Day Eleven: Discipline? What discipline?

7.5 hours, +323

I have no idea how I got up about $500. But I remember the feeling of losing it.

It started when I got bluffed off of my set of nines. I really want to ask that guy if he thought QJ was good on the J-high board with a third spade on the river. I really don’t know if he was hoping for a better hand to fold or a worse hand to call. Maybe he put me on JT and didn’t want to let me draw for a fourth spade.

I should be happy. There was no reason for me to consider calling that all-in turn bet. No reason to suspect he didn’t have the flush he was representing. But I did feel like I had the best hand.

Maybe I should have know that he wouldn’t have called my flop bet with the flush draw. I didn’t know if he would call a flush draw in that situation because I hadn’t been paying attention to his play. That’s what bothered me the most.

Maybe that’s what caused me to call him down three times when I hit a K-high flop with KQ. That was a good $400 right there.

Whatever it was, my $500 win was run down to a $500 loss. I was playing like crap, and getting unlucky.

At some point I realized the problems I was having and began to buckle down and pay attention. After a little while of that I managed to turn top set of nines to beat a flopped top-set of sevens.

The large stack made me focus. It was a lot to lose in one hand and there were several giant stacks to lose it to. I couldn’t get up either, the giant stacks were my best chances at making money that night. So I hunkered down, focused and squeezed a couple hundred more out to make me a winner on the night.

I’m home now, done counting my winnings. My focus now is what allowed me to tilt, and how can I conquer it.