Can someone PLEASE help me with my tilt problem? Any advice for bankroll management??

Hi, I deposited $100 on pokerstars a week ago and have made about a $1000 so far on the limit tables. It has been literally HELL making it that far since I have basically been going on tilt like a roller coaster.

My question is, how do I avoid tilt and risk losing the whole bank roll? I have it pretty bad and last night I almost lost my whole bank roll going to the higher tables trying to win the small amount I lost back.

For example. I've made $1050 and I go to a 1/2 limit table and sit down with $100. I get some bad beats and drop to $30. So now my bank roll is at $970. THIS IS WHAT MY PROBLEM IS! The money I just lost. I sort of panic and go to the higher tables like 3/6 limit to try and get that money I just lost back and it only gets worse.
(lost $130 on more bad beats) so now i'm down $840. THEN I REALLY START TO PANIC! I go to the 10/20 limits and end up dropping to $500, but some how I get out of the hole by bluffing and catching REALLY LUCKY HANDS AND RIVERS and make my way back up to $1000.

I understand that type of playing is dangerous and I could have lost the whole roll. A few days ago I went to the 15/30 limit tables with $600 and dropped all the way down to $240 at the 15/30 limit tables and had to bluff and catch lucky flops to get back to where I was.

CAN SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME! I am TERRIBLE with bank roll management and avoiding tilt. I know the money I lose at the 1/2 tables isn't a lot but for some reason I start to panic and I cant control going to the higher tables and playing sloppy while losing almost the entire bankroll.

How do you avoid going on tilt?

Any advice is greatly appreciated

Welcome to Cardschat, drain. I think you have identified your problems. There are threads on bankroll management and this is one of them - Chris Ferguson's Bankroll Management As far as tilt goes, there are also posts on those. Use the search function to find them.

Reading some examples of bankroll management will give you ideas on how to avoid certain situations. Chris Ferguson's example that pigpen offered is a very good one.

As for tilting, there are many ways people deal with it. First, if its losing money that's causing it then stop playing (for a little while, not forever). Take a walk, relieve your stress and calm down. When you return, review your hand history to see if you really made the correct play. Learn from the experience and play poker again when you are ready. Emotion of any kind can affect your play. People who win a huge pot can tilt and get a sense of invincibility. You have already identified one of your tilting issues... now you just need to find out how to handle it or avoid it.

One thing you can do right now is cash out. You deposited $100 and you're up to $1000. If you're afraid of losing your whole bankroll take $200-$500 out right now. Then, if you do lose your bankroll you haven't lost "everything." Having this safety net might also affect how you play.

Good luck to you!

Ferguson plan
One thing you can do right now is cash out.

This is a reasonable idea.^^^ Cash everything out, and don't give yourself a chance to tilt the roll off. If you made up to $1000 in one week. That's great, but cash out to the original $100. Try the Ferguson plan, but if you tilt the that original $100 off then for sure take a break. Good luck!

kick your pet/spouse/child every time you take a bad beat. very cathartic.

lol @ Eljer thats what's pet/spouses/kids are for isn't it?

I'm new here. I know nothing about BRM. I play for a bit of fun and make a few $'s, but the amount that I play for is insignificant in terms of my income. Having read your post I feel compelled to comment, but please bear in mind that it's just a gut reaction, I claim no knowledge of the subject.

The first thing that came accross to me is that you seem to be out of control. I'm going to be brutally honest here, but no offense is meant. My first question would be - "do you need the help of people who are knowledgeable about poker, or do you need psychological help"? Sorry to be so blunt, but your post reads to me as though you might have a more fundamental gambling problem. Apologies if I am barking up the wrong tree.

Okay, here's some more practical advice.

1) Try setting a limit on the amount of time that you play. For example, set yourself a maximimum session time of (for example) 2 hours. Set an alarm. When your time is up, stop playing.

2) Reduce the amount of money that you take to a table. If you loose it all, don't play again for the rest of that day.

3) You MUST realise that going to a higher stake table to retrieve a relatively small lost is NOT the answer. You need to understand WHY you sufferred that loss. Poker Tracker is a superb way of analysing your play. Even if you don't have PT, you can look at your hand histories. If you spend time trying to understand WHY you have lost money, you have a far greater chance of getting that money back than if you simply play at higher stakes. When you feel you're about to tilt, don't play until you understand why you are loosing. You may find it was because of pure bad luck - going to a higher level isn't going to cure that. It may be because you made a bad play - going to a higher level isn't going to help that either. Write down the causes of your losses, and review them regularly.

I hope this help, and good luck.

Boltneck

My "solutions" to tilt. Solutions is in quotes because there is no complete solution to tilt IMO, but there are ways you can reduce it as well as recognize it and get out of there before you tilt it all away.

1. my PT graph helps a LOT. Whenever I lose a big hand getting sucked out on, I look at the graph and realize that the last dip isn't as big as some of the previous dips and that I've still kept a steady upward trend. If your graph isn't going upward then, this may have the opposite effect. But unless that $1000 was a fluke, seems like you're at least a decent player.

2. You have to learn to recognize when you're on tilt. You said you play limit but for example when I'm calling pot sized bets with a gutshot or with top pair low kicker because "he might be bluffing" on a re-raise, I quit the program, get up, do other stuff until poker is completely off my mind.

3. Whenever you win a huge pot because of luck (whether it was just you having AA when 2 others had KK and QQ and neither of them hit their set or whether your top pair ended up winning when the board paired to give your opponent 3 pair or even if you had KK up against AA and hit a set), copy and paste the hand history into notepad. Whenever you have a bad beat, open it up and look at the times you put bad beats on other people.

Edit: Bah. I'm going to sleep.

A+ i lol'd



To the thread.... if I find myself going on tilt, I stop playing.

Your play is ****ing terrible if you play while on tilt, so why lose MORE money playing like that. I just get up and walk away from PC if its a bad day. If its only a few bad beats ill walk it off, recover, re-think my strat. Failing this, I go with option A and stop.

Welcome from me as well Drain.
There's some good advice posted here so far, but I just wanted to offer a few of points of my own.
First, as for whether or not you are dealing with a gambling problem, it may be a help to go to the gambler's anonymous website and look at some of the symptoms that compulsive gamblers suffer from, e.g. spending bill money and grocery money on gambling, missing work, etc etc.
Second, if this isn't a psycological issue, then I suggest you put some of your own bankroll management "rules" in writing and stick to them. Ferguson's bankroll management is an excellent place to start, but there are perhaps some other elements to enforcing discipline on yourself that only you can apply to a solid bankroll management strategy of your own.
Third, put that withdrawal advice into action and do it RIGHT NOW. The whole point of taking an objective approach to the concept of playing poker for profit depends upon your willingness to TAKE YOUR PROFITS from time to time!
Finally, if there's one thing I see in your thread that tells me your "asking for it" in frustration spades is the overwhelming tendency to step UP instead of DOWN when you take a series of beats. IMHO, you should be taking a break at these times to regain your composure, then when you feel calmed down, go to a lower level or maybe consider slowing things down a bit with a sit n go. A 20 dollar sit n go will help with your strategic long term play discipline, pay well if you win it, and do wonders for your ego and self confidence!
Good luck!

My tilt-and-back-again process:

Step 1: Fire up poker site
Step 2: Proceed to play like a complete donk.
Step 3: Start cursing at self and stupid cards
Step 4: Close poker site (the most important step!)
Step 5: Fire up Need For Speed Most Wanted (the second most important step - if I don't do something else, the poker site will be open again 10 minutes later)
Step 6: Drive like a complete arseclown
Step 7: Get pulled over 15 minutes into a chase. Lose high score
Step 8: Start cursing at self and stupid computer cops

The end result is still the same, but I blow less money in the process

definately use chris ferguson's guidelines for BRM, use it like ur poker bible as far as ten-commandment type thing...basically jus live to the percent of limits and don't panic and excede them, thats probably the worst thing u can do, i would say go lower and risk less and take ur time to build back up...PATIENCE haha. as far as tilt goes, i would say once u realize u r on a bad run of cards just get off playin poker, do something else for couple hours, or if u just need to play, play with play money or really small arss limits.

Cashing out and starting from scatch is a good idea. Be happy that you made a profit of $900, that's excellent!!
Havent read Ferguson's rules for BRM. I think I could learn somethin from reading it. Thanks for bringin this up for discussion.
Cheers!!

Here is my method, might be kind of stupid but it saves me a lot of money.

If I lose a big hand, and I feel "man I have to make this money back" and stuff like that, I go to the $1 SnG and donk up over there and after I had time to cool down I go back to normal playing.

If that doesn't work, turn off your monitor and come back a little bit later

hey i did the same thing i deposit $220 i lost to suck outs and got to $100 heads up LOL and win i'm pro at heads up but i can really curse off the my laptop i learn my lesson. if you lost at least 10 dollars stop and play need for speed or watch tv and wait.

Oh thats some funny stuff!!!! That just made my day!

yes, this is a great read, and its always nice to see an established member
help a new member.