Journal of a Poker Pro

I have some good news, and I have some bad news.

What do you want first? Bad news? Ok.

I lost my temper today for the first time in a while. It was a culmination of things, but it was a poker hand that set me off.

I started the day off on the wrong foot. As I was playing, I got into an argument with my girlfriend. It went on for a while, but I kept playing while she was crying (good boyfriend, I know).

After I got off the phone, I thought I could focus.

I couldn't.

I made a bad misclick in a big hand, and cost myself a $400 pot. Misclicks have happend before, but never for that much. It was from a clear lack of focus. This was added to having already been down about $500. So yeah, I snapped. I whipped my mouse across the room, and it shattered in a few peices. Well, thats one way to end a session when tilting, right?

Anyways, here the session, visually:

And here is the mouse, visually:

Ok, enough bad news. Time for the good news.

AFter this little incident, I cooled off and took a shower. I called my girlfriend and worked everything out (good boyfriend, I know). Then I took a nice long walk to the computer store and bought a new mouse. I came home, feeling much better and focused, and decided to fire up some more tables and play. Well, the real good news here is that my new mouse is lucky:

Ship it.

Anyways, I'm pretty dissapointed in myself that I flipped out. I try to pride myself on being emotionless with poker. I'm posting this as a reminder, and also to publically embarass myself for acting like a 12 year old.

If anything, maybe something can be learned from this. I guess my advice would be to keep a clear head any time you're playing. If you have something you need to deal with that's bothering you, do that first. The tables will always be waiting when you get back.