May I ask what it is that tends to tilt you? Is it other players "bad play"? Is it chat at the table? Is it a bad decision you make, that leads to more (possibly many?) Is it a bad beat you take? Etc. I when I feel I'm tilting, or not playing good poker (in a MTT), I tend to try to tighten up. Also I will ask myself, "what is it that is making me feels this way?" This usually helps me get my head on straight again, and regain focus. As I see it, when someone tilts, they generally completely lose focus. It's that loss in focus that leads to bad plays/calls. I personally, am really driven by pride, so I also like to take quick look at a picture of something/someone that motivates me. As a reminder to myself to "pull it together!"
Fortunately, I have indeed given that very question quite a bit of thought, and I've honed in on what I think is at least the vast majority of reasons.
Reason #1: I get sucked out on. The more unlikely the suckout, the worse the tilt. I pretty much
never tilt from my own bad play--bad play is the effect, not the cause, because I feel that if I'm going to lose, it had in fact
better be from me sucking, not the other guy getting lucky. I guess my reasoning for that is if I lose due to my own incompetence, at least it's something I can work on for next time--something I have some modicum of control over. Being in a losing position with absolutely
nothing I can do about it is something that unlocks a rare flavor of fury in me. Winning due to sheer luck can even produce a similar, though diluted effect.
Reason #2: Physical discomfort. If I don't feel good, like if I'm having stomach trouble or something, I don't play good. Once again, this is effortless to avoid if I'm not playing an MTT that starts on a schedule--but unfortunately, that's most of what I can manage to play.
Reason #3: Desire to not be doing this anymore and to go do something else. This,
by far, is my most common tilt-inducing problem, in fact I've even brought it up in another thread I started shortly after joining this forum. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get much meaningful advice on this particular problem there, probably because I can't seem to nail down specific reasons I begin to feel this way. Indeed, there seems to be no end to things that distract me from poker and my desire to play it even as I do just that. I suppose, to put it another way, you could call me easily distracted. (This tends to be exacerbated when at least 2 or more people at my player start running out their time banks in a single hand)
So...any further insights by you or anyone else will be most welcome.