Tilt - a poker players worst enemy.

Going on tilt is something that most poker players do from time to time. In the worst cases it could result in a major breakdown in play, in which a player goes from reasonable play to the actions of a maniac. Most good players are disciplined enough to avoid this kind of behavior but tilt can be more sneaky and subtle, you may not even recognize being on tilt. Tilt can be defined as ”any adverse impact of emotion on one’s play”
When you go for many sessions getting a disproportionate percentage of bad cards, missed draws, and the like, it takes maturity and an exceptional appreciation of the nature of the fluctuations in poker to play on correctly, without reacting emotionally.
I can take bad luck for days and still play reasonably well. But if the bad luck continues I sooner or later reach a point where something happens with my game. The bad beats starts to cost me much more than they have to. At some subconscious level my mind surrender
to the bad luck. And this costs money, I believe tilt costs me maybe $5 per hour on average and I don’t even have a tilt problem. I am sure that thousands of otherwise strong poker players are losers in the long run just because of their tilt problem.
Many players have developed their fluency with poker theory to a far greater extent than their understanding of dealing with tilt. Most otherwise good players could significantly boost their hourly rates simply by reducing the frequency with which they act on emotion during play.
We must understand that tilt can cost us a good deal of our potential winnings and dealing with your tilt problem is perhaps the single most important way to become a consistent winner.

So, what can you do avoid tilt?

-  Don’t play when you are angry or tired.
   Don’t play with someone you really don’t like. Some online players are really unpleasant and      if they are relatively good too it’s better to avoid them then to start a personal vendetta           against them.
- Always focus on your decision making and never on the actual outcome of the hand. If you         are all in pre flopp with AA against QQ you have made a very good play. You will win the         pot 4 times out of 5. Maybe this is the fifth hand and you lose, so what? unlucky? The short     time outcome isn’t interesting, you will win 4 lose 1.
-  If you are having a bad session take more time with your decisions. Stop playing on                  autopilot. Go down from playing tree tables to two.
-  Learn to recognize your tilt early and take a break when you start making mistakes.
-  After really annoying bad beats, just turn off your computer.
-  Newer accept that you are tilting. Some people feels that its ok for them to tilt a  little      after some nasty bad beats and continues to throw away their money.
 


home

Everest Poker Bonus