Recognising And Managing Tilt - Part I

by TightEnd
Submitted by: snoopy on Sun, 04/06/2006 - 2:31am

Poker and tilt, how does it all fit?

It all fits because unless you are extremely well balanced (mentally) or are an emotional zombie, you will go on tilt at some time playing poker. For rookies especially, when you are learning correct poker only to have people beat you with incorrect poker, tilt can be a major factor in your game.

Learning to deal with tilt, or rather, the cause of tilt is an exercise in self-control coupled with a mental understanding of the situation. You can either learn to control your tilt or learn to stop tilt at the root.


Tilt: Is it in you?

One misconception people have is that tilt has you turning into a madman and smashing things to pieces when you get angry:

"TIGHTY RIVERED? TIGHTY AAAAANGRY!! TIGHTY SMAAAAASH!!!"

But the thing about tilt is that even if you don't show anything on the outside, you can still be suffering from tilt on the inside. What this means is that even if you're not acting like the hulk, if you feel like you want to be smashing things, you still have major tilt issues - but just don't show it. This used to be my problem in life. I'd be outwardly calm and inwardly I'd be a maelstrom of emotions until one day it had to come out. I had no temper at all until I lost it, if that makes sense. When I first started playing poker it was the same. "Nice hand" I'd say at the table. In the car park, on the way out of the casino once after a few bad weeks of outdraws that began to morph into bad play, I damaged my fist on the wall. So I needed to control this quick. Or else get used to long periods of staring at nurses in casualty.

The problem with tilt of course is that it distracts you from optimal play - which most players are NOT doing even when they aren't on tilt. Even when players are fully aware of what they are doing, they'll call down a hand when they know they are beat - but they just can't bear to lay it down.

What tilt does is amplify your hasty decision-making and put you in a "I want to get him back", "F*** it, I don't care" or "I'm going to push my way around" attitude. So, even if you're not smashing things on the table, you're pushing yourself to make wrong plays in crucial situations. You don't have to be a pot splashing maniac to be on tilt - because if you make any play that costs you chips or cash that you could have saved, that's good enough to be on tilt.
Identify the cause of tilt?

When I ask you to identify the cause of tilt, what is your response? Perhaps....

•   1. Losing a lot of money on a big hand
•   2. Being rivered by a fish
•   3. Losing a hand where you were way ahead when the money went in
•   4. Playing correctly and still losing

All of these are reasons for going on tilt, but only the fourth really addresses the issue of the cause of tilt. The reason you go on tilt is because even though you played to the best of your abilities and played what you thought was correct poker, someone else managed to beat you. Of course, that's quite unfair when you think about it, right? Which in turn, makes you angry. "He was a 7:1 underdog and he should have known by the way you were betting, but called anyway!" you tell yourself. But if you re-think through your point, you'll realise that: Yes, your opponent had no idea he was the underdog, otherwise he wouldn't have made the call!
to be continued...