Tilt Problems

Hi all

i am new to FTR, and have only been playing poker for about 9 months and only about 1 month seriously online. i have deposited several times on PS, just $50 at a time and have been able to double my money each time, playing a mixture of NL cash and some S+Gs. However i have one serious problem. TILT. for some unknown reason i expect to win every hand that i play. I am able to control it mostly and then i play a very good tight agressive game and can make a profit. it is when i have these sessions that it affects my whole BR. so much so that i have lost it all twice by going on tilt.
is there anything that people can suggest to try and change my mentality, because i know i can be a winning player, without this flaw in my approach and game.

I would appreciate any feedback that people could give me

thanx

Welcome to the wonderful world of poker.

This is one of the most difficult things to master, and it will most likely take you a long time.

But the good news is there are a few things that you can do right away to help take your emotions out of play.

1. BANKROLL MANAGEMENT
Play well within your bankroll. Maybe even go to the extreme for a while and do not sit down with any more than 25-30 times your total bankroll. This way, if you loose, it is only a small amount compaired to your overall bankroll. And you will not care as much. You will not have the same emotional reactions and you will be able to keep your focus on proper, objective strategy.

I know it sounds kind of crappy since if you deposit only $50-$100, you will only be playing for pennies (i.e. $100 bankroll = $4 table buy-in = $0.02/$0.04 NL Stakes), but that is exactly the point. You don't want to be upset about loosing a big pot. At this point you should just be looking at the stakes and your bankroll as a way to keep score. Those $0.02/$0.04 Stakes could be $200/$400 for all you care. You don't care about the money right now. You care about making the correct decisions and increasing your "score" . Taking your emotion out of play right now and worrying about correct strategy and winning is the most important thing right now. Don't worry about the money.

2. UNDERSTAND AND ACCEPT VARIENCE
Understand that you WILL loose. And you WILL LOSS OFTEN. If you have a good day and double or triple your buy-in, fully expect to lose a little over the next couple days. Accept this and don't worry about it. Even good players only make a couple big bets an hour (or per 100 hands). So, if you make a big score and make 10 big bets per hour one day, you are going to have some bad days to even that it. That's variance. That's poker. Accept it and move on.

Don't worry about how much you are loosing on your bad days or worry about trying to get even. Just continue to play the correct strategy and know that by not giving away more chips than you have to (not giving in to TILT) will actually make you money in the long run. A penny saved, is a penny earned!

I oftenhave weeks where I'll have a +$200 day, -$100 day, -$40 day, +$60 day, -$55 day. Notice I lost more often than I won. But since I played well and I did not give in to TILT on my bad days, I ended up winning more on my good days and loosing less on my bad days, giving me a net profit for the week of $65.



The only other thing I might suggest right now is maybe giving Limit a shot. You will actually experience more variance due to a bunch of silly fish drawing to any crap. But it will slow down how much you spew when you might be experiencing tilt. It can also limit how much you can loose at any given time, also helping to cut down on tilt.

I'm going to take a page out of miffed's book and just repost my statement from another thread, I think it applies to any and all talk about tilt

Let's look at this as stated. Do you plan to ever move up? Do you plan to ever play for pots bigger than $10, $30, $100. Losing buy ins is part of the game, having downswings is part of the game. The only thing that you spoke about that is not part of the game is tilt. If you are tilting at any point, over losing a hand, a buy in or having a downswing, take a break. A long break. Maybe quit poker.

This may seem a little harsh, and this is not directed just at you, but all the beginners out there. I've been spending some time discussing tilt with some players that not only play higher stakes, but play for life altering money. If you understand poker. The math involved in every decision. The math involved in AA getting cracked. The math involved in running into AA with KK. And the reasons why we have BR management, to protect against inevitable downswings and variance, then why are you (or anybody) tilting. GET OVER IT! The only unforgivable aspect of your play will be losing more money, playing on tilt.

Why would someone with half a brain (again, not just pointing this out to you) that understands poker, understands the math, studies the game, practices good BR management to protect against variance, TILT because of said variance, and turn a 3 or 4 buy in down swing into a 10 or 15 buy in downswing by not playing optimal poker on every hand.

And I'd like to point out, if you can't learn to control tilt at the $10NL, $25NL and $50NL levels, how in the hell will everyone of you, EVERYONE OF YOU, who dreams of playing like our beloved FTR regulars at $5/$10 and higher ever be able to play in a $1000 pot and push that edge. Ok, maybe I'm wrong, maybe you "just play for fun" and don't want to play at those stakes. Then why all the tilt?? If it's for fun, and you play to relax, why Tilt??? Have fun, smile and type NH, move on, but either way, pick a side and stop tilting.


SERIOUSLY, STOP TILTING OVER NICKELS OR THE $1K POTS WILL NEVER HAPPEN, EVER!!!! learn to play without tilt now at $10NL or you may never play for fun or money.

Trainer fantastic post!!! Fantastic.

I've seen a lot of players loose it. I've had a lot of friends tell me, "this idiot called me down with a gutshot and hit it on the river." The standard response just think about the roughly 90% of the time that they don't hit that gutshot, and you profit.

I can only echo the sentiments of the above posts.

IMO, bankroll management is the key to avoiding tilt.

I'd been playing at $10NL, well within my broll and not giving two hoots whether a donk nailed his gutshot on the river to crack my set. I just reloaded and got on with it.

I stepped up to $25NL (within my broll again) got spanked, and lost the plot when the 4th bad beat in an hour hit me.

I now plan to have at least $100 over the necessary broll before moving up limits again.

If the beats don't hurt your roll too much, they don't hit you as hard emotionally. That's what I have found, anyway.

I lost AA to straight flush last night. Put me on mini tilt. I only had one other table open at the time thank god.

The best way to avoid tilt is to understand why things happen. This involves a proper comprehension of the maths behind poker, both the specifics (what percentage of the time with a gutshot hit on the turn, say) and the fundamentals (how probability works, the relative value of tournament chips, managing expectations, why bankroll management works, etc.).

If you understand all these things, then not only can you use them to play more correct poker, but you can also understand and rationalise when things AREN'T going your way.

I need to forward this post to my buddy who wants to start playing poker.... Talk about a wealth of info for beginners...

Originally Posted by uscheese

I lost AA to straight flush last night. Put me on mini tilt. I only had one other table open at the time thank god.

This is not an over exaggeration, and all of these were all in preflop but I have lost my last 4 AA and my last 2 KK to the following;

AAvs66
AAvsJT
AAvsA5
AAvs87 O/S

KKvsAJ
KKvs68h (flopped a flush)

I run bad!

It can't go on, the poker gods don't hate ANYONE that much, do they?

Originally Posted by Jimmyjet

Originally Posted by uscheese

I lost AA to straight flush last night. Put me on mini tilt. I only had one other table open at the time thank god.

This is not an over exaggeration, and all of these were all in preflop but I have lost my last 4 AA and my last 2 KK to the following;

AAvs66
AAvsJT
AAvsA5
AAvs87 O/S

KKvsAJ
KKvs68h (flopped a flush)

I run bad!

It can't go on, the poker gods don't hate ANYONE that much, do they?

Similar situation happend to me last week. You just keep playing and you keep winning money. I think i go on tilt more when i know i played badly and lost because of that than because of a bad beat. If you start to get frustrated (I get frustrated sometimes, i dont tilit ) just shut it down and play tomorrow. A break can help your game alot, and playing level headed will mean a world of difference.