Anatomy of a Tilt

Everyone seems to have gone on tilt on more than one occassion. I know I have and probably will again. I hear quite a bit about folks who go on tilt and spew forth their roll like an ATM with a no card required glitch. I find myself tilting, but usually only for extremely short periods.

I have two versions of tilting (That I have noticed). One is what I call the donkey-tilt. This is usually caused by me doing something extremely stupid (donkey) which causes me to lose a significant portion of my stack, then going on tilt for about two hands or so, spewing a few more chips toward anyone lucky enough to be in the next couple of hands. I also go on monster-tilt. Which are short bursts of tilt caused by losing with a monster hand. Same thing as donkey-tilt except this time I didn't do anything wrong. I played the hand perfectly (I think) and end up losing to someone with a bigger hand (full house vs full house, straight flush vs straight flush, etc).


I've seen people go on tilt who were up 5x or more than what they bought in at. They then proceed to spew it all away, rebuy and spew some more, and then do it again. I've never done that myself (probably will in the future), but always wondered what caused such long term tilt rage. Does everyone always tilt the same? Either always tilting for long priods of time, or for short priods of time, or does it vary? Are there certain things that a player can do to lessen the period in which a player goes on tilt, or even prevent it all together?


~H

I have never done that myself either. But it is always rewarding to get into a pot with a player that is on tilt...

Do you find it easy to spot someone who is on tilt? I usually only notice it after about 12th time they overbet and call down to the river with rags. This is online of course. Live play you can usually tell by the cursing, throwing cards/chips around and the red face....

~H

i try very hard to hit the sit out button and get up and go do something around the house for a few minutes. that usually works well for me, but only if i get up. otherwise i tilt it away as usual.

I dont suffer from tilt, Tilt just indicates a lack of self control, which imo, is the sign of a bad poker player. I am not saying it dosen't happen, just that it happens to bad poker players. if you lose a hand to a fool who gets lucky, dont let it get to you, take advantage of the knowledge you have gained, those players are the ones that you will make most of your money from.

I`m gonna be honest here.

Based on your examples - I have pair 6`s, flop say 8, 4, 2 rainbow, I raise and get called. Turn 10. I raise, get called. River Ace I raise, get rerased, then I call.

The other guy shows A2 - I then spend the next 20 mins or so telling him he should have know he was behind on the flop, turn and even his bet on the river was bad cause I could have had a set... Even though there were 2 overs to my 6`s, a possible set, etc. I ignore all this .

Its the same with my monster being hit on the river.

So, what I do is mouth off to my opponent.

In the early days it was pure frustration. Now I do it to get a reaction.

I`ll check out their stats on Official Poker/ Sharkscope and tell them how bad it is.

NowI know this is wrong, but what happens is I want everyone to think I`m on tilt. I start raising like a mad man (Chips allowing)

I`m actually waiting for one of the guys to push when they are behind - you will be suprise how many times people forget that even a person on tilt can get a monster hand.

I`m not saying this is a great strategy, but it seems to work for me - well sometimes...

I must be one of the few who have never gone on tilt. If I lose a big hand I just put it behind me and go to the next one. I do know a lot of people who lose a big hand and immediately throw chips away for the next few hands but I just say to myself oh well, there is always another hand!

I've Tilted and it's Horrible. I ended up busting my BR by playing on stakes too high for me, and a game I was no good at. I ended up being destroyed very easily, as people could tell I wasn't playing well. My advice is if you are in a MTT try and keep your cool and maybe sit out for a bit. In a cash game I'd advice you to leave straight away, you are dead money for the time being!

The other day I was having a peeing match with a very annoying aggressive player. I was chasing an open end strt with 3 clubs on the board to the turn. I didn't have a club but I could tell the way he bet the turn, he didn't either. I missed my strt and a club hit the riv. I pushed all in for twice the pot and he insta called with top pair and a weak kicker, no club. I was tilting bad and said "dumb call". He said,"dumb bet". About 3 minutes after arguing I said "sorry about the dumb call remark", and we made up. My tilt doesn't last very wrong, but it makes me act like an azz. I shouldn't have chased the open end in the first place with 3 clubs on board.

Ive found the best way for me to get off tilt is to walk away from the tbl and smoke a joint. I know they dont allow that at actual tments, but we do at our home gms. So if i catch a bad beat, like the one i got last night, i'll just sit back and skip a few hands while i puff on one to ease the pain

Does anybody know the real def of tilt?? I've been a poker dealer for awhile seen a million plus hands and seen hundreds of forms of "tilt".My advise is to always and i mean always set a limit as to what you intend to lose(if you come to the poker table thinking your going to win all night your already on tilt).

You beat me to it uradonk.

I see many examples of obvious volcano like tilting. But the kind of tilt that people who "don't tilt" might still suffer from are one of the more subtle variety. Like

"I've been playing for hours, and am down some so I am gonna play a little more" tilt.

Or the one where I play 15% more hands than normal because I'm frustrated.

Or the one where I am burned with a bad beat and start getting passive post flop and getting drawn out on over and over leading to more bad play...

The tilts that are dangerous to me are the subtle ones where I
play just a LITTLE differently than how I should.

cAPS

Coming from a psychological perspective (I'm a grad student studying psychology), tilt can vary highly from person to person. I think the responses that we see here show this variance - some people don't tilt as much, while others tilt more. From my observations, I would venture out to say that how long you go on tilt depends on what kind of person you are temperament-wise.

For instance, if you're highly introspective and have a hard time letting go of bad experiences, you're more likely to remain on tilt for a longer period of time than a person who is able to let go of a bad beat (in poker or in real life) and move on.

I think the best way to lessen tilt is to first find out how you tend to respond to disappointments and bad experiences on a personal level/everyday life. When something goes wrong, what do you do to cope or move on? Find out what works for you and try to see if you use similar strategies/principles at the poker table.

If you haven't figured out what works, then you'll just have to test out various methods until you find one, if not more methods, that suits you well. What I would avoid is blindly adopting a strategy that works for someone and then forcing yourself to accept that strategy - what works for one person may not work for another.

Sorry for the academic-like response guys...I just couldn't help myself!

In addition to what everyone has said, state of mind is a big one. Sometimes I know I`m gonna play well. Other times I`m playing because I`m bored or I`m looking for a release.

patience is the back bone of poker. dont let a tilt sway you. usually ill sit out and get some air if i see a tilt.

I agree cAPS. I tend to go ontilt subtly. Atleast I'm half-plugged in enough to recognize my play variation and stop after awhile.

What gets me sometimes, is that I'll take a beat....and pick up AA AK KK, a monster preflop hand.....very next hand.....I'll make my 3x 5x bb raise....and someone thinks...oh boy..he's tilting, I'll bet he has nothing, then their q6 kicks me in the arse....LOL

Yeah, this stuff happens. In some ways its tough when you get a good hand after a bad beat since people will be more inclined to call with marginal hands. But I'd rather get good hands after a beat than marginal hands since I'm more likely to get some action and take down a decent pot if I have a hand like AA or KK.

One thing I didn't mention earlier and looks like no one has mentioned is the idea of going on tilt when you're in a good mood. It's not just the negative emotions that get us on tilt, but if we're overly positive then that can affect our play too. Lets say you've won a few decent size pots and have a large number of chips. I'm sure you can think of instances where after winning a large pot, you notice a few hands later that your chip stack is quite a bit smaller than before.

I think the book The Poker Mindset talked about types of tilt in one of their chapters. Anyone read this book?

The thing I do when I lose a big pot are a great part of my stack istaking a break. I go for a drink or make a walk. 5 minutes of your time take wonders...

I have been on tilt several times in both live gms. and online gms. it usually comes from catching a bad beat or one person playing like an idiot and continuouslly catching cards on me. The best thing ive learned to do is take a few min. away from the tbl to cool down. In my case, that usually involves smoking a joint and then going back to the tbl