"When you lose your temper, you lose the fight"

The one difficult thing I find in poker is to try and not make things personal. In the hand below I noticed that the villain would call every raise I made (in position) then push me off it. One hand that particularly stung was when I had KK, I raised, he called of course, an ace flops and he leads into me. Ugh.

So in this hand, I was steaming and determined to make him pay. But afterwards I thought, maybe its not personal? Maybe he wasn't targetting me? Just maybe he had a hand each time? And if the hands were reversed and he had the set, I was most likely going to overplay it because I wanted revenge.

I remember my old boxing coach always drummed into us, "When you lose your temper, you lose the fight". You gotta stay cool and you gotta smile when you get tagged.


PokerStars Game #19375633857: Hold'em No Limit ($0.25/$0.50) - 2008/08/05 - 08:06:14 (ET)
Table 'Mizar II' 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: Perikles ($15.80 in chips)
Seat 2: MarcDeFun ($77.20 in chips)
Seat 3: Forrest Gump ($46.75 in chips)
Seat 4: Jackson17 ($49.05 in chips)
Seat 5: diego ($30.75 in chips)
Seat 6: t.mara ($51 in chips)
Seat 7: likker ($19.35 in chips)
Seat 8: Robsntown ($13 in chips)
Seat 9: Riag ($61.95 in chips)
Perikles: posts small blind $0.25
MarcDeFun: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Forrest Gump [6h 6s]
Forrest Gump: calls $0.50
Jackson17: folds
diego: calls $0.50
t.mara: folds
likker: folds
Robsntown: folds
Riag: folds
Perikles: calls $0.25
MarcDeFun: checks
*** FLOP *** [8s 6d Jd]
Perikles: checks
MarcDeFun: checks
Forrest Gump: bets $2
diego: calls $2
Perikles: folds
MarcDeFun: folds
*** TURN *** [8s 6d Jd] [Kc]
Forrest Gump: bets $5
diego: calls $5
*** RIVER *** [8s 6d Jd Kc] [As]
Forrest Gump: bets $15
diego: calls $15
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Forrest Gump: shows [6h 6s] (three of a kind, Sixes)
diego: mucks hand
Forrest Gump collected $43.75 from pot
Forrest Gump is sitting out
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $46 | Rake $2.25
Board [8s 6d Jd Kc As]
Seat 1: Perikles (small blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 2: MarcDeFun (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 3: Forrest Gump showed [6h 6s] and won ($43.75) with three of a kind, Sixes
Seat 4: Jackson17 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: diego mucked [8h Js]
Seat 6: t.mara folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: likker folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: Robsntown folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: Riag (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)