Yesterday I played a $1000 freeroll tournament on PokerStars. In the beginning I managed to play lots of hands as my cards where pretty good. This made me climb up to a spot around the first 300 players in a 3000+ tournament.
A play I liked very much was the one where I received pocket kings. Being seated just after the big blind, I didn’t want to make a big raise to let everyone know I had a high hand. So I slow played my kings with just a call and waited to see what everyone else was doing. The next 5 players all folded their hand. Another player called together with the SB and the BB made a small raise. This made me think, should I re-raise him know, or just call him? If he had an Ace and the flop paired him, I had to fold. But I took the risk and just called. The other 2 players in the pot also made the call and the flop showed 5 8 10. SB checked and the BB raised. I decided it was time to stop slow playing my KK and re-raised him. This made everyone fold except the BB, he re-raised me instead. Now the my head was saying me, be careful, maybe he has 2 pairs or a open ended straight draw with 67 or 9J. I called him to see what his next move will be. On the Turn we got a 3 and he checked after taking some time. I on the other hand made a big raise, pushing him almost all-in, what I actually expected him to do, but he just made the call. The river gave us a 7 and sealed my win. I knew after his call on the turn he had nothing that would beat my pair of kings. So I went all-in hoping him to call me, but as predictable, he folded.

But then my luck started to change, I was losing hand by hand, pushing me back in the rankings deeper and deeper. With a flush after the turn, I made a big raise to let everyone know I had a big hand. 2 players called instead. But I knew another spade will make my hand lose as my highest spade was a 7. And of course the river was against me with another spade, so I had to fold my hand after a big raise from the player next to me. I could have called him and take the risk, but another player in front of me called also, so it was pretty clear I lost the hand. At this time I had only 480 chips left from a stack well over 10000. I was pretty frustrated about how the table worked against me and almost went all-in the next hand with 3 7 off-suit, knowing I can’t win with that hand.

But just in time I calmed down to not play that hand and wait for a big one. The one thing I was lucky about is that I was on the dealer button. So I had some time to think about which hand to play.
4 Hands later in middle position I got KQ off-suit and went all-in the first time pre-flop. 2 players called, but on the flop I already made 2 pair. Luck started to change again.
Back with around 1300 chips, I still had to be careful about what hand to play, so playing very tight was the only option. With AK suited (spades) I went all-in a second time. Now everyone at the table seemed to know that I was playing very tight so everyone folded.
Hey I could use this into my advantage. But first I had to play a big hand against another player to really let them know I was playing very tight. And 2 hands after everyone folded on me, I got AA, went all-in again the 3rd time and was up against 2 other players. AA against KQ and QQ. I had a big advantage. After the flop I got trips and nothing seems to be in my way to seal another big win. The river proved me right.

Now I could take advantage of my status on the table. On the button, I made a big raise against 3 players in the pot, making them fold.
After the turn, with the lowest pair possible, I bluffed my way to victory once again. In no time I was back into the top 100.
With only 400 players left, I also was pretty sure, nothing could stop me from finishing into the money. 70 cents, was the lowest tournament price you could win. Only 32 players had to be knocked out of the tournament.
Just after the first break, it was a won deal. I made it to the money. Who would ever thought off that after my losing streak? It made me very happy, that I didn’t went all-in with that 3 7 earlier on.

I managed to play for another 20 minutes or so, finishing me on a 122nd place, earning me $1,30.
As I recall, one of my highest finishes in PokerStars weekly $1000 freerol.

And with this I also broke the $90 barrier in my quest. I’m just $9,01 away from my next $100 goal.

So a few tips from me for not playing on tilt:
• Keep your calm
• Clean out your head
• Don’t look back at lost plays
• Don’t focus on the players you lost against! If they’re any good, they’ll know you’re on tilt and will knock you out for sure!
• And keep the fun in the game.

I’m pretty sure one of you experienced a similar case once or twice. You have any tips on beating going on tilt?

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