Since about three-quarters of my play takes place roughly between 1am-5am I wondered whether anyone has any recommendations on how to get rid of those 'I hate poker, its the worst game in the world' feelings that happen after you don't win a meaningful pot for 2 hours, dwindle 3 buy-ins down and then lose the last half of that last buy-in by going all in preflop with 77 and being called by Q9.

My usual strategies involve shouting and swearing, listening to loud music or something else that is unacceptable to my housemates sleeping patterns.

I ask this at 4am British time and there really is nothing else to do but play poker, C'mon help me out here.

Molina

I havent had the "I hate poker" feeling since I stopped playing limit and switched to NL. Of course I still have bad days, but I feel much more in control playing NL.
I actually pulled a muscle one time when I jumped out of my chair suddenly and flung myself half way across the room after a horrible beat.
Im a much better player now and have learned to make the best play and let the poker gods sort the rets out.
Of course, a 4 letter word still comes flying out now and then.

My current de-stress activity is to go on a penny table and play like a super maniac. Nothing like betting and raising everything to get rid of the steam you feel. Also the feeling of winning a big pot ($2) with 72o after hitting a runner runner tends to bring me back into my "A" game zone.

If you are a night owl like me (sucks being GMT doesn't it) I try to stay focused by playing music, films or anything that can justify the passing of time. I'm currently trying to earn points according to Hokie's rules of heckling, that seems to work.

You tried listening to that late night phone in show on Capital FM with all the mad people, can't remember what its called but its unintentionally damn funny.

Rich

I, too, highly recommend maniac play at the penny tables. Cleanses the body an soul.
I've even started to take my maniac play seriously. Started a new poker tracker database just for that. Actually at +3.5bb/hr.

And agree w/ ricardoon that heckling can be very enjoyable. But I only heckle the hecklers.

But ricardoon, 7,2o ? Even I dont maniac that crud. lol heckle, heckle, heckle u stupid maniac heckler you.
p.s. raise and reraise w/ 7,2s of course!

I've found if you play long enough and enough hours a week you start to get that feeling that you've seen everything in poker. I'm back to playing limit now so maybe some of the beats aren't as painful as losing the whole stack in NL, but they are still significant pots. Lately I just kinda laugh to myself and say "that's poker". I'm not saying i don't get upset. I do. I won a $140 pot the other day at 5-10 on a rivered 2 outer. Obviously I didn't know I was that far behind...but I was. Since then I've tried to think about that pot when I take a bad beat. Understanding how much the loss affects our game is important. Tilt isn't always raising every hand. Sometimes its subtle. I read recently about having a mistake limit that when you reach you leave the poker table. This author's limit was two mistakes. That was his indicator that his game was off and he would leave for a while. I think a policy like this is a great idea.

I've found that if I'm getting a bit tired of poker the best thing for me is to play an hour of $25 max pot limit omaha, makes me think a bit different, I can only handle an hour max. After that it's a bit of a blessing to play NL holdem, less complex and I'm reminded why I play holdem in the first place, I'm better at it.

Molina

1)Scream into a pillow...you need a think pillow.

2)Take a drive down the street and do circles in a parking lot.

3)crack a CD case into dust...does sometimes cause too much noise.

4)Listen to classical music w/ headphones...better soothing effect than metal or rock.

5)Just walk around the house for five minutes...I have slippers.

Richadoon mentioned keeping track of the great hands we make and plays we put on people. I naturally do that and tell big hand not bad beat stories. It is part of being positive about life. Recently I have made some large hands that reinforce my image as incredibly lucky.