Against Tilt

So, I'm a big tilter and here are some of the things that help me overcome/minimize its effects. Maybe we all can add some of our own "tricks" and comments on this to help everybody.

1st. The best way for me to overcome it, short of stopping play altogether (easier said than done when ur stuck and steaming).
I PLAY ANOTHER GAME.

Part of tilt is caused by losses that you wanna overcome. When ur tilting because of someone's bad play that made u lose your stack, u tend to spew and try to get that money back too fast (play too many hands, play back at the guy that got u without having the goods...). This leads to more losses, more steaming...

Switching from a cash game to some SnGs, or from NL to FL, or OH8, or Stud, will help me feel i'm recovering my losses and still playing poker but will disconnect me from the previous game and from getting back at that player. The new structure/game will necessitate different skills and so i will turn the page on the bad beats much faster by focusing on different players/blind structures/poker games.

2nd. All that tilting is mostly accumulated frustration, tension, stress...
I RELEASE TENSION

I may hit the table, shout at the screen, kick a chair... just to release the initial tension that builds up after a bad beat.

3rd. When someone sucks out on me and gives me a terrible beat, I really dont appreciate their "LOL" comments... They make me steam more.
I TURN OFF THE CHAT

I have come to leave it off most of the time. The game is colder and may be a bit less fun at times, but my tilting factor does go down.

4th. When ur AA get cracked by a gutshot on the river, u feel pretty bad, but do u realise what ppl had when they called u down and lost?
LOOK AT THE HAND HISTORIES

At first, if i won a big pot, and the guy mucked, I wouldn't care what he had, and hence, many times, I wouldn't know what he had.
But if I do know all the times they call down with crap and don't draw out, when they do draw out I feel less bad, cause every time i beat their bad play I'm rejoicing in their bad play. Intuitively it is easier for me to cope with them sucking out from time to time knowing all the times they didnt.
POKERACE is a great tool and will show mucked hands, but my pokerace not working, I look at the HHs a lot during the game to know what they had in the hands that i win (which also helps improve reads and general poker skill).

OK, that's some things that work for me. Hope to hear other ppls ideas.

I typically avoid tilt (in poker and in life) by not worrying about anything that is out of my control. As long as I get my chips in the middle by playing as smart and good as I can then nothing else matters to me.

Suckouts don't bother me at all because I know that I made the right decision at that time.

Originally Posted by GatorJH

I typically avoid tilt (in poker and in life) by not worrying about anything that is out of my control. As long as I get my chips in the middle by playing as smart and good as I can then nothing else matters to me.

Suckouts don't bother me at all because I know that I made the right decision at that time.

LOL, thats really something! Congratulations to you.
But for those of us who haven't achieved your ZEN level, mayhaps this topic will be helpful. Go write someplace else, I thought this was the Beginners Circle, and I would tend to think most BEGINNERS haven't achieved your serenity state yet. I don't see your response being of much help.

I serously didn't write that to be a smartass and apologize if it came off that way.

Don't get me wrong, I CERTAINLY have thrown many objects across the room when I have taken multiple bad beats in a session, I just REALLY try to objectively look at that situation (once I pick up the item and take a few deep breaths) and see if there was anything I could have done to avoid it or if it truly was just a bad beat.

I guess what I am trying to say is that if you REALLY focus on the decisions that YOU make at the table all of the other stuff (comments others make, bad beats, etc.) will become easier to take because you will know that you made the right decision (at least to the best of your ability at that particular time).

IF you can put your focus on YOUR game and improving that you may be able to either avoid tilting in certain situations or at least minimize the amount of time it takes you to get out of tilt mode.

Originally Posted by GatorJH

I serously didn't write that to be a smartass and apologize if it came off that way.

Don't get me wrong, I CERTAINLY have thrown many objects across the room when I have taken multiple bad beats in a session, I just REALLY try to objectively look at that situation (once I pick up the item and take a few deep breaths) and see if there was anything I could have done to avoid it or if it truly was just a bad beat.

I guess what I am trying to say is that if you REALLY focus on the decisions that YOU make at the table all of the other stuff (comments others make, bad beats, etc.) will become easier to take because you will know that you made the right decision (at least to the best of your ability at that particular time).

IF you can put your focus on YOUR game and improving that you may be able to either avoid tilting in certain situations or at least minimize the amount of time it takes you to get out of tilt mode.

No problemo Gator, I also jumped a bit and may have taken your post on the wrong note, sorry.

What you write here is totally true and I "aspire" to think like that every time at the tables.
It is very hard though, so thats why i propose to talk about the other little things that can help avoid the dreaded tilt.

Dropping down a level helps me... no sense of BR pressure and totally comfortable getting back out of my weak-tight shell after some crappy beats as the $ involved seem relatively small.

Switching from ring to tourney is a great idea. First, it forces a break as you're prolly gonna be committed to the tourney for at least 10-15 mins. Secondly, the $ is irrelevant, esp if it's a micro-SNG cause the spend ends with the buy-in and after that it's just those lil' chip thingies.

Oh... and no chat for me. Not so much cause people cheese me off. But I get distracted, and before I know it I'm practicing my German w/ some dude from Munich and I just called an all-in from a nit UTG with AKo....

BTW -- Starcraft works great too. Get so f-in busy clicking on Zergs you don't have time to remember why you tilted...

well it's only been 4 days since I started playing again... but I haven't really been on tilt since starting again

The things that help me are

1. I play within my bankroll, so if I run into a bad beat I don't get considerred about the money I lost...
2. I look forward to bad beats when joining a table because I know that these bad beats only happen to a weaker player and these weaker players can be taken advantage of, and in the long run I know I'll profit
3. I tell myself before every session that I'm there to make money, and by doing that I make sure I play my best poker, so I don't care about some unlucky cards coming on the river or not calling to a raise preflop when I see a flop where I had the nuts because I know I made the best decision.

hope this kinda helped

personally, the methods you use (apart from looking at HH) are what I used 3 months back to "avoid tilting" but they hardly helped and I might actually just increase my status of tilt which caused me to refill twice and eventually quit poker altogether before coming back this week...

I never thought much about switching games but I bet that would be a great thing to do, I should try it next time I do tilt and don't want to stop playing. I definitely like looking at hand histories after a serious beat, I think that's really the most important thing because it will -- hopefully -- help you shrug off bad beats better and not go on tilt *next* time a beat like that happens because you know you were +ev (and properly rolled for your level.)

Nice post