Rabbit Hunting and Tilt Susceptibility

I have never been that into “Rabbit Hunting”. I also have played tilt free poker for close to two years now. Yes, I used to tilt. When I was a .50/1 NL grinder, I just could not make the move up to $1/2 NL for some reason. Every time I would try, I would get spanked with some beat, or just play bad and would go running back to my bread and butter .50/1 NL game. Because the pots were bigger at $1/2, and it was so important to me mentally that I beat this next level, it would tilt me. I was not quite there yet as a poker player. Decisions are what matter at the poker table. Results are not important after the correct decision has been made. Results are what tilt people the easiest, though I would imagine some of the better players tilt because of a bad decision.

I recently heard about some online sites that offer Rabbit Hunting. Rabbit Hunting is when you take a peak at what would have been the turn and or river, even though the hand is already over. Rabbit Hunting is tilt waiting to happen. If you are into Rabbit Hunting, you are susceptible to tilt.

When you make the decision to fold your hand on the flop, none of the cards that would have came after that have any impact on the correctness of your decision. You were in a situation, let’s say a draw. You knew your outs, and you knew the price. You decided that you were priced out, so you folded. It makes no difference if your draw would have hit on the turn. It does not make your decision bad if you would have hit. It does not make your decision good if you don’t hit. It simply does not matter. So why pollute your mind with stuff that does not matter while you are at the tables? Unless you like to tilt.

People who tilt simply can’t separate the two. They can’t separate the decision from the result. The results matter more to them. Bayne has his Tilt Advisory System, Hoy has his rants, KOD has his chat bans, and Wawfuls has his insults…. All clearly are looking to the results more than they should. They all probably love to Rabbit Hunt. Try to avoid this temptation. Start to not care about the results. Start to care about the decisions that you are making. If you make a bad decision, try to play better in the future, even if you get lucky and it works out one time. Don’t freak out when your great decision ends in a horrible result. Just keep making more great decisions and the results will always come.

Imagine for a moment you are BuddyDank late in an MTT. As normal, you have assumed the Dank Position, and are hanging on for dear life. There is only one way out of the Dank Position. You must bet your way out. So you pick up AA, and since you are a Blinders reader you play it –EV on purpose. You get rivered for a straight and sent to the rail. Should you tilt now? No way! The move with AA was correct for the situation, so you are happy with it. The result was not important. Plus you can focus on the radio show now, and it sure needs some attention.