in for $600 and played a $550 HU game which I somehow won against a guy who had over $65000 profit and is ranked 69 on OPR.

I feel like I can be a solid enough player to stay at $5 games and build from there but I just lose control after a tough loss and double my stakes.

Anyway, I'm wondering if anyone has been through this feeling and how I can stop it so that I don't go crazy after I lose and play these crazy stakes.

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Response: First off, I say this from the heart and with your best interest in mind...
YOU SUCK!!!  Laughing

Seriously though, your story is full of defects. First of all, you have no self control. If you cannot control yourself, you cannot be a solid player at any stakes. You are simply a gambler looking for a rush and hope to get lucky. You are not applying skill, poker math, logic, strategy, etc...

ANYone that has gambled in a casino or played blackjack or roulette hits that point. "I can't possibly keep losing like this, if I double the last bet I'll get it back. I can double my bet a few times as necessary until I hit, then I can back down and start over."

Except that don't work that way. You can get lucky and hit and hit and climb. Like you did with the lucky game for $500 and doubled your br in one game. OR, more likely, you will lose 2 or 3 in a row and never recoup it. It is QUITE conceivable to lose 20 games in a row. Try DOUBLING YOUR BET FROM THE LAST BET EVERY TIME 20 TIMES IN A ROW. Do you own a Rolls Royce? If you did, you MIGHT be able to afford your buy in but would most likely need to sell your car to do so.

You need to STOP NOW! Stand back, regroup, think about it and THEN decide what to do. No playing until you figure it out unless you like giving money away. (If you do like giving it away, you can do a player transfer to me on Full Tilt and save time Laughing )

Seriously, take a look at this....
Stop playing for the moment and take some time for introspection and self analysis...

1) Why are you playing poker?  What is the reason and the hoped for goal or results?
2) What can you do to get there at your goal and be there in 1 years time?
3) knowing #2, where do you need to be in 6 months to be halfway to your goal?
4) Knwoing where you need to be in 6 months, where will you need to be in 3 months to get there?
5) Where do you need to be in 6 weeks to be halfway to your 3 month goal?
6) Where do you need to be next month to be half way to your 6 week goal or more?
7) what do you have to do every day to get to your goal for this month?

FIRST you have to figure out where you want to go, if you don't know where you want to go you CAN'T GET THERE!

AFTER you know where you want to go, NOW plan out a map and figure the best way to get there.

I think too, for anyone to give you some really good advice and helpful suggestions, they would need to know where you want to go to help guide you in that direction. To say "How can I stop titlting" is your goal won't work. That is going to be one of the steps on the path to where you want to go.

So my question to you is, why are you playing the game and what do you want from it as your end goal?