dealing with tilt, some quick thoughts

Dealing with tilt (ja, ja - i'm a hypocritical tilt-monkey, but I'm down with some of the theory. Practice what I preach, I don't. etc. )

First some definitions
tilt = any deviation from your a-game
tilt = exhibiting or experiencing an emotional/physical state that will have a negative effect on your poker decision making ability

Obviously we don't always play our a-game, and obviously we are somtimes in a state that has a negative effect on the quality of our decisions (e.g. beer-goggles). We just have to deal with it.

1 = recognise tilt
* ask yourself 'am i in a-game shape?' before every session
* ask yourself 'am i playing well?' every twenty minutes
* ask yourself 'am i exhibiting tilt-symptoms?' regularly during a session

2 = avoid tilt before you start a session
* identify then practice pre-game rituals that work for you, routines can be great for all sorts of things.
* maintain a clear separation between life and poker
* don't play when you recognise tilt before the session, or if you decide to play then minimise the impact of tilt (see below)

3 = prevent the onset of tilt while you are playing
* play adequately bankrolled for the games you are playing
* make sure you innately understand and believe in the longterm
* turn off phone/other distractions while playing
* don't review badbeat hands while playing except for note-taking purposes
* smile whenever you win or lose a hand >25bb. Laugh out loud whenever villains showdown something stupid - win or lose
* don't look at cashier, HEM, etc while playing
* smile when you lose a hand (it helps)
* learn to calm yourself. Breathing exercises, mantra, all that hippie shit that works.

4 = minimise the impact of tilt
* drop in stakes if you feel there may be some obstacle to playing your a-game but you decide to play anyway
* identify what happens to your game when you are tilting, focus on these decision spots when you are playing on tilt (e.g. when i'm on tilt I'm likely to play more tables, table-hop more often, call more loosely pre-flop, raise/3b more liberally without thinking it through, make decisions too hastily. Each of these is bad, the cumulative impact of all of them is far greater than the sum of the parts)
* learn to finish sessions when tilting
* Breathe, smile, take a break, do some exercise.

great post, daven. :clap:

one thing I do is after the final bet is made is that I try to switch to a different table (if one doesn't popup first). That keeps me from seeing the results and getting like "WTF?!?!? you called with 74o?" cause I'm a huge tiltmonkey if I see stupid shit like that.

the last three days have been great for training to deal with tilt. Pretty standard stuff

http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/5069/bettergraph.jpg

excellent post man

This is fantastic. I know if I could overcome some mental challenges I would increase my win rate for my stakes - guaranteed.

Can you please comment on these a bit further on these points:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by daven

1 = recognise tilt
* ask yourself 'am i playing well?' every twenty minutes

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Its a good question but how do we effectively answer this given money as a measure is irrelevant? Do you mean something like, "should I have played this differently", or "is there a more optimum play that I could have made on the last 3 or 4 hands"?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by daven

2 = avoid tilt before you start a session
* identify then practice pre-game rituals that work for you, routines can be great for all sorts of things.

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I'm used to this with golf and it REALLY WORKS.
My question is what sort of routine? Meditate for 5 minutes, play a game of chess, what do you do? It's not like I can make 3 practice swings, visualise my target, step into the ball & let loose like golf... how do you apply it in poker?

great post!

I know firsthand if I practiced "* turn off phone/other distractions while playing" properly, i would probably be about a hundred bucks richer.

could you please elaborate a little on "* learn to calm yourself. Breathing exercises, mantra, all that hippie shit that works." though? or at least point me to a/some link/(s) you have found helpful ?

nice post. i think it was tommy angelo that pointed out that the irony of all of this is that when you are tilted is the time that you are least able to perform anything close to an objective analysis of your mental state. this is why learning to quit is the nuts, you don't have to be 100% raging and ready to smash your mouse to bits - if you are even slightly tired, bored, frustrated, agitated etc etc then end the session. the tables will always be there. don't keep on grinding and let it swell up to the point where you are completely drooling and too emotional/stubborn to quit the session.

i'm speaking for/to myself here.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Zorkion

great post!

I know firsthand if I practiced "* turn off phone/other distractions while playing" properly, i would probably be about a hundred bucks richer.

could you please elaborate a little on "* learn to calm yourself. Breathing exercises, mantra, all that hippie shit that works." though? or at least point me to a/some link/(s) you have found helpful ?

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get a 1-week trial subscription to deuces cracked and download "the eightfold path to poker enlightenment" by tommy angelo. this series goes in depth into how meditation/breathing techniques etc can improve poker play.

just take a deep breath and start over man. poker is poker dont let it get to you were you start throwing money on the table left and right

Tommy Angelo's 8 fold path is required listening for anyone who want's to get better at poker.

Great post dude, I bought Elements of Poker recently and the stuff to do with tilt is priceless.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by daven

* drop in stakes if you feel there may be some obstacle to playing your a-game but you decide to play anyway

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^ this I agree with 100%. I play the $0.02 990 seater sng on stars when I'm tilting bad, it allows me to play like a moron and not give a shit.

I smoke outside, so if I'm pissed off with poker I just sit out and go for a smoke, by the time I return I'm usually calm again.

Also, I play chess often before I start a session, I find it helps a lot to get myself into game mode, and it helps with essential poker skills such as mathematics and patience.

Nice post daven.

After yesterday I'm now going to read and re-read this post before every session!

First time I've ever gone on really bad tilt after some monster suck outs. Really disappointed in myself as I've never let myself go on bad tilt before. Obviously sometimes past hands or history will effect my play but I've always been good at getting up and walking away for a few mins when I notice that happening. Have never sat there and started doing stupid things because "it's my turn to suck out!" lol Thought that was one thing I had a good grasp on but you live and learn and are often humbled in the process!

Beating my chest and shouting helps me cool down the tilt, heh. Also the smiling and laughing at stupid stuff is golden.

Sometimes I also imagine a poker pro is watching me play/railing me. Its really hard to do something really stupid if you feel a good poker player is watching you.

This post popped up on page one again thanks to the spammer, so I read it again.

Something I agree with 100%... don't look at the cashier while playing. I was 20+ tabling during the milestone thing on stars, and I would have the cashier open so I could assess my progress (or rather, lack of it), especially since it was very tough to track hands in which my stack was in... so when my roll dipped like 3 buy-ins in 5 mins, suddenly I'm not concentrating on my game and instead I'm wondering what the fuck just happened. Now I'm desperately trying to look back at the hand, though of course I'm not entirely sure which table it was, and tables keep demanding my attention, and I'm going "FUCK OFF I JUST WANNA SEE WHAT HAPPENED" and perhaps even fold AJo on the CO because I don't want to play it I want to see that hand that doesn't matter any more and then I see 66 called my shove with KK and hit the fucking turn and I'm like "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING IDIOT" now I'm trying to make a note and still play 20+ tables and still find out what happened to my other 2 buy-ins lost and now I need a ciggie so I can calm the fuck down and really I should just not have looked at the cashier in the first place because before then I was in the zone.

Every time I look at this OP I find something that resonates with me. Tilt control is an essential skill in poker, and it's not something I have mastered.

dealing with tilt

step 1) play overrolled
step 2) dont give a fuck about money

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+1

God bless the spambot.

still gold.

Tilt = any emotional involvement in a prior hand
Good emotions make me call with the excuse, "I'm free-rolling this donk."
Bad make me call because, "It's my button, and my turn, you thief."

I really like the part about smiling after every big pot, win or lose. I find when I'm really on top of my game, I do this anyway.

I'm tilting right now, which is why I'm reading Daven's posts instead playing poker. Probably be better off at the tables.

* smiles *

nh, daven

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Originally Posted by Robb

I'm tilting right now, which is why I'm reading Daven's posts instead playing poker.

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ha, me too. that's also why i was reading this thread. and why i bumped it

Holy shit. There are like 50 deleted spam posts in this thread. That tilts me!

gold from Robb

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Robb

not tilting is about understanding variance, the good and the bad. Stack off? No worries, just reload and play well. I'm not the biggest fish at the table, and if I keep thinking, keep solving problems, and keep folding, the wins will come. You have to let the card deadness go, the flop deadness, all of it. If you wait, the spots to barrel will start showing back up.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Stacks

Holy shit. There are like 50 deleted spam posts in this thread. That tilts me!

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More than that, I think I have 50 deleted myself

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MadMojoMonkey

Tilt = any emotional involvement in a prior hand.

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This definition has been discussed in this article:

http://www.flopturnriver.com/pokerfo...-a-126106.html

While it's a good piece of writing (especially the list of emotional reactions, zomg, I think I do almost all of them), I believe this particular definition is not very accurate. Firstly, it leaves out tilts that arise from real-life issues. Secondly, it seems to me that it's possible to be emotional about previous hand without it negatively affecting your play. Like when you think happily and proudly about a very good river call you made, it can lead to tilt if you start feeling invincible and playing more recklessly. But often it just gives energy to concentrate and reminds to think of opponents' ranges.

I really like that "pause-breath-clear" concept. I've been practicing that lately and it's doing wonders for my game.

Tilt comes down roughly to expectations. If you can't manage your expectations then you're gonna have a bad time.

This is the simplest and most correct definition of tilt.