Avoiding Tilt

Tilt is never a fun subject to talk about but it’s better to face it head on rather than to ignore it. Any time a poker player allows his emotions to affect how he plays, that poker player is suffering from tilt. In most cases, tilt occurs as a result of anger due to perceived injustices at the table. Bad beats are the number one instigator of tilt.

If you suffer from tilt, don’t be ashamed to admit it. Every poker player in the world suffers from tilt from time to time. It’s just a part of being human. We are emotional creatures and we sometimes let those emotions affect our play. In a game as intense as poker, it’s surprising we don’t see more tilt.

How to Avoid Tilt

One of the best ways to avoid tilt is to make a pact with yourself before you play. Tell yourself that if you suffer a bad beat, you’ll step away from the table for at least five minutes and take a quick walk outside. Tell yourself that you will do this every time you take a bad beat – whether or not you feel frustrated.

A quick five minute break lets you catch a little fresh air and collect your thoughts. When you return to the game, you’ll feel refreshed and motivated to play solid poker. If you stick with this little system, you’ll avoid tilt 80% of the time.

Every once in a while, a quick five minute break isn’t enough to avoid tilt. Whether it’s a monster bad beat, terrible run of cards or some annoying player, some tilt just doesn’t go away easily. If you still feel frustrated when you return to the table, your best bet is to just call it a day and find something else to do.

The problem many players have with just walking away is that they feel like they need to make up for the money they just lost. This is dangerous thinking because it keeps you planted at a table while suffering from tilt. At the same time, it increases the pressure on you to post a win, which will also affect your play.

There’s no easy way to avoid this dilemma. The only thing you can do is remind yourself that bad days at the tables are unavoidable. If you stay and try to grind on through the tilt, you’ll end up losing even more money. Then, you’ll just go into even deeper tilt and feel even more pressured to post a win. Do you see the cycle here? I’ve seen it a hundred times over the years.

What to Avoid at All Costs

The following is a list of things you should never do when you feel tilt creeping up on you. If you feel yourself falling into any of the following traps, you need to quit immediately. Tilt is an ugly beast and it can catch even the calmest of people before they realize what has hit them.

Moving up in Stakes

This is the worst thing you can possible do when under the influence of tilt. Many poker players have destroyed their entire bankrolls by moving up in stakes when suffering from tilt. They get so angry and want to make that money back so badly that they move up to much higher stakes than they should.

There’s no tilt sobriety check for players who want to join the high stakes tables. If you want to join a table that’s way over your head, nobody is going to stop you. It’s entirely up to you to resist the urge to move up in stakes when you feel extra tilty.

Dwelling on the Last Bad Beat

This is one of the sneakier tricks tilt uses to catch us unaware. I know that I’ve been caught by this trap several times. What happens is that you take a bad beat and feel fine about it for a while. You brush it off and move on until suddenly you catch yourself dwelling on that last bad beat and getting angry. The tilt can then hit you like a freight train that come from out of nowhere.

Physically Expressing Your Anger

This one would almost be funny if it wasn’t so destructive. I must admit that I have thrown a few keyboards and mice at the wall after suffering strings of bad beats. It probably looked pretty funny from a distance but let me tell you it doesn’t help anything at all.

First of all, it can be expensive to replace things you break. Second, it doesn’t address the underlying tilt problem. You might feel a little calmer after you break something but trust me – that anger is lurking just beneath the surface like a crocodile in a muddy river. If you catch yourself breaking, punching or kicking things that shouldn’t be broken, punched or kicked, it’s time to take 24 hour (minimum) break.

Berating the Fish

This is one of the most tempting things of all. When some fool places a terrible bad beat on you, it only feels right to let that joker know how stupid he is. The problem here is twofold: you are shooting yourself in the foot and you are giving away the fact that you’re on tilt.

Berating the fish is a bad idea because it encourages them to play better. The fish need to get lucky sometimes or else they would never play poker. Bad beats are a part of the dues you pay to make money doing something most other people only dream of. Secondly, it’s a bad idea to let the table know you’re on tilt. They’ll feel more confident against you and many times they will make little comments in an attempt to further enrage you.