You guys all know what your ‘A-game’ is and what it feels like. You make great reads, perfectly timed bluffs, thin value bets and great passes. You probably also know that you, like most players, are very guilty of not being on your A-game as often as you’d like. Well, let me introduce you to ‘tunnel vision syndrome’.
Tunnel vision syndrome is a common symptom of tilt, but it’s one that can sneak into your play before you’re even aware you’re playing differently. It presents itself in different ways to different players, but the principle is always the same: no matter what happens during a hand, you stop taking into consideration half of the information you’re receiving, while giving way too much credit to the other half. Sometimes you start looking for every possible reason to fold, because you’ve run into the nuts too many times. Other times you start trying to bluff-catch everything because you’re down a few buy-ins and looking to gamble. Either way, you’re letting your emotions dictate your actions, even though in your mind you might be acting according to the soundest poker principles.
Self recognition
The true difficulty of this syndrome is not simply in recognising it – it’s in recognising it before it causes you too much damage. It’s all too easy to take step back after a long session and say ‘I should have folded there, there and there, I won’t make these mistakes ever again.’ But the truth is, next time you have that tunnel vision you’ll be doing the same thing.
Let me give you a quick example. You’re playing your standard game, let’s say $2/$4, $400 deep. You’re already down two buy-ins and you can’t seem to make a hand. You raise with A-Jo in middle position and the big blind, who’s a pretty good regular, three-bets you from the blinds. You elect to fold, grumbling a bit to yourself. The very next hand you’re one position earlier, find A-Qo and raise again.
Now a huge nit reraises you on the button, and your thought processes go something like this: ‘All right, this guy just saw that he can three-bet bluff me out of the pot at any time, and since he’s so tight he must be using his image here – ALL-IN!’ He snap-calls with K-K, and you say to yourself, ‘Cooler, move on.’ You so wanted not to get run over that you gave yourself reasons (and pretty bad ones) not to fold the hand, overlooking the fact that this particular guy just never three-bets without a big pair or A-K.
Now, every time something similar is about to happen, you have to take a step back. Not tomorrow, not in one hour, right now. Ask yourself, ‘How would my A-game analyse this situation? Would I make this play if I just sat down and was break-even?’ You’ll soon realise that a lot of the reasons you give yourself are horribly emphasised by your emotional reactions to a given session.
As soon as you see that the emotional you is overlooking even a single piece of information to justify a bad play, you must deduce that you’re off your A-game. This tunnel vision is very often the first symptom of tilt, which is why it’s so important to identify. The sooner you do, the faster you’ll be able to take a break/cool down/switch back to your A-game.
Martin Fournier 'Giggy' Giguere is part of the Bluefire pokr team - use your PKR Points to subscribe to this hugely popular poker training site.