Symptoms of TILT!

[cambridgealex]

I think any poker player fulltime or recreational, is prone to tilt, and what I've learned is that spotting the symptoms early is really helpful in being able to stop it from doing to much damage. So here's a thread for you to note down the symptoms of YOUR tilt.

Here's some of mine

-Being less talkative / silent / moody
-Looking at my cards as soon as I've been dealt them
-Sighing and exhaling when folding, losing a hand etc
-Getting wound up by tiny unimportant things
-Opening/3betting/squeezing/peeling wider, becoming more stubborn, trying more fancy things to try and win pots - just basically trying to win every pot
-Being a bad "professional" for the game
-Taking less care over betsizes, throwing chips in aggressively, acting quickly.

[Woodsey]

Way before any of that you can start to feel frustration start building.

[ruud]

Definitely the looking at my cards as soon as I've been dealt them for me.

I'd even go as far as looking at one card before the other one arrives at times

[ruud]

Definitely the looking at my cards as soon as I've been dealt them for me.

I'd even go as far as looking at one card before the other one arrives at times

Although when I do this is PLO it is less tilt, more sorting out my hand in my head

[tight4better]

My biggest sign is I feel really hot, normally when my hoody/hockey shirt comes off I've lost a big pot or someone has riled me (rarely happens these days, maybe 1 year ago when I was chattier at the tables)

-Being less talkative
-Looking at my cards as soon as I've been dealt them
-Sighing and exhaling when folding, losing a hand etc
-Opening/3betting/squeezing/peeling wider
-Throwing chips in aggressively, acting quickly.

All of these, I also talk more during a hand for some reason, I notice I announce a lot of bets when I don't really need do.

[Chili]

Yeah alot of what you said Alex and for me a feeling of disdain towards other players that are being happy at the table .  It doesn't last long, but still its my cue to deep breathe or give myself a talking to.

[pleno1]

Live - I could be playing online / never playing a live tournament ever again

Online - unfiltering higher stakes

[kinboshi]

Yeah alot of what you said Alex and for me a feeling of disdain towards other players that are being happy at the table .  It doesn't last long, but still its my cue to deep breathe or give myself a talking to.

When it's not going well you don't want to see the annoying bloke at the table chirping away as he hits every hand and demonstrating his liking to tell the table how great he is. It's a bit more palatable when you're winning as well.

[ruud]

Obviously recognising the symptoms is really important.

Intrigued to know what people then do about it?

How do we 'untilt' ourselves?

Walk away? Have a breather outside? Have a drink/peruse the menu?

Watch some kinky stuff online?

[kinboshi]

In before Barry Carter....

[Cf]

I play too many hands when i'm on tilt. And I end up in "fuck it, I'm not folding" mode, even when I know i'm probably beat.

[iangascoigne]

What we are talking about here is 'emotional state control'. We all recognise the early 'symptoms' of tilt. What we also have to appreciate is that our bodies will also be going through some genuine physiological changes as the mind/ body stuff reacts to our feelings and internal dialogue. Hence we can feel ' uncomfortable' ' hot ' a little angry and negative. Our blood pressure probably changes and we will be making less than optimum decisions which only makes things worse and hence things spiral. Maria mentioned giving herself a talking to. That is correct.We have to recognise the symptoms,then have a conversation about how to react.If you have got to it early it might just be giving yourself a bit of a 'shake up', a few deep breaths,don't play a hand for a couple of orbits and get your 'state' back in control.
         If you have already gone a little further down the tilt path you need to stop and breakout of the path you are on.Stop means physically stop,change your environment and give your mind and body time to recalibrate ( don't forget your brain and body is doing all sorts of stuff and this needs to be cleared out, hence time and a change are required ). Unfortunately often our approach is to soldier on,tilt more and do our stack. ( I have a Doctrate in spewing chips ).
           Take a break,shake it out and return playing ABC for a while. If it's gone to far go home.There's another game tomorrow.

Hope this helps.

[NEWY]

My shirt tears and i turn green. Dont get me angry, u wudn like me when I am angry.

[kinboshi]

There are two distinct types of 'tilt' that you see - the instant tilt that happens after a perceived  'injustice' such as a bad beat, and the longer-term tilt that builds up after a number of frustrations over a period of time, such as a bad period where you have lots of consecutive losing sessions, and it can feel as though you're never going to win again.

The short-term tilt is easier to deal with, as you can walk away and start again after a break, or even call it quits for the night and come back to it when you've had a chance to sleep on it.

[LonOhRay]

The opposite, don't look at my cards and open/3b any opens lol.

+

Generally just push action and set out to win stacks in every hand I play. Get frustrated by things in and outside of the game, the slowness of the game is what gets to me the most, but when I'm winning obviously these other things don't bother me close to as much.

^ I've noticed the same with a lot of players I play with, if we could get it under control some be a lot more profitable in live games.

Cost me too many nice things in 2012