Tips For Dealing With Tilt!

When I decided I wanted to write an article for my 1000th post contribution (to the greatest poker forum on the web - thank you CardsChat!) I had a much harder time deciding which subject matter to write about than I imagined I would. I knew I wanted to write about a subject that I knew well, one that others would appreciate, relate to and benefit from.

Even with the numerous articles and threads already existing, not just here but all over the net, even with complete chapters in poker books dedicated to the subject, I found one very common denominator amongst poker players across the globe: tilt. Thousands of poker players are either exclaiming that they are on tilt or asking for advice on how to deal with it. It occurred to me that there are some subjects relating to poker that are so important, there really shouldn't be a limit to articles written about or discussions on them. Therefore, I offer you my insights, personal experiences and observations into a poker subject of the utmost importance: tilt.

Tips for dealing with Tilt:

Tilt Happens! The best and the worst of players have experienced tilt; it is not uncommon for a players emotions to experience intense highs and lows while playing poker. Most often, tilt occurs when a player experiences a horrific beat, a series of bad beats or while on a downswing. After several losing sessions and/or bad beats, any player can become upset and question if the Poker Gods will ever smile upon them again.

How to handle tilt is as important part of your poker playing arsenal as any strategy guide you will ever read. Ask yourself this question: How can you play at the top of your game if your emotions are affecting your play? You can't! It's that simple. Players who have learned how to deal with tilt are better armed for the ups and downs of poker: those who don't know how to handle tilt can quickly go broke. Below are some tips and advice to get your head back in the game and minimize tilt.

1. Don't go on tilt. You're search is over, just simply don't go on tilt, problem solved! I absolutely despise this piece of advice! When I first started playing poker and was searching for advice on how best to deal with my negative emotions with the extreme ups and downs that can be dealt with the game, I was amazed at how many articles listed "Don't go on tilt" as their ultimate words of wisdom. Gee thanks for that, my search is over, my emotions are now under control, /end tilt.

If only it were that easy. No more idiotic ramblings from a scorned player, no more players threatening each other and no more easy free chips from a tilted player who is going to aggressively overplay the next several hands.

The hard truth is that you are going to take some bad beats and you are going to go through some downswings and the more you play, the more of these you will experience. The sooner you come to grips with this reality then the sooner you can get your attitude in check and not allow negative emotions to have an adverse affect on your mental state of mind. This is easier said than done, but with practice, patience and experience, it will get easier.

2. Don't play the next hand! I cannot stress this point enough! It's surprising how many players will either bust out of their mtt, sng or ring game the very next hand after taking a bad beat. If you find your emotions are elevated after suffering a bad beat then do yourself, your chips and your bankroll a favor and fold the very next hand. Even if you are dealt your favorite hand on the button, do yourself this favor because chances are while your emotions are in an elevated state, you are not going to play it to the best of your abilities.

I recommend one exception to this rule: if you are fortunate enough to be dealt a premium pocket pair right after experiencing a bad beat you might be able to use this to your advantage. Experienced players expect a tilted player to often times become quite aggressive in the hand or hands immediately following a bad beat. This is so very common that players will often call large preflop raises, aggressive plays and even all ins preflop with less than desirable hands from a player who just showed down a bad beat or lost a big pot. Make this work to your advantage and play those premium pocket pairs as if you were angry and ready to shove with any two cards. You might just get rewarded with a nice double up or even a well deserved triple up!

*In the rare occurrence you lose a big pot, take a bad beat and are dealt AA and that gets cracked: stop playing immediately! Do not pass go, do not collect $200, get off the table, curse my name if it makes you feel any better, but for the love of your bankroll and your sanity stop playing now! Do go directly to tip #3 below:

3. Take a short break. If your emotions are elevated or negatively affected then your judgment is clouded, your reads are off and there's a good chance you will make mistakes. One of your top goals in poker is to induce mistakes from your opponents while avoiding making them yourself. If you find yourself in a position where you are unable to control your emotions then you've put yourself in a position to make mistakes: do not do this to yourself! If you are still in the game (your bad beat didn't knock you out or bust you off the table) then take five minutes to go have a smoke, splash some cold water on your face, take a short walk, do some jumping jacks or give yourself a pep talk: do whatever it takes to cool off, change your attitude and get your "A" game back on. Your sanity and your bankroll with thank you!

After a particularly nasty hour at a live casino tournament, I practically knocked people over rushing out of the poker room during break time. The last thing I wanted to do was listen to the poor excuses from the donk at my table for his horrible plays. All I could think of was why? Why this drunken jerk of a man? The one who bragged about early release from an over-crowded prison! Why is he getting so lucky and not me? This jerk called my all in preflop with 74os. Why? Because he had a "feeling". Ahhhh! A "feeling"! Meanwhile my AA was smashed to bits and I had not won a single hand during the last entire hour of tournament play. I walked out to the open floor of the casino, lit a cigarette and paced around muttering obscenities under my breath like a recently released mental patient from the psycho ward! It wasn't until after a security guard walked up to me and asked if I was alright before I decided I really needed to go to a more private place to calm down. Off to the bathroom I went. I locked myself in a stall, took some deep breaths and told myself to shake it off, the next hour would be productive if I could calm down.

I once read in a magazine that running very warm water over your hands and wrists for 20-30 seconds worked as a calming effect on your body. Remembering that little tidbit, I walked over to the sink and held my hands under the warm water for nearly a minute. It only took about 10 seconds of holding my hands under the water before I realized it did feel calming, but picturing the drunken idiot in my mind, I decided I needed a full minute! The good news is that it worked. By the time I walked back into the poker room I ready to play some serious poker and serious poker I did play! I made a comeback to take down 3rd!

4. Take a long break. Even the pros will find themselves in a position where it just doesn't matter what they do, hardly anything seems to work. It might be the amateurs who want a good story to tell and make terrible plays at them and get lucky: the fight they had with their significant other before playing or the pokerstars and moon are aligned just so. Whatever the reason, losing streaks can last beyond days into weeks and even months. So the next time you are on a downswing, know that it can happen to even the best of players and take a break for a few days or even a few weeks.

There are pros out there that have lost millions during a losing streak, amateurs that have literally lost their homes and haven't a roof to put over their families heads and Average Joe's that lost their entire months wages in a series of bad games. We're not talking about chump change here, but no matter what amount you are rolled for, don't let this happen to you!

I remember the worst losing streak I ever experienced, it wasn't just because it lasted three months but because I lost my entire bankroll during it. This streak was detrimental to not only my bankroll but to my core as a poker player. My confidence was greatly shaken and I questioned everything about myself, my play, my style, my reads and my abilities. If had simply taken a leave of absence from the game sooner than I did, then I may not have fallen as far as I did. Starting over from scratch is no easy task, it can be done, but there is no reason to do this to yourself if you have the ability and discipline to just take a break.

5. You are not the unluckiest player ever. Ever feel like you are the unluckiest player in the world? Do you have the bad beat stories and cliff diving graphs to prove it? Do you run so bad you feel like there is a permanent dark cloud floating precariously over your head? Does any of the below sound familiar?

Does your AA get cracked by that inevitable two outer by a donk who calls your all in preflop with 22 (out of position of course) then jumps for joy like he's made the best call of the year when he's hit that miracle 2 for a set?

Does your flopped set of 10's get cracked by the calling station with A4 os although with a flop of A 10 2 rainbow you know you should probably have this one in the bag so you throw out a value bet hoping to extract more chips from your opponent and he obligingly calls; then when the 3 hits the turn your bet offers him terrible odds to call, yet he does anyways, and of course the Poker Gods above see fit to reward this moron with a 5 on the river?

Has this type of bad beat ever happened to you? You are sitting pretty with Ah Kh under the gun and throw out a healthy size preflop bet when the fish from middle position just flat calls you. Your love/hate relationship with AK is renewed when a beautiful flop of Ad Kc 4h hits the felt. Feeling pretty good you throw out another healthy size bet when the fish pumps it up putting you all in. Earlier you watched this guy accumulate his stack by chasing a gut shot to the river with terrible odds and getting lucky; you also have noted that he plays any ace and over values his hands. You briefly consider if he played pocket fours and now has a set but quickly brush that possibility aside and make the call. When the fish sheepishly rolls over 4c 5c you feel pretty good when your top two pair are shown and thankful to the Poker Gods above for the double up. Then it happens, of course it happens, if this sort of thing is going to happen to anyone by golly it's going to happen to you! The dealer turns up 7c and you place your head in your hand as you know, without a shadow of doubt in your mind, that this fish, this moron, this donk of all donks is going to suck out on you on the river! But wait! You have top two pair! You are a huge favorite to win right now, plus you have six outs to fill up so you take a deep breath, remind yourself to think positive, and stare at the deck of cards willing them to show you an ace or red eight, anything but a club or a four, you even yell at your computer screen "One Time!" Yes, the power of positive thinking, you feel good, your hand is going to win, you're finally going to knock this cocky little fish down a notch and BAM! The river is the frigging 10 of clubs! WTF??? You yell out a string of expletives and before you know what's happening you thrust your fist through the wall next to you! Still screaming out profanities so vulgar it would make a biker blush you then pick up your monitor with full intentions of throwing it out the window! But wait, the window is closed! Ahhh, screw it you say to yourself! It will be much more satisfying throwing your monitor out the window with it closed and watching the glass explode into a thousand shards!

Many of us have been there compadre, and we feel your pain. So stop what you are doing, put the computer monitor down and slowly back away! It isn't worth it, this king of the donks isn't worth it so just take a deep breath, slowly let it out and go for a walk. These types of beats happen all the time, online they happen much more frequently due to the sheer volume of hands seen compared to live action. Better players than you have experienced these bad beats, worse players than you deal them out often and you will experience this again, there is no preventing it. Learn how to harness your anger, know this will happen again, it sucks, but this is a part of poker and if you want to become a better player you had better learn a healthy way of dealing with it.

I recall taking some particularly bad beats live at a cash table one night and getting up, shaking the morons hand that busted me and going over to the bar. Once there I vented to my favorite bartender John and told him how extremely bad I run. Another player who had been running bad that night dared to attempt to tell me about a bad beat he had taken. Still feeling the adrenaline rush of my beat, and with great anger, I felt the need to "enlighten" him on how his bad beat didn't compare to the ones I've taken. After exclaiming how nobody runs as bad as I do, the player quickly left the area and that's when the bartender John asked me a simple question: "Why do you play poker?". "I enjoy it" was my quick reply. John's response was the first response anyone had said that really got me thinking. In earnest he stated "I don't think I would enjoy playing if I were the unluckiest player in the world". "In fact", continued John, "if I ran even half as bad as you, I would hang my hat up and never play again."

Wow.... that was some deep stuff, serious stuff, and it really got me thinking. Maybe I shouldn't play anymore, maybe I should just quit. What John said got me thinking so much that I took a month off of playing to give it the serious consideration it deserved.

I'll tell you what helped me to answer that question - CardsChat. While on my sabbatical from poker I decided it was about time I researched poker strategy. Online, I found several poker forums and began reading articles and posts. While doing this, I ran across an old thread where someone had stated they were the unluckiest player around. Several people with a low post count responded about how they would give the original poster a run for their money in that regard. While reading through that thread I had an honest to goodness epiphany! I had never read through a poker forum before so the bad beat stories I heard were limited to live play and the online poker rooms chat box. I just never realized up until that very moment, that there were so many people out there experiencing the same horrific beats on such a consistent basis as I was. This truly opened my eyes! It wasn't just me, and if it wasn't just me then maybe, just maybe, I really wasn't the unluckiest player in the world. (Of course after I read the responses from members with a higher post count, I had another epiphany - I wasn't as good at poker as I had previously thought I was!)

(Tips 6-10 below in post below):

6. Share your experiences with those who can relate or will offer support. I'm not talking about whining to every poker player that gives you a second of their time, if you want to whine, go seek out your mother because poker players won't stand for it! I'm talking about explaining your bad beat stories to other players who have the experience and knowledge to not only relate to your stories but can offer some sound advice in return. Vent to your spouse or best friend if they are supportive of your poker playing. However, if you moan to your spouse or others who don't play the game at all, then your words may be falling on deaf ears. You probably won't feel that much better afterwards, or worse, you'll be even more upset than you were because the person you are venting to isn't being supportive.

We have a wonderful BBV forum just for this purpose, don't be afraid to use it, you might find more support and insight into your game than you imagined. (If you whine however, or "vent" too often, you might find the ridicule you deserve! So please think things through when you submit a bbv.)

7. Discuss/Review your hand histories. This is another point I cannot stress enough. Reviewing your hand histories is vital to improving your game! Even seasoned pros review their hands, so should you. How else will you know if you played a particularly challenging hand correctly or not? What if you played the hand perfectly and just got unlucky? You don't want to mistakenly change your play in a particular situation if it turns out the majority of the time it's a profitable one. What if you made an error? While in the heat of the moment it may be difficult to deduce errors so set aside your hand history for later review. I recommend reviewing after each session, unless you are on tilt or too tired, then save it for the next day.

I for one definitely want to know if I made a mistake so I know what area in my game I need to work on. After I review my hand histories and I am not able to find my mistake, or I did, but find myself struggling with a particular bet, call, street, etc; I talk it over with several other poker players and see if a consensus appears. I also post my hand in the HH section on CC for review. Doing this has been extremely helpful to my game and in identifying leaks. Be prepared though - the truth sometimes hurts, so open your mind to constructive criticism so you can learn from it. After reviewing your hand history you may find that you were not as big of a favorite as you originally thought you were. This kind of realization can really help put things into perspective.

About three years ago, one of the regular poker players at the casino I play at informed me of some earth shattering news: he said I was doing it wrong! Losing badly at the cash table right after I lost out of a tournament, I declared that I knew I was making the right plays but just couldn't understand why they weren't working. I was very fortunate that Joe decided to watch me play for awhile. Later, he pulled me aside and told me I was playing the cash table like it was a tournament. Thoroughly confused, I was like "So?". Joe said "Tournament play and ring games have two different styles, different structures if you will, and you are not adjusting to them." Naive as I was to these concepts, I looked Joe straight in the eyes and said "Poker is poker, no matter which structure you are playing." With a knowing smile on his face, Joe patted me on the back, stated they indeed were not and the sooner I learned the difference then the sooner I could become a winning player.

That was tough for me to hear, truthfully, it also hurt a little. I took pride in having taught myself how to play the great game of Texas Hold 'Em. To have someone come out and basically tell me I sucked was a blow to my ego and everything that I thought I knew about the game. I was very fortunate to have a friend like Joe, and you reader, are very fortunate to belong to a site like CardsChat. So utilize the tools that are available to you, ask for advice and keep your ego in check; you'll go a lot further in poker if you can manage these tasks.

8. Write down "good" beats you do to others: When you find yourself going into a hand believing you are way ahead, only to learn you are way behind, and the miracle card you need hits the board - write it down. Often it seems this situation doesn't happen for ourselves but as a rare occurrence, therefore I recommend you write it down each time it does. Humans have a way of dwelling on the negative; we can have five good things happen to us in a game, then two bad things in a row happen that seems to make us forget that we are actually three ahead!

Writing down each time you perform a "good" beat to another allows easy reference for when you need it. Just the other day during my 4th hr. of a mtt I lost a large pot with my QQ to my opponents KK. Seeing as the flop was KQ6r I was fairly confident that I was way ahead in this hand and mistakenly put the villains range on AK-AQsu. Needless to say I was disappointed at the loss of half my stack. Feeling a bit unlucky, the first thing I did was reach over and grab my list of good beats. Honestly, I had forgotten about two fairly large good beats I did early on in the tournament plus three others I did in other mtt's earlier in the day. Knowing I did have some lucky outcomes, looking at the list and seeing how many there were, I quickly felt foolish for my "unlucky" feelings in that hand. How easy we forget the good stuff!

9. Lower your limits. Often times when a player experiences tilt they become so obsessed with trying to win back the money they've lost that they do one of the worst things a player can do: they start playing at higher limits. I've seen people blow their entire bankroll in less than a week trying to recover back their losses. The cold hard truth is this: the money you lost is no longer yours! Rome wasn't built in a day, either was your bankroll, so what makes you think you can win it all back in a day? Just because we want something bad enough doesn't mean it's going to happen. The odds are not in your favor, that big win you are hoping for most likely will not happen while you are tilted. If you continue to play beyond your limits, chances are you will lose your bankroll. Building a bankroll takes time, wins occur slowly, losses happen quickly, don't destroy all that hard work.

It is imperative that you practice proper bankroll management, especially when you are not playing to the best of your abilities. Do yourself and your bankroll a favor, lower the limits you play at. Don't maintain (even if you can afford it), don't raise them, lower them until you've got your "A" game back. For some players, dropping limits feels like failing. You are not a failure! Quite the opposite - it takes a strong person to not only realize limits should be lowered but to do the smart thing and follow through!

One frightful night a few years ago at a casino poker room I observed a poker player on tilt to the extreme. This player was losing badly with "second best hand syndrome" on a $1/2 nlhe cash table full of very loose aggressive players and a couple calling stations. Bad combination of players unless you are running really good. After the second time busting off the table, this player made one of the biggest mistakes a poker player on tilt can make, she moved up a level. It was disastrous! I watched her bust off the $2/5 nlhe table and buy back in 4 times! I've never personally witnessed something so horrific in live play before, and I hope I never do something that stupid again!

Another option to lowering limits is to open up a few play money tables and go to town! Players have reported this as a safe, non-destructive way of taking out their aggression and many said they felt much better afterwards. I have not personally done this, but I think this would explain a few things from back when I used to play online with play money.

Changing the number of tables you play (while still lowering you limits) may be another viable option. If you are a single table player, try multi-tabling. With a few to several tables open, your concentration is spread out leaving you little time to dwell on one bad beat. On the reverse end of the spectrum, if you normally multi-table, try lowering the number of tables you play. It is possible that you are making bad calls or misreads due to not being able to make good observations at each table because you've taken on too many.

10. Reward Yourself. That's right, you heard me correctly, reward yourself! Go out to eat at your favorite restaurant, purchase that new cd or movie you've been wanting to get, go to a movie or a club. Often times while we agonize on the bad beats we've recently been subjected to, or the current downswing we are on, we tend to dwell on the negative so much that we fail to see the silver lining: good play. In order to experience a bad beat, you first have to get your chips in good with the best hand. I hope you realize from my examples that I definitely know how frustrating taking bad beats are - or worse - a series of them creating a downswing; remind yourself that you want these donks in these hands with you, because in the long run, they will be the people who fatten your bankroll. Keep this accurate tidbit in mind: Good players will experience more bad beats than bad players because they get their money in good with the better hands.! So yes, reward yourself for your good play - you deserve it!

***"Tilting" is a natural human response. "Don't sweat the small stuff" as they say, and don't beat yourself up for becoming upset. Working on harnessing your anger, minimizing the ups and downs of your emotions to prevent them from having a detrimental effect on your game, or life, takes time. Avoid thinking this will happen overnight: however, with time, patience and practice, you may never have to refer to an article on tilt again. You can do it! Best of luck to you, and your emotions!

This is an excellent post, Storm...actually 2...I recognize most of the time I'm 'on tilt', but it wasn't till after winning my HU match-up, that I realized you could also be 'on tilt' because of euphoria! I was so happy & pleased with myself that I really played horribly when I jumped into the CC freeroll afterwards! I acted way too cocky...and boy I was brought back to earth fast! It cost me the whole tourney! So beware of your really 'giddy or euphoric' feelings too! They can have devastating effects on your bankroll too.

+1 - very nice 1k post!!!

Number 10 is prolly the best tip I've heard for dealing with tilt, it's easily my biggest flaw as a player :/

nice post

holy cow this could be the longest 1000th post ever...but a good one!!

personally i can relate to #4 taking a long break..as i was on a long break from poker..today is actually my first day back at the tables

congrats on the 1000th post btw

Thanks MM! Believe it or not, I cut out a lot of stuff. I had more points originally listed but as I wanted to give detailed tips coupled with some stories to drive the points home I had to cut stuff out. One of the tips cut out was titled "Avoid the "runner's high".

This is one of the reasons I specifically mentioned in a few areas about "emotions" as a generalization, not specific to "negative" (which I did refer to those as well). I knew there would be people to catch on to that and know that extremes in emotions mean both ups & downs. I too have made those fateful mistakes of getting overly cocky in my play when I'm doing well and then become shocked when I get my arse handed to me on a platter! LOL!

Patty - welcome back! I wish you the best of luck at the tables! Btw- "technically" my 1000th post is listed in the players lounge, this was 1001 And yes, it is quite long, but hopefully worth it. Ty for the gratz!

Congrats on your 1,000 post just think only 19,000 more til reach Dakota status LOL.

Well written and covers the common stuff. Definitely a good read. But I'm a freak, and weird stuff tilts me.

Weird and not so weird stuff that sends me right up the wall:

White kids from the burbs who say "Holla" and throw gang signs.

Jerks who ruin my perfectly executed pot pumping when they suddenly realize they have the nut lo and just the nut lo and raise pot.

Old men in blue jeans up to their necks.

Old strippers who still have to show it, even though nobody wants to see it - i.e. old sluts.

Jerks who enter a PLO8 hand heads up with lo and stay in just so they can split and lose money on the chop to the rake. Just cuz they like sharing, and that's abnormal.

Morons who chase the nut lo with only two valid cards all the way to the river, while needing runner-runner to make their lo when I happen to have an obvious nut straight(I take it personally), then three hands later complain about a perceived bad beat that someone gives them, which wasn't even a bad beat! The irony abounds.

Nits who nearly suffer strokes every time someone raises pre-flop.

Lagtards who raise every hand and win(just for a short streak but it's still irritating).

The weird girl who rails for Gus Hansen, and constantly floods the chat box with things like "*sucking on an apple lolly, slurp-slurp*". Might as well type "*bare-ass naked and spread eagle, ooh ahh*", either way it's tacky and annoying. Thankfully I don't play while watching the higher levels. But I do know that if I did, that girl would tilt me.

People who start having cybersex at the table(has happened more than once and it's disgusting).

People who bypass the censor to type the n-word.

People who ask the overbetter "Is that a black value bet?"

Last but not least. Me! Yeah that's right. I tilt myself. I'm actually so annoying that I get under my own skin.

TYVM! I appreciate it!
I'm glad to hear you say that! I cut out several tips and I had a hard time deciding between this one and the one I titled "Don't take it personally". Short Version: the majority of the people you play against don't know you, what you look like or anything about you, all they see is the size of your stack so don't take it personally, treat it like a business.

Anyways, glad to hear you liked that one because it was a tough call for me.

TY & LMAO! No doubt! Dakota is a posting machine! I fear by the time I reach 20k posts (if I ever do - wow!) that Dakota will have over 100K! LOL!!!


N.D. - WOW! I'm still LOL'ng! No one can ever accuse you of not being frank! Some of your "tilts" are way too funny! (Maybe there are a couple tips above that may benefit you. Or maybe I need to create a whole new tip just for you - something about "Life Tilt" or "Flexibility" - LOL!) Thanks for sharing - it was a good read!

i read all the points u mentioned pal. really a good post.took a print out of it and pasted beside my computer...
out of all, taking long breaks really worked for me.short breaks did not help me though..
thanks for the post.

Very nice post.

>Weird and not so weird stuff that sends me right up the wall:

>White kids from the burbs who say "Holla" and throw gang signs.

Ditto!

>Old strippers who still have to show it, even though nobody wants to see it - i.e. old sluts.

Who's forcing them to show it? Not me that's for sure!

>The weird girl who rails for Gus Hansen, and constantly floods the chat box with things like "*sucking on an apple lolly, slurp-slurp*". Might as well type "*bare-ass naked and spread eagle, ooh ahh*", either way it's tacky and annoying. Thankfully I don't play while watching the higher levels. But I do know that if I did, that girl would tilt me.

She would probably tilt Gus 2!

>People who start having cybersex at the table(has happened more than once and it's disgusting).

Haven't run across this one yet. Who can think about sex while concentrating on poker? I guess multi-tasking just took on a whole new meaning!

>People who bypass the censor to type the n-word.

Guilty of the f word and the c word and a few others but not the n word.

>Last but not least. Me! Yeah that's right. I tilt myself. I'm actually so annoying that I get under my own skin.

We all tilt ourselves and this should be the central point taken away from this wonderful thread. One way or the other, it isn't the cards or God or anybody or anything else except ourselves who put us on tilt.

"and I hope I never do something that stupid again!"

I burst out laughing when I hit that part! Great post Storm.

On number 2, when I'm on tilt, I tend to do the opposite and stop playing hands that maybe I should play. I tend to loose confidence when I tilt and not play the next few hands or the next round or even the next level. I need to not take it so personally.

But time and time again I see after a bad beat, on the very next hand players going all in - usually with two pretty bad cards. When it gets to their turn I sometimes say out loud "all-in" and sure enough, they go all in. They are easy pickings.

Excellent suggestions (except for number 1 of course). That really is outright silly. It's just against human nature.

Yeah, tilt's kinda like all-in. People wanna think they're all-inning me and others, but in the end we all-in ourselves when we're darned good and ready. Tilt's similar in that regard, but we do let others push our buttons which leads to tilt.

Thankyou for getting where I'm coming from with the weird girl. I actually left out the most tiltifying habit of hers. She calls him "Gussy". Sits there for ages typing "Gussy" this and "Gussy" that. He could have just made an incredibly great play or incredibly horrible one and she'll type something stupid featuring "Gussy". I swear, if I were a grown man named Gus and anyone but maybe my significant other had nerve enough to call me "Gussy" it would take every ounce of self-restraint in my body not to knock them senseless. "Gussy" sounds so diminutive, so helpless like a baby taking his first steps "That's it Gussy, come to mama, that's my brave strong boy!". I can't feature what makes anyone, including Howard Lederer call him "Gussy". It's a rather odd thing to call a man.

It's all very silly since I don't even know him. He's not even my favorite player. Though I cycle through for favorite, and he makes the top sometimes, Daniel Negreanu and Phil Ivey spend more time on the top of my list than Gus does. It's still just very, very, irksome.

Awesome Post! Totally could relate with everything that you said here. In fact, I am on my down swing right now and it is just nice to have a reminder to cool off and get my emotions in check. Thank you for the post.

I know when I go on tilt, I just yell at the other player and make him feel retarded and embarrassed. =) Then I feel better and can play normally again.

Excellent post and tips. Here's #11:

11. Drop down to .05/.10 limit or .01/.02 NL, sit with a full stack, and play the complete maniac until a) you are busto or b) 5x your original stack.

Most of the time it's (a), but it's the cheapest and most entertaining poker therapy you'll ever find.

And then I go on tilt cuz u tapped the tank! Then I have to go and smooth things over with "It's okay, everyone makes mistakes" and "He had outs" and "Don't feel bad, the game's tricky, you'll get the hang of it ". But I'm still tilted so all my pseudo-niceness is wasted.

Great, I'm still tilting! The yelling and making 'em feel retarded chases the cracked piggy banks away! I come here and rant, or just yell at the monitor, or drink something. What I do not do is yell at the dummy for catchin a one outer w/o odds!!!

Man I remember it like it was yesterday. Guy sits, plays PLO8 backwards. Perfect PLO game is pretty crap for PLO8. This guy's not just playing perfect PLO(as in raising with great PLO hands), but also playing any 1/2 good omaha hand. I already took a few bucks off of him when he caught a one outer.

Everyone but me gangs up on the guy. Everyone but me. I'm trying every soothing word and phrase I can think of. "Hey it's just poker", "Aw come on guys, everybody gets lucky sometime", "well if he's so bad just felt him", and so on and so forth. The guy was bleeding real money, and they chased him away!!!???

So I'm not the best player ever, but I'm not the worst either. When you chase away the worst player you're just making it harder for the rest of us. And for yourself.

Great. I was gonna play. Actually was gonna go ahead and reread some of the tips.

Unfortunately I don't remember which # was the one for "When some jerk chases the money away with his temper". Anybody? What do you do when a jerk chases the money away?

Awesome Thread Storm

I could really feel the intensity as you discribed some of the things that can send you over the edge.Great tips!



Snow

TY! Glad you enjoyed it enough to print it out and keep it by you when you play. I hope it helps!! GL!
TYVM!
LOL! Yeah, I debated whether to admit it was really me or not, but we've all done stupid things. I started researching how to deal with tilt after that night and haven't done anything that stupid since!

Exactly on the all in next hand. It is so very predictable! I would literally say that over 75% of the players at low/mid limits do this! Just silly and costly.

TY! Glad it helped! Hope your downswing turns around sooner than later!!!
Yes. I originally had that in there with the play money stuff, to sit at micro stakes but took it out. It's already so long I had to remove quite a bit.

I'm glad you feel better after yelling at the person - sometimes you just have to get it out! Might I suggest another option though? I hope you don't do this live, taking a bad beat sucks, but if you play poker you have to get used to knowing that this will happen again. Live you might get into a physical confrontation by yelling and get thrown out or banned from where you are playing.

Online - I see people do this quite a bit. First of all, it also makes you look like a fool. There's a saying "It's not what you say buy HOW you say it". Online any negative comments can be taken quite offensively.

Online yelling - DON"T TAP THE FISHTANK!!! You might tick the person off enough to leave - especially if it's a cash table. If they are as bad as player to make donk moves - you want them in the game so don't scare them off!

Online yelling - Why inform them that their play is bad? It might make them stop and think about it - no way they are going to admit that to you - but again, you want bad players on the table. You will win more in the long run with these types of players. Their short term luck will not hold up to your long term skill (besides, luck runs out).

Online yelling - you are letting others know you are on tilt. Players will pick up on this and play at you harder. If you become aggressive due to your tilt, they will hide in the shadows waiting to lay a trap.

*So maybe yell and get it out of your system, take a short break and do some of things mentioned in the short break tip, but try not to yell at the person.

Best of luck to you!!!

Wow. Wonderful. I printed this one out too and I'm going to put it in my "snowbook". Thanks for the gift, Storm!

First of all, congrats on your 1k post.

And second, this couldn't have come at a better time for me. About a month ago, I came back from a 3 month hiatus from poker. I took the long break because it was just not any fun anymore. I had lost small b/r's on two different sites within a week and was just not in the mood for even a win.

After I came back to poker I cashed in my first CC freeroll on FT for $7.50. I took that and played it and got it up around $30 within a week and also made $15 in bonus money on their "Take2" promotion. With that, I started playing in their $3.30 90 man SnG's. After a couple of early finishes I took the 2nd place spot for $43. Then, I played in a $3.30 HU Shootout tourney and took 10th for ~$25. All in all I was up over $100 and feeling pretty good about my game and poker in general.

Then, I woke up. For four days straight I've lost money. What was over $100 is now below $40! I'm back to that same old feeling of "Poker sucks!". Every donk with a call button is catching his two outer, hitting the river flush, checking his trips down to the river when I catch a TPTK and then reraising me just enough to where I want to call. You know the deal.

But after reading this absolutely greatly written article, I'm going to calm down and try to get ahold of my game again. I've been utilizing the FT Poker Academy (great stuff imo), scrounging through CC, and taking breaks often, but it looks like I might need to do more... i.e. quit playing for a day or two.

But anyway, thanks for the article. Not only was it interesting and funny, but just all around good information for players who are where I am right now.

Yeah sometimes I get bamboozled by all the glamor of the backgrounds and avatars that I don't end up concentrating as much as I do in regular games

How did I miss this? I will read it on the plane tomorrow when I am not in the middle of anything!

Need to reread this post....down 150$ today :-/

Very nice read! Post of the month, imo.

very good blog, ive experianced all these beats and more, id love you to read my blog and give me some feedback

What a great read! Hope I can impliment a few of the tips...not only did i see a few things that i tend to do wrong - I was happy to read about a few of the things i tend to do right. So, all in all, for me, it was 2 slaps on the face, followed by two pats on the back, and a few haha's along the way!

personally when i feel like my confidence is gone because of tilt, i will drink and then see how well i play. not for real money of course, but it makes me feel better

should have just gave it a break...could have saved a good chunk of my BR

i feel sick.

Umm, you didn't tell enough about your buy-ins. Once you got to over $100 did you stick with the $3 90 seat sng's or did you keep moving up?

See playing a $2 + 25c 90 seat sng would have been playing at 5% of your br. I suspect there's more variance in the 90 seaters than the single table SNG's which are easier to cash and win in(heck even your basic odds of winning/cashing in the 90 seater are lower). For instance it's a lot easier to place in the top 3 of 9 than it is to place in the top 15 of 90. Really a 90 seater's rather like a mini-MTT, it's even listed under multi table in the SNG's.

I just feel like until you play within your br as much as possible, tilt won't just hurt, it'll devestate. I don't want that to happen to you. But of course if you reeled yourself in once reaching $100+ then all my worry's for nothing.

GL all the same.

Hang in there. Know the feeling, we all do. Doesn't seem to matter how big or small your BR is, until it's positively huge, these things will make you sick(only I don't know anyone with a huge BR, so maybe it makes them sick too).

I limited myself to one $3 90 man tourney, and then played the $1 and $2 SnG's. I'm just not comfortable in the ring games anymore, and even SnG's drive me effin' nuts.