Dealing with TILT

BY: Ashley Adams
Contact at: (Asha34@aol.com)
Author of Winning 7-Card Stud

The difference between winning and losing is often the ability to keep oneself from going on tilt. You know what tilt is, don't you? It's a term borrowed from pinball, back before pinball was a digital, electronic, video game...when it was a mechanical machine. Back then, good players often tried to physically manipulate the pinball machine to make the ball score more points and stay alive longer. But the pinball machines were equipped with a switch to prevent people from moving the machine too aggressively. When that switch was jostled too hard or moved to far it disconnected the pinball machine -- literally shut it down -- flashing TILT. You lost the game immediately -- no matter how many points you had scored up until that point.

TILT in poker is essentially the same thing. You get set off in some way -- maybe because you just lost your fourth contested hand in a row, maybe because you started ahead of the field and lost to some clod who caught a miracle card on the River. So your good judgment and common sense get shut down. It's also known as steaming.

Well, how do you deal with going on tilt? Are there any things that you, the determined player, can do to prevent it? Or if you notice that you seem to be tilting, what should you do about it?

I have a few suggestions that have helped me.

I start by telling myself that I, and no one else, is responsible for what hands I play and what hands I don't play. I am the master of my own money. That's my affirmation.

It's an important one. It's all too easy to blame other people for our losses -- for our loss of control. But don't. Start by taking responsibility for your own actions and you'll be ahead of the game. So you're responsible.

Once I have taken responsibility, the next step is to notice the early warning signs of going on tilt. Before I actually GO on tilt, some event tends to get me upset. So I need to recognize that event and respond to it by resisting the urge to start playing differently from the optimal way that I have learned.

Once I can learn to recognize those early warning signs, I need to learn to inhibit my habitual response. Initially, this may mean leaving the table for a while. That's right -- actually walking away from the game. Maybe you get something to eat. Maybe you just stroll over to some other game and distract yourself watching it for a while. But leave your game for a while until you can calm down.

After a while, after you've learned to spot your tendencies to go on tilt and inhibit them, you may be fine just standing up for a hand or two. Eventually, you may be able to control your emotions as soon as the hand is over. But for a while at least, when you experience those situations where your blood boils, get away from the game until your temperature drops to 98.6.

Sometimes, by the way, what can set you on tilt isn't just a bad beat. It can be a wave of winning. Some players go on tilt when they're up -- feeling invincible or giddy or like they're playing with other people's money. SO they become loose, or maniacal, or crazy or wild. And their behavior feeds on itself until it is out of control. Large wins become small wins which can easily turn to losses and large losses. (If you have one of those poker simulation games like Turbo Stud by Wilson software try this experiment. Just go crazy for 15 hands -- just 15 hands. Raise and reraise recklessly with no attention paid to what you have or what you think your opponent has. If you're playing $10/20 you can easily drop $1,000 in just those 15 hands. Try it yourself and see.)

It also helps to recognize -- even before you feel the feeling of frustration or anger or frenzy or whatever it is that leads to TILT -- what SITUATIONS tend to make you go on tilt. For example, do you tend to get set off by loud, aggressive players? Do they make you uncomfortable? How about a table full of calling stations? Do you get annoyed when people draw out on you? Does that set you off? What about rocks -- guys who keep folding hand after hand? Do they press your buttons? For me it's short-handed play. I find that I get frustrated -- that I tend to become overly aggresive -- playing other than my typical, optimum, winning strategy.

When you can see, in general, what types of situations tend to set you off, just be even more vigilant about keeping your focus. And, if that doesn't always work, then avoid those situations. No one can force you to play in a game. So if you don't like playing with rocks -- if their tight style pisses you off -- then don't play with them. If you tend to lose control of your betting when you're playing against a table full of loose passive calling stations then for God's sake, stay away from it until you've learned the self control to master this type of game.

The bottom line, is that YOU and only YOU can and must control how, when, and where you play. If you're starting to lose the discipline you need to play winning poker, leave. If you're not in a frame of mind to do so, don't play. If you planned to play but recognize that the game conditions are not to your liking, go elsewhere or don't play at all. Remember, there is no prize in poker for playing the best under the worst conditions.

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