I feel like i am a great player but emotion is ruining my game.

Overcoming Tilt (Part 1)
By: Taaron

I was asked to create a strategy article about overcoming tilt. At first I was shocked because the friend who asked me to write this knows that I have egregious game flaws due to my excessive tilt control and rationalization issues. That being said I write about this critical concept of Mental Game as one with firsthand experience. I will do my best to dive into the various descriptions and aspects of tilting.

First and foremost; what is Tilt or Tilting? We are mostly all familiar with having a hand where our whole stack /or Buy-In /or sitting 200+ Bi's deep is put all in with the best hand only to have the villain suck out his miracle card on the river. Well forget the fact that we got the money in "good" and as a massive 92%+ favorite. What emotionally or mentally occurs when we lose that hand? There are several natural reactions that can result in us playing our subpar weakest game. In addition there is no one size fits all mental game response, solution, or quick fix.

1.) Some may become discouraged or sulk; "why does this always happen to me", "and no one else," or "I am so unlucky."

2.) Some may become angry and mad. Play to many hands, marginal hands and overplay marginal spots.

3.) Some lose the ability to think properly and apply correct concepts that allow us to play our best game. This is really the key point.

Before going any further, let’s think about what our best most solid game looks like?

This is such a massive concept, and so varied that we can't possibly put in a specific formula for a specific "best game." This is because we are all at different spots in our poker progression. My best game 4 weeks ago is substantially worse than it is today, and compared to better card players, my game is substantially flawed. However, we can form a few broad generalizations about the overall characteristics.

Characteristics of Our Best Game

* We maintain proper mental attitudes regardless of what is happening.

* We apply successful winning strategies and adjust to villain types and table dynamics.

*We have an excellent level of concentration and clarity of thought.

* We go through our thought process checklist; ensuring we have a logical reason for making a decision (i.e. Why is it good to 3bet OOP here w/ JJ; or Why is folding AKo an okay play facing a 4bet from a villain UTG with a 10 vpip/8 pfr and 100% fold to 3bet ).

It is only through understanding our problems and correcting our weaknesses that we are able to improve.


When people would tell me things like; "Just stop tilting," it would provide the catalyst for me becoming even more upset. I remember telling myself things in a mantra like a Buddhist monk; "Don't tilt, Don't tilt, lol, Don't tilt." I now look back and realize how naive it was to think that simply trying to will myself to not tilt would work. To better understand this point would be one bad-standard beat, followed immediately by 2 or 3 others on different tables. Of course this would set me on fire, as if losing 1 bi wasn't enough, now I've just got sucked out on 2 other tables within a matter of minutes. If we do not have logical and pragmatic ways to overcome situations like this we will never learn to overcome tilt. In addition, it should be understood that we never truly overcome tilt completely, however we do learn to manage and deal with tilting in a way that closely resembles having "overcome."

We begin to look closely at what causes /or circumstances trigger negative mental reactions. We begin to take notes and thoughtfully consider the various situations that arise in a given session and thus address them post session or at very least before our next session. This is Part 1 of a three part series that I am working on to discuss Tilting. The next part we will be further evaluating the causes and reactions, as well as to start looking at recourses in stabilizing our mental responses.

Overcoming Tilt (Part 2)
By: Taaron

Hello again everyone, Taaron checking back in with part 2 of my 3 part “Overcoming Tilt”. I hope to get some feedback on how this maybe helping you in your mental game.

In summary of Part 1 it was asserted that mental game is an integral part of overall strategy to be successful poker players. In Part 2 we will revisit this concept and attempt to unlearn falsehoods /or misconceptions about tilting. We will then make effort to correctly learn proper mindsets and how mental game problems become manifest, as well as how to think rationally in given “spots” while on the felt. It is important to remember that an irrational or tilted mindset does not learn how to overcome weakness.

When I first realized I had a tilt problem and not a lack of knowledge problem it seemed like I would be able to quickly and easily fix the problem and stop monkey spewing copious amounts of Buy-ins. My thinking was very simple; ‘just don’t get upset and be relaxed no matter what’. This worked for a couple or maybe a few sessions that were, in hindsight, not negatively high variance. I started thinking that I had my tilting ‘under control’ and could now easily beat this level. Well, the next several weeks saw me worse off than ever, literally angry or disappointed every time I misread a hand or lost a hand to a “fish.” Yelling at the air “How could he chase to the river like that?” I immediately sunk into an irrational state of mind where hand reading and thought process checklists were completely lost; I was essentially just donating money. I probably went bust 3 or 4 times within a few weeks and had to redeposit my whole roll for that level. This is a worst case scenario but we all know that I am not the only one who has struggled with this type of issue.

Skype poker buddies and study friends probably thought I just sucked or who knows what else. It was difficult because I felt as though I knew everything pertinent to being able to beat the current level, but I was losing more than winning. It was a flaw in my mental game that my tiltedness was preventing me from properly or truly learning card playing strategy. During this time I was dealing with a ton of stress in the small business that I own and operate as well as family stresses. It was poker that was my relaxing fun time. So when the poker gods began mistreating me (imo) it is easy to understand how tilt spewing buy-ins was a normal part of every session. It wasn’t just a bad beat that would set me off or the constant echo in my head about “running bad.” It was anything and everything but it all boiled down to 1 thing and 1 thing only; Mental Game. In addition, I know for a fact that friends were getting impatient with me when I would post hands that were so similar, yet due to my horrible mental game the advice was not truly being learned and put into practice.


Understanding Mental Game

A solid mental game is not only helpful to people like me who struggle contradicting negative thoughts while at the table. A solid mental game is an essential component for any successful poker player or athlete. Most people probably don’t even realize they are engaged in good or subpar mental game, as it is just more natural or less difficult for certain individuals to think clearly when engaged in critical thinking and high pressure decision making. Mental Game is our thought process and emotional engines while engaged in any sort of game. It is an abstract idea but a simple process, and by simple I mean lacking in complexity not whether it is easy or difficult.

We need to remember that everyone learns differently and concepts and strategies that are easily understand by some are not easily understood by all. There were a plethora of better players telling me to do this, and do that, but I didn't understand WHY they were correct? This is all a part of learning a solid thought process.

At this point I highly recommend buying the book: The Mental Game of Poker. By Jared Tendler. This book has helped me understand poker in a whole new way. This book will help explain what a solid mindset is, in ways that are so advanced by comparison to my basic article. We have to realize what is at the root of our tilt problems and then work through them. This can be a challenging task but will allow for greater mental acuity while in sessions, and ultimately greater winnings.

One of the most helpful things I learned from reading; The Mental Game Of Poker, was so simple yet it had never been phrased in such a way that the concept would resonate in perfect frequency with my tilty brain. In order to move forward we must first fix what is behind. This is abstract of course but it is yet again so simple. Tendler uses the analogy of an Inchworm to aid in understanding a key part of developing good mental game. When the Inch worm moves forward, it must first pick up its hind section, plant it forward and only then does its front actually move forward. We have to fix our weaknesses, and once they have become strengths we can then truly move forward.

For me personally this meant needing to correct several weaknesses. Now I will detail weaknesses that were and today still do create problems for me.

1.) Overplaying a hand when I know I’m beat. This is me going to showdown and then hating myself for doing something that I knew better than to do. An example of this would be playing a very loose but passive fishy opponent where I have a TPTK type hand. I have AsKs OTB, villain is in the small blind. I raise to a standard 3.5xbb and villain flats. The flop comes Ah 2h 6s, this is a great spot to cbet I think because it is 2 tone, but given my opponent maybe I check the flop with the intention of betting the turn or re-raising, a lot will depend on villains actions post flop. I decide to check. Villain decides to bet and I re-raise, only to have the villain snap shove and show me their set of 6’s.

2.) Assuming that variance is disproportionately stacked against me. Otherwise known as ‘running bad’, or being extra unlucky. This is resolved by thinking logically about the game itself, learning to hand read better and correcting actual flaws in context with the specific hand that is causing me uncertainty. Post hands in a Skype study group or online for peer review.

3.) Losing two or more “all-in” hands simultaneously or within a few minutes time that are ambiguous as to being a bad beat, or were they misplayed. This is a very dangerous predicament for me, especially if the villain(s) I lost the hand(s) to are fish. This has to be dealt with immediately or bad things WILL take place. These hands are of course QQ+ or AQ+ type hands where we have flopped the nuts or turned the nuts w/ 80%+ equity. Quick little mental “stickies” can be learned. But if we are not willing to think logically or rationally we must learn the discipline of logging out until we regain our ability to do so.



This sums up Part 2 of my series for “Overcoming Tilt,” please feel free to comment and as always I truly hope this has helped in your quest to improve as a player.