Confidence

I've been on a poor run lately; my bankroll is hurting and worse, my confidence has been shot. Shelly mentions this in a post -- bummer tilt.

With angry tilt, you at least can be aggressive and chase people out of the pot, but when you limp on AKs on the button and with no callers because you expect to lose, well, you're going to lose. Period.

But after watching your flopped set of queens lose to a miracle flush -- twice in a day, you start seeing pocket aces and flopped sets in everyone else's cards, and when you play scared, poker is no damn fun.

And that's where I was -- until last weekend.

I decided to play a freeroll on Party, and Christ, it was like walking into a Wild West Saloon on free whiskey night.

These idiots would raise -- and even better, call with any ace -- even if it didn't hit. All in with 1,000 chips - to win 30, was the order of the day. And as the game wore on, the play became tighter and tighter.

I was running along, building up towards a chip lead, when disaster struck. I tried betting second pair into a calling station and was nearly crippled, so I bounced in 60th or so place -- out of 1,700. Unfortunately, top 30 paid.

So even though there was no money for me, playing a game where solid play generally held up and fools would push all-in as frequently as they drew a breath, helped me see that losing isn't a foregone conclusion - or even a destined one.

Unless you put yourself in that situation to begin with. I'm looking forward to getting back into the money games shortly. Vegas awaits, and I need to build the bankroll.