POTD #170 Final Table Friday: Me Tilt? Never

I return to the WPT Online FT after squandering my second place chip lead

Last week, I wrote about my disappointing finish at the WPT Online Final Table in 2020. I was excited to record my session and then to have one of those Gus Hansen Every Hand Revealed type series on Run It Once, where I showed subscribers (and if you aren’t one, a reminder you can subscribe using code: POTD for 10% off) how I navigated this final table and had my first 7-figure score in a tournament with a buy-in of less than $50k or lower. (Hendon Mob incorrectly says I cashed for exactly $1,000,000 in the Caribbean Poker Party Main Event, when we actually dealt heads up. I covered the key hand of that tournament in POTD #95.) Five years later, the hands that I remembered the most are the ones I wrote about last week— losing a big flip vs. Viktor Ustinov, rebuilding my stack, losing a big pot to Christian Jeppsson, and being in a position where instead of eying up the 7-figure first prize, I was eying up 5 figure pay jumps.

If you asked me after the final table, or even a year ago, how I played at the final table, I would have said I played pretty well, but just got unlucky and maybe missed some A-level plays, but despite my early exit I ultimately played good solid poker. To go even further, I probably would have said that I played as well as anyone else at the FT. Then I rewatched the FT and realized something— I was clearly tilting. I was acting quickly and confidently as if nothing was wrong, which to me almost always indicates that I am tilting. “How can I be tilting? Look at how non-chalantly I am acting and how confident my decision making is” is a very unconvincing pose, but it convinced me in the moment.

I was ready to cruise to at least the final four or five, and suddenly, coming in eighth was becoming a very real possibility. I tried acting unflappable, when I was very flappable. Some other tells: I reverted to solver baselines instead of exploiting my opponents because I figured “well, I played the hand well, but just got unlucky” was a safe excuse for a disappointing finish; I felt resentment towards every opponent at the table when they showed down a hand I thought was poorly played; I could not fathom that a short stack was winning every all-in. It felt unfair and I adjusted by putting too much money in the pot in an attempt to regain all the chips I had already lost. In today’s hand, I was in such a rush to get my chips back that I bluffed off 1/4 of my remaining stack, when I probably should have just folded the first time.

WPT #20 Online Championship Final Table (125k/250k/30k) (SB/BB/ANTE)
8th: $66k, 7th: $104k, 6th: $151k, 5th: $221k, 4th: $318k, 3rd: $473k, 2nd: $741k, 1st: 1.04M

It folds to me in the SB (5.273M) with K♣️2♠️, I raise to 700k and Viktor Ustinov (17M) calls in the BB.

Flop (1.64M) Q♠️J♣️6♥️: I bet 400k, he calls.
Turn (2.44M) 4♥️: I check, Viktor bets 781k, I fold.