01.31.07
Poker Tilt - How to Notice You are on Tilt & What to Do About It
Tilts - The Bain of Everyman!
Being on a tilt, a negative tilt, can be extremely damaging to your emotions and thus damaging to your play. Unfortunately – or perhaps fortunately – all poker players go on negative tilts n their career. It’s more common that some of us would like to think, but what matters is not how and when it happens to you. What matters is that you develop the ability, sooner rather than later, to mitigate the damage of a tilt to your overall game.
Recognize the Tilt
How do you know when you’re on a tilt? There’s no hard and fast rule telling you what exactly constitutes a tilt. You could have one bad hand. You could have a string of bad hands…ah, that’s it. Generally, when you have two or more bad hands in a row, you can consider yourself on a negative tilt. Whether it’s bad play, or bad luck that gave you the results, two or more hands is a good indication of tilting and sign that it’s time to take a deep breath.
Emotional Control Is Paramount
Easier said than done; don’t let your emotions disrupt your play. Poker requires reason. One of the reasons why tilts are so destructive to players who don’t control them: when you’re on a tilt, you’re desperate. You start to make bets in the hope of getting lucky. With a relatively weak hand, you are likely to keep going, praying for the ‘right’ card to show up on the table. Particularly if there’s a lot of betting action, you can end up in serious trouble if you don’t fold with a mediocre hand.
So how do you regain emotional control when you know you’re on a tilt? One of the most effective moves is simply to get up and walk away. In internet poker this may or may not be easier. It depends on your general level of discipline when it comes to poker. When you’re at a casino, you may have one or two people around you who advise you that you should take a break. At home at your computer, you probably don’t have this luxury.
You need to realize that people who are upset – whether they realize it or not – don’t stay focused will probably lose all the money they brought to the table. There’s no other way to but it: you must stay focused and rational while at the poker table. If you’re not focused and rational, you need to leave the table.
Most players, and particularly good players, tilt after a bad beat or when they have a string of unlucky losses. Some players have small tilts after they win a big hand or after they have a strong of good luck that causes them to feel on edge, but these episodes are much shorter than tilts caused by losing.
Tactics to Limit Tilts
While going on tilt is natural, you need to limit them every single time they occur. While the best way is to get up and walk away from the table for a few minutes, sometimes this is easier said than done.
Other tactics to calm down start with taking deep breaths. Focus on your breathing; use something to help you. Listen to music or hum a tune to yourself. Develop a little habit that will help you refocus; it’s a tactic used by tennis players and you’ll notice it if you watch closely. When they lose a point or fault on a serve, many players bounce the ball a couple of times. It looks random but it’s not; watch and you’ll notice the pattern they use (two bounces, a short walk to the edge of the court and back).
Another way to adjust your tilt mentality is to think for a few moments about the really bad beats you’ve had in the past. This only works if you’re a relatively experienced player and you’ve had really bad beats, but you may read enough to find a couple of examples from other people about tilts they’ve chased.
1) Analyze tilts that you’ve had…store the big losses so you can look back and improve next time.
2) Watch how other players react to tilts, particularly if you’re new to the game.
3) Remember that about 7% of the time you’re going to lose out in the showdown based on your opponent hitting a three-outer. Even if you win 93% of the time, you still use and the odds are creep closer to 50-50 in most other situations.
4) Be prepared for bad beats…this is much better than reacting to them on the fly!
Basically, if you through caution to the wind and start chasing the pot, you’re going to lose big time.
Tags: Gambling Tilt, Poker and Psychology, Poker Tilt