Thanks for the encouragement KB, ttwist and all the others.

If anyone should be use to variance it should be me. I played Blackjack professionally (card counting) for 3 years and believe me, the variance in poker is a picnic compared to the variance you can go through in Blackjack. But you can never get used to it. We play in the “actual” and not the “expectation”. We can't see the “expectation” that is the long run. The “actual” is the here and now, the hand and tourney your playing in, that is what you see and feel.

Unfortunately, we're not machines and emotions are part of our human nature. You would read books on professionals talking about you need to play like a machine and feel no emotions or you will tilt. Well they are in la la land. There is no way you can avoid the emotion. We are human. A true professional will feel the emotion but will not act on it. He would never let it affect his game.

I'm far from a great poker player, (hence why I joined) but I can honestly say, no matter how bad it gets, no matter how many bad beats, no matter how bad the variance, I never and I mean never go on tilt. It is something I trained myself to do playing Blackjack. I feel it, I get angry, I kick things, I scream etc, but once the next hand appears or the next tourney, I play it to the best of my poker ability and I do not let my emotion dictate my decision.

Variance is unavoidable, but actions due to tilt is avoidable and controllable. Just say to youself, “It is ok to feel tilted, but never never never act on it”