How To Control Tilt - Dwarfy's Thoughts

Well I haven't wrote a long strategy post in a long while, so I may as well enlighten the masses with one now. Pardon me if I ramble on a bit like a silly Brit, but I hope you enjoy the read.

Tilt is a HUGE factor in poker, in most cases it is the difference between a winning and breakeven/losing player. So it is therefore essential that you can recognize tilt and know how to control it. As I was a prime suspect to tilt for many months, I really had to work on controlling it and methods to control it, so that I could stop losing money in stupid ways. I hope to relay some of the things that I learnt along the way to you. The methods certainly helped me almost eliminate tilt completely from my game.

The first and most important thing you must do is recognise when you are on tilt, if you don't know you are on tilt, then you will not be able to stop it. You really do have to try to not think about big pots you lost a little while back, just play the hand as if nothing out of the ordinary (no bad beats) happened previously, this is the first step to killing tilt. If you cannot do this and you are constantly thinking about that lost pot, look CLOSELY at how you are playing, think to yourself 'would i raise that hand if I had not lost that big pot?', if the answer is 'No', and you can't put that bad beat behind you, QUIT. Go and do something else until you have forgotten about that bad beat and are back on top of your game, for as long as it takes, DO NOT go back until you are back to 100%.

One thing I find that helps get rid of tilt quickly enough is to take a break when you feel yourself tilting, and do something PHYSICAL. Go for a run, play some football, kick a dog, wack off to some porn. This will help burn off that anger that is built up inside you and I have found that it generally makes you feel so much better.

Also, set yourself limits as to how much you can lose in one day. Say if you are playing $25 NL, you can limit yourself to losing 4 buyins in a day ($100), if you surpass a $100 loss, QUIT FOR THE DAY. Do this no matter what, even if you feel you are playing your best. This is because tilt is hardest to spot when you are down lots for a day and trying to make it back before the day is out. It's times like these that you do little things, like missing a bet, misreading someone, that REALLY do affect your bankroll in the long run, and it is so hard to spot when you do this. So if you quit for the day if you reach your loss limit then you are guaranteed to come back fresh the next day and ready to kill some fishies.

Remember, you don't HAVE to play poker, it is there for you any time you want to play at the click of a button. Don't play poker because you feel you are obliged to. Play when you are feeling 100% and when you feel you are on top of your game.

That's about all I can think of typing right now, hope this helps you guys. I might add to this if I think of anything else to put on.

Great write up. I will definitely keep those things in mind next time around.

I think one way I control my tilt is I keep saying to myself, whenever I go all in or bet huge/get called, is that my hand may be beat or is already beat. But chances are good that I'm winning.

I don't expect rewards everytime I go all in or bet huge, thinking I have the best hand. I know that I'm beat, can be beat, or can actually win. It's one of the three.

I'm not sure if I explained that well, but it's been working great for me so far, and I rarely tilt unless royal flush beats my quad aces!!!

One thing I forgot to add.

Every time you get a bad beat or 2, remember this important phrase:

The only sure thing about luck is that it will change.

And it will, if you remember this all the time it will help you stay out of the mentality that leads you to believe that everything is conspired against you, because it really isn't.

Originally Posted by dwarfman

QUIT. Go and do something else until you have forgotten about that bad beat and are back on top of your game, for as long as it takes, DO NOT go back until you are back to 100%.

This is one reason I don't like carpooling to brick and mortar card rooms. If enough people go then someone is going to take some beats and nobody should be forced to stay when it is not their night.

I find for myself, tilt is very subtle. I don't go "oh my god i got 5 outed i'm going to go spew 300 dollars at some table, instead i just make subtle tilty
adjustments to my game. I might bluff when i shouldn';t or bet to agressively, or not aggressively enough. It often takes me a couple days to recognize that i'm on very slight tilt and have been playing poorly because of it.

I agree that it is subtle. There have been times when I thought decisions were being made based on logic. However, once I looked back on things I realized I was on tilt and emotion got involved.

Good advice Dwarfman.

One thing I would like to mention is a form of tilt that I occasionaly suffer from. "Over Confidence".

I find that the hotter my cards get, the less respect I have for my opponents bets. Nothing worse than dominating a table for an hour and then losing 1/2 your stack with TPTK. Especially when their bets were screaming "I have a Set".

So, I try to take regualr breaks regardless of whether I am winning or losing.

very good points. I too am a "subtle" tilter. More aggression, poorer reads, playing out of poisition ... but not "OMG RAISE RAISE RAISE".. very slight things that add up hugely in a negative way.

Yesterday I was given three bad beats essentially in a row, and it took a chunk of my BR, but I think the tilt afterward actually took more.

I think something being left out is the "gotta get back that lost money" state of mind.

I think this is definite form of tilt and one of the worst.

Scenario: You're playing awesome, you're dealt AA and you push it pf with some fish who has 47o and he rivers the straight. You're down $50. 70 hands later and a few more suckouts and you're down $200. The worst thing to do is think "I'm down $200, I need to make that back". I'm a huge tilter in this fashion and to me it's honestly one of the most dangerous forms. You begin to chase flushes more often because "it can potentially win you the hand and get you your money back". You begin to start doing all sorts of things you wouldn't normally do. Like Dwarfy said, don't think about past hands. I would just like to emphasize, don't think about your bankroll (in negative terms meaning don't let it make you nervous or agitate; of course you need BR management and a loss limit, 10% I'd suggest, to know when to end a bad night) or what your net gain for the night is. It will only hurt you. One hand at a time, play in the moment.

edit: I also forgot to mention that if you're tilted come to IRC and talk to the guys. We're sometimes funny and can lighten your mood. Typing things like !kick dwarfman also helps.

Originally Posted by bigred

don't think about your bankroll

My next point exactly.

This isn't much to do with tilt but it can have an adverse effect on the way you play.

Do not think of your bankroll when sitting at a table

This applies mainly to ring games. The one big problem that I have noticed with some ring game players is that they are too bankroll-focussed. To avoid this, you must get into a certain frame of mind. This is that you must not believe that the money you take to a table is actually money, it is POKER CHIPS.

For example, if you take $25 to a $25 NL ring game, pretend that the $25 doesn't exist any more. That $25 is now poker chips, so you play your best poker game with these POKER CHIPS, and you do not worry about the effect it can have on your bankroll.

As long as you are correctly managing your bankroll (see here for advice on this) you should never have to worry about your bankroll at all when actually sitting at a ring game.

I was going to say something along the lines of bigred's comment, but he did it perfectly, so no need. Something I know *I* do, and wish I didn't, is set unnecessary and meaningless chip/bankroll targets in my head, usually revolving around either round numbers (i.e. I've got $32.35 and I NEED to get to $40 before I quit), or around making up my losses (I started with $45, I now have $41, so I NEED to make that $4 back).

It distracts from the game, it adds subconsious, arbitrary limits to your bets - overall it's a totally useless contributory factor to how you play your game.

Does anyone else do this?

Complacency Tilt

This is a type of tilt I see so often, I have even seen top FTR players fallen foul to this type of tilt.

When you accumulate a huge stack in ring games and tourneys, it is very easy for the average player to get careless (complacent) and he will start calling big raises out of position just because he has chips, so he is just throwing his stack away.

Of course, when you do have a big stack leverage is of essence, but people just generally take it way too far and end up throwing their chips into the gutter.

What you have to do to avoid this is pretty simple, you MUST take every hand as it comes, do not think that you can call a raise because you have the raiser outchipped, think about the player. Is he tight? Is he loose? Does he raise often? Those are the questions to consider, more so than chip stacks.

You must NEVER get complacent when playing poker, any hand can make you or break you.

i usually just fall asleep
it helps cuz you can literally sleep on it

lately i have had the urge to play loose-aggressive so i havent played in about two weeks

Don't lose confidence!

One of the biggest mistakes you can make when on a downswing is to lose confidence that you can win. This especially applies to lower stakes players.

If you have been reading FTR and applying the strategies I GUARANTEE that you can beat the $25 NL numpties at Party Poker. If you have a bad run you should not be led to believe that you can no longer beat these players, because you can, but if you don't have any confidence, I GUARANTEE that you will actually not beat these fish.

Bottom line, you need to keep your confidence levels high all the time, even if you are having the downswingiest of downswings. If you know you can beat the game, don't believe otherwise. Ever.

Sidenote: Feel free to post any comments and questions in this thread.

I noticed one of your recent posts mentioned that you had lost you entire bankroll.

What happenned ?
Is it just coincedence that you revived this thread about tilting ?

Originally Posted by sinky

I noticed one of your recent posts mentioned that you had lost you entire bankroll.

What happenned ?
Is it just coincedence that you revived this thread about tilting ?

I never had much of a bankroll to lose in the first place

I just thought of a new point to put in there, so I just added it on.

I'm glad to say I'm back way way up now.

What do you guys think about ingame chat? Do you experience or participate much? Do you pay attention? Does it help your game? Do you use it to your own advantage (annoying people into tilt : P)?

Originally Posted by Ibsu Bai Hui

What do you guys think about ingame chat? Do you experience or participate much? Do you pay attention? Does it help your game? Do you use it to your own advantage (annoying people into tilt : P)?

Interesting point. If someone tries to put you on tilt using chat, just ignore him, block chat, whatever.

I usually just keep quiet when it comes to putting other people on tilt. But if someone is a complete jackass, I may say a few things that will get him to open right up when I raise a pot.