Tilt managment

[Dobbler1]

I think tilt means different things to different people, but for the sake of this discussion, I mean all times when your emotions drive you to play worse than your skill level. If you reviewed a hand you played as if it were played by some other random player, and were able to identify "That was a mistake/bad play" (before the consequences of the play happened), then that's some level of tilt.

Although it's hard to quantify, I'm confident that when not tilted, I am a winning player. I might win 20-50 BB/HR average when not tilted. I also know that I can easily loose 200-300BB in 10 minutes when I'm badly tilted. So tilt is what keeps me from being profitable.

Here are some of the challenges that I encounter with managing tilt:

1. Sometimes it's subtle. I'm playing just a little looser/tighter or more passive/aggressive than I would normally know is ideal. This usually lends itself to a slow but steady leak of chips.
2. Sometimes it's drastic, but by the time I see it, I might have lost my stack twice or three times over.
3. When I notice a dramatic tilt, I stop playing, but I don't always know how long to wait to tell if I'm "cooled down".
4. When I notice I'm less dramatically tilted, I breathe deep and try to talk myself down, but can't always tell if it's working, or if I should just stop playing.

Maybe there are no easy answers to these questions. Maybe it just has to be learned the old fashion way by getting it wrong over and over again and being punished for it, but if someone does have some good advice about this, I'd love to hear it.

 

[JappsPK]

Managing tilt is a crucial aspect of being a successful poker player...

This is where soo many players fails (including me).

 

[mbermejo174]

hi there, i'm new at online poker, I play mostly freeroll games. I'm suffer from anxiety disorder, clinical stable but i learned that in all things we do, we need to stay in control of our behaviors. speaking about poker, when you got a nice hand, i hold my impulses and keep beting the necessary to force other players to fold but never beting so high that i could be short stack if i loose. Of course there are hands that the flops/river/turn makes you call high bets, but its all about you playing around the odds and try your luck. if you loose you gotta move on, keep in mind that ones you loose others you win.
Well, my advice is that, be patient, control your impulses and knows that its a game you have to trust in luck as well. Keep it up man!

 

[Luvepoker]

Tilt can kill your profits and chips quickly.

1. Sometimes it's subtle. I'm playing just a little looser/tighter or more passive/aggressive than I would normally know is ideal. This usually lends itself to a slow but

One thing you need to relize is when this happens and your playing cash game is to stop playing and take a break. Unless your good at getting your control back in line once you notice this you need to corect it fast or the chips you lose will be going faster and faster.

1. Sometimes it's drastic, but by the time I see it, I might have lost my stack twice or three times over.

Once your at this point just stop. You wont fix it without a break.

1. When I notice a dramatic tilt, I stop playing, but I don't always know how long to wait to tell if I'm "cooled down".

If its small and subtle takeing a hour or 2 is not a bad time. When it get to the drastic stage, dont play for the rest of the day is what I do. To be honest when this happens I take a few days off. Why, I know i am more likely to push a bit hard when i return and that leads to a bigger loss.

1. When I notice I'm less dramatically tilted, I breathe deep and try to talk myself down, but can't always tell if it's working, or if I should just stop playing.

I use meditation before i play to get into a relaxed state. Its helps a lot. Taking that deep breath is a good start and should help. How I tell if its working or not is based on my play after words. I tend to start talking about my play to my self. If you make a play that sound wrong to you and your normal though process it maybe a sign its not working.

Maybe there are no easy answers to these questions. Maybe it just has to be learned the old fashion way by getting it wrong over and over again and being punished for it, but if someone does have some good advice about this, I'd love to hear it.

Your right there are no easy answers. The thing is you can put yourself into better situations. If your tired, not felling 100%, just having issues in life that are bothering you at that moment, or just being distracted, on these are days I wont play. Why? I am more likly to go on tilt.

FYI, I highly recommend mediation and listening to meditation music when playing. This really helped me alot.

 

[fundiver199]

This is very true, and tilt is not only playing when annoyed. In its broadest definition its anything, which prevent us from playing our A-game, including being tired or drunk. And even though its not exactly tilt, excessive multitabling will also prevent us from playing A-game. Just to give a simple example I woke up very early saturday morning and decided to play some poker. In a 50/Fifty SnG I 3-bet QQ and then called a 4-bet jam for 50 BB. Or at least so I thought, because I actually had Q9s. Luckily I was against AK, so at least I had free cards and decent equity. But it still made me realise, that I should certainly not start an MTT session but rather try to go back to sleep. Which I then did around an hour later

 

[Station_Master]

This is very true, and tilt is not only playing when annoyed. In its broadest definition its anything, which prevent us from playing our A-game, including being tired or drunk. And even though its not exactly tilt, excessive multitabling will also prevent us from playing A-game. Just to give a simple example I woke up very early saturday morning and decided to play some poker. In a 50/Fifty SnG I 3-bet QQ and then called a 4-bet jam for 50 BB. Or at least so I thought, because I actually had Q9s. Luckily I was against AK, so at least I had free cards and decent equity. But it still made me realise, that I should certainly not start an MTT session but rather try to go back to sleep. Which I then did around an hour later

Definitely agree with this. One of change I have made recently is to stop playing when tired. Whilst I thought I was playing ok, in reality I was probably at best breaking even when tired.

 

[Pokerpoet2]

I very rarely go "On Tilt!" and here's the reasons why?

1) I never enter a game thinking I am going to win. At best I am happy just to make the money,

2) It really does not matter if I Win or Lose as the money I buy-in for is always less than 1% of my bankroll.

3) Poker for me is a game to enjoy, and if I am not enjoying it I Quit!

4) The Buy-ins are not something I expect to get back, I look on them as being the ticket price I have to pay, to play a game, just like the Cinema Tickets when I go to the cinema, or Turnstile Ticket if I go to a Football/Rugby match.

Not everyone who plays Poker, does it for a living, Some do and I have the greatest of respect for them, Personally I am past working, I retired almost 10 years ago and don't need to work, My pensions pay for my Weekly/Monthly expenses so Poker is just a pastime I can take or leave, It's just a bit of Fun! But when It stops being Fun, Then it can become a problem, If players start to have problems, I would advise them to seek help Urgently!

I just Don't go on Tilt!

When the fun stops, STOP!

 

[mattiebumpo]

I agree with @Luvepoker that meditation is a great tool to help with mindset and tilt. When I meditate regularly and especially as part of my pre-game ritual, I find it much easier to get out of tilt. The more you practice meditation, the easier it is for you to stop any spiraling feelings of tilt and come back to a balanced state of mind. I also find taking a "tilt walk" - walking around and clearing my mind helps me get back on track. Verbalizing what happened in the hand that made you tilt and then reframing it to be positive or a learning experience can help you shake it off and get back to living in the moment instead of replaying the bad decision or bad beat in your mind.

 

[fundiver199]

Definitely agree with this. One of change I have made recently is to stop playing when tired. Whilst I thought I was playing ok, in reality I was probably at best breaking even when tired.

Not knowing your cards is a pretty extreme example and one, which has only happened to me a few times during millions of hands played online. But there are other subtle changes to our game, when we are tired, which might go unnoticed, like playing to weak and tight, because it require less brain power.

 

[whinwa]

I practice daily meditation / mindfulness. I often find that the best way to control tilt at the tables is to prepare and practice good mental habbits off table. <3

 

[Dobbler1]

FWIW, I found something that I think is progress. Yesterday I had a good day. I played for a maybe 4 hours and turned 200BB into ~1600BB through disciplined play (and good table selection). Today I hopped on the computer and played for about a half an hour and despite doubling through a busted flush draw with aces full, ended up being down a little over $100BB from some outright stupid, borderline insane play. The progress is that I identified it quickly and quit. I'm not yet ready to say "I'm the guy who never tilts", but I can start to say "I'm the guy who can walk away when he's tilting". I predict this will save me significant money if I can hold it up.

I don't think I'll get back to the cash tables today at least until I have a nap.

 

[Cooking]

I had tilt problems before, specially in my first years. I lost all my bankroll many times. But in the last couple of years, it's very rare to I go tilt. I had identified that my trigger to go tilt on poker was sports bets. I used to lose on sports bets and tried to recover on poker (I know it's an awful idea). So, I quit all sports bets and only play poker now. Also, I learned to accept that bad beats will always happen on poker and there's nothing I can do besides making the best decisions for that hand.