Return of the YIPS

I was playing 3/6 at the Rio. I had pretty much folded every hand I had seen to this point. There wasn't anything good enough to battle with. So when I saw J 10 in the small blind, I decided to call the UTG raise. I decided to take a chance. With two other loose players in EP throwing their money in, I knew I would drag a big pot if I hit.

5 players see the flop. 8 9 x. I like it. I check instead of betting. Betting here is probably a good play but I rather let the original raiser do the work. Maybe I will check raise? Nah. Don't want to scare off action from the EPs. I just call the bet along with the others.

Turn is a 7. Bingo! Board is a beautiful rainbow to boot. I have the nuts. I am beginning to count my money. I check.

As I do, I feel the surge of adrenaline released into my blood stream. My heart starts pounding inside my chest. UTG bets as expected. EP calls and I announce "Raise". Heart is going crazy. An EKG machine would go ballistic if I was hooked up to one. I try to calmly put 12 chips into the pot. As I pull my hand away, I notice the shaking. I get called in 2 spots. The river is dealt and does not pair the board. I have the stone cold nuts now. I bet out and get called in both spots. My straight is good and I do take down a huge pot.

I breathe a sigh of relief. Not so much as in winning the hand, but to try and calm my nerves. I take my time stacking chips as my hands continue to shake.

WTF? I haven't gotten the poker YIPS in a long time. Why now? I talk with EasyCure a bit hoping that talking about my malady it will help but I do need to clean up the mass of white in front of my beer bottle. It takes some time but I am back to normal. I probably should have taken a walk around to work the adrenaline out of my system.

Later I am dealt A A. A new player in MP decided that J 7 off is a good hand to call a raise with. Though he flops two pair, he gets counterfeited on the river and again I take in a nice pot. No sign of the YIPS this time. I would get A A one more time and once again take in a nice pot. No YIPS there either. I would play somewhere between 1-2 hours at this table and win exactly 3 pots. I may have played 5 hands outside of my blinds. Yeah, I was that tight, but it worked.

I can't understand what I began to shake like that, especially during the only limit session I played. During all of the NL games, I flopped some nice hands but never found myself with a burst of energy that had my appendages flopping around like a fish out of water. I was much cooler in the NL games.

What gives? I would really like to know why it doesn't happen to me every time. I guess the only thing I can try to do is use it to my benefit one of these days.