TILT

Imagine you are playing in a bad game to get even, and you just made
a loose call pre-flop because of some odd reason or you’re just
steaming (hot, frustrated, angry after taking a bad beat) so you
call a raise with 73 suited pre-flop, flop a flush and lose to a
higher flush.

Now you get even more “tilty” and start throwing money around like
one of those tennis machines that throws balls at you

That’s a solid case of tilt leading to even more tilt.

But, let’s get back to our main topic!

For me, tilt is anything that deviates from my best game–my
A-game. Let’s set the bar high here and only play when we are
playing our best! This is my goal.

Obvious signs that you are on tilt are:

1. Anger
2. Frustration
3. You are breaking a sweat while playing poker
4. You are making odd new moves (raising, calling, folding)
5. Thoughts like “I am going to get this guy.”
6. “I’ll just play until I get even.”
7. Your friend/spouse/whatever comes into the room and you tell
him/her to piss off and not disturb you.

The last point, of course, obviously does not apply, if someone is
disturbing you way too often. But say you just lost a hand and
haven’t been getting any cards or playing well, you feel a bit
clouded, emotionally drained, and your friend walks into the room
and asks something and you tell him/her to get out, as you don’t
want to hear stupid questions when you’re playing!

That’s a classic sign. So let’s move on here. Why and how does tilt
give you such an edge?

Imagine the following two scenarios:

Scenario #1: Bob has been playing poker for one year and is average
at poker strategy. He knows to play tight and plays generally well,
though he isn’t tricky and doesn’t pull any odd moves or bluffs. On
the other hand, he is excellent at self-discipline, uses great game
selection, and only plays when the games are good to very good.

He has a minimal risk of ever going broke, since he utilizes sound
money management rules and follows them strictly. He also is
observing himself, and has written down a list of “Tilt Symptoms”
and keeps adding to the list. Every time he sees a symptom, he
leaves the game immediately.

Scenario #2: Steve has been playing poker for a few years now, and
he’s good at reading players but he plays too loose and has a
tendency to tilt and spew chips a lot. His money management rules
are non-existent and he often finds himself stuck and in a game
full of great players.

Steve has some good runs, he moves up limits when he has 2-4
buy-ins for the next limit–why wait?

One buy-in is enough. He sometimes runs his $1,000 up to $50,000
and lives the highlife, but quickly comes back down the rollercoaster
and finds himself broke and ends up borrowing money from friends and
working a part- or a full-time job to make ends meet until
“his luck turns around.”

These are extreme examples, especially the last one, but I wanted
to get my point across. If you are an average player and have the
other aspects down, you will very likely be a long-term winner.

If, on the other hand, you are like our buddy Steve, you will have
problems IF you don’t change. But if you do change and start
working on the other aspects, there is a good chance you will
become an excellent poker player one day!