Help! This keeps happening.

[darius_uk]

DAMIT!
In a tourney on pokerstars. i was chip leader going in to the break with 15000 chips. I had been leading from the start of the tourney always 3rd to 12th place.. And i think playing some of the best poker on my short career.

SO WHY THE F*** do i bust my self out 2 mins after the break????
And this is not the first time. let me explain.......
For some reason whenever im playing good poker and winning, i start to turn into a fish. i call raises with junk freflop. and most of the time bluff all my chips away for no reason. Has this happen to anyone else? Its like a phil hellmuth blow up.

Let me set something str8 I AM NOT A FISH. iv been playing profitabe poker for a few months now, i also play at bricks and morter poker rooms.
But for some reason whenever im in a tourney online and leading the comp i end up busting out. Sould i play ultra tight after the break???
Is this a reverse tilt thing??
PLEASE I NEED UR HELP GUYS.

Thanks.

[jackvance]

It's not uncommon, I've had this happen too in the few MTT's I've played. Basically when you start thinking "heh this is easy" and "all these guys are such fish rofl" then it's over for you. I dunno what you can do about it except remind yourself of this bad trend when you notice you start getting too cocky again. I've had this in ring too at the beginning whenever I got a bigstack. Now it doesn't happen anymore.. I guess it's an experience thing?

[darius_uk]

I think your spot on.

[bantam222]

Its like a phil hellmuth blow up.

you mean Mike Matusow?

[Aceofone]

It's very easy for me to tell you the answer to your problem; unfortunately, it's going to be very difficult for you to implement it.

Poker players are ego-centric by nature, we feed off the destruction of others, whether we admit it to ourselves or not. This leads to a massive swings in self-confidence, especially when winning.

The problem is that your ego gets too big. You alluded to it in your post, this is a form of positive tilt. You need to STAY HUMBLE.

I've done the same thing many times, after playing a solid, perceptive game, suddenly I'm out. What happened? I was staring at a final table, now I'm out on the bubble. I got too cocky, tried to make too many moves, forgot the hard play that got me into a strong chip position.

Jackvance said it already, try to remember the last time you did something similar. We've all heard the adage: those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it. Well, when you can't remember your own history, you're fucked!

[jyms]

It's a chip lead, not an MTT win, Are ya playing to win or get a bigger lead. With a large lead and an M of 20+ you need to tighten up and let people burn out. Don't use your stack to be table cop and bully. Use POSITION to steeal blinds and see flops. Nothing is important in a tourny till 2nd break when the blinds are getting big and your nearing the bubble. There is to many people after the breaks that are trying to double up and get their stack back. Read HOH1&2, join the FTR book club and it'll all tighten up for ya