How to Stop TilT

[Gustavo]

How do you STOP TILT. i can be months without tilting , but when i start to tilt it can last week´s, and i cant get out of this mindframe until i loose EVERYTHING.

Such a simple question... How do you Avoid , or Stop TILT.

[jkkkk]

just don't tilt, accept bad luck as a fundamental part of poker, otherwise you don't really understand the game, do you?

[Tuben]

I se tilt as an Psychology thing /images/graemlins/smile.gif
When i fel that i am on tilt that a play bad and give my money away whit bad cards and ather things then i take a break.Somtimes my tilt goes over after some hours /images/graemlins/smile.gif It is like it is some impulse thing for me then i often play a litle better. That is for my lates tilt but i have leran how to handle it.

[-Skeme-]

You tilt for weeks? Uh, if you start tilting, just close down the site and play later.

[Gustavo]

[ QUOTE ]
You tilt for weeks? Uh, if you start tilting, just close down the site and play later.

[/ QUOTE ]

Now im a little bit more rational , the way i handle tilt, but still isnt enough, anyway the countless times i blew a bankroll due tilt have taught me something, and getting a bankroll back again requires time and lots of patience, i dont go nuts nowdays. But still can easily loose 1\3 of my bankroll spread in a couple of days due tilty play, until i stop.

[-Skeme-]

That's pretty unhealthy. Just remember, tilting can be defeated by relaxation and reassurance. You're better than the field and you can take them down. Just stop for a while, take a breather, and come back when you feel you can play your best. Tilt happens to everybody, but good players overcome it. Overcome it, Gustavo, OVERCOME IT!!!

[Gustavo]

[ QUOTE ]
That's pretty unhealthy. Just remember, tilting can be defeated by relaxation and reassurance. You're better than the field and you can take them down. Just stop for a while, take a breather, and come back when you feel you can play your best. Tilt happens to everybody, but good players overcome it. Overcome it, Gustavo, OVERCOME IT!!!

[/ QUOTE ]

thks guys /images/graemlins/smile.gif im out of tilt , the more i think about it , the more i think, the less tilt makes any sense. Anyway i already recovered all what ive lost this past two days . Profit time now.

[pk Wools]

TILT is a very dangerous substance, it destroys dreams, hopes, families, and most importantly--bankrolls. Don't let TILT happen to you...

NBC The More You Know ..

[Mroberts3]

I think it would be useful for people here to post some of the ways that they avoid tilt. I for one like to take a walk or work out when I am feeling stressed out. Anyone have any other things that they do either mentally or physically to get rid of or stave off tilt?

[the 9]

Avoiding tilt is a learned process and takes many many many bad beats before it you get over it.

It is more important to think about your equity in a hand rather than your odds of winning it the one time. As long as you are making correct decisions no beat should really matter - if it does, then you're probably playing over your limit/bankroll.

If I do find myself getting annoyed then I think back to the only 1 outer I've ever hit and that usually makes me feel much better /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[nietzreznor]

Personally, when I start feeling a little steamed after a few bad plays/bad beats, I like to take a few minutes off, close my eyes, and take some deep breaths. Something I learned from years of martial arts.
And if that doesn't work, then its time to quit for the day.

[AlexMR]

Gustavo,

I am going to tell you exactly what a great, great player told me about it. When you are able to control or not to go on tilt, you will be a very good, solid winning player. That doesnt come easy. I noticed that my numbers were numbers of winning players, but somehow I was losing. The answer was simple: I started tilting everytime top set got outdrawn by some moron calling with absolutely awfull odds. What my friend told me was that, instead of going crazy because such things, we should be very happy that we have those players around, because sometimes their miracle card will hit, and they will have their bite of our bankroll but MOST of the times, those players will build us great pots. That is a healthy way of seeing things.

If you are tilting because you know you were outplayed or simply because you know you played certain hand badly, that is a more serious case, but I tell you that this help me a lot: Stop playing not for a few hours, but for a few days!! Read a good book. Take 10 days off. Forget about it for a while. Come back and try whatever you learned on the book (s).

I did that. I had my BR at nearly 340 when I started tilting because of an awful downswing. When I stopped, My BR was at 48. I took about three weeks off. After I came back I have taken my BR to more than 850 in bout eight weeks. My winnings are 7.89BB/100 at NL$25 after my return and I have taken a couple badbeat days (lost 125 last wednesday).

My advise is this: Take a break, read and study a good book or a couple. Understand, as someone told u, that bad beats and losing streaks are going to be part of the game. When you feel you are in one, you have two options. 1.- Stand up for the day. 2.- Play tighter, understand your situation, play solid poker and get out of it! By "understand you situation" I mean that you should not be drawing, you should fold more than usual because the fact that you miss your draw will make you feel even worse and get you on tilt. Bad/losing streaks DO EXIST. PLAY OUT OF THEM!! Most of this streaks get longer because we start playing really bad, because of frustration.

I hope this comment is as useful to you as it was from me.

Play to win, Dont tilt!


AlexMR

/images/graemlins/wink.gif

[edge]

Go on crazy monkey-tilt and throw your computer equipment around the room, then post about it on the forum. I love hearing tilt-rampage stories.

So far, my only tilt-induced loss is a mouse that was a few years old anyway. I ripped the cord out of the mouse by chucking it across the room while it was still plugged in. That was pretty fun.

[pk Wools]

edge lol
i usually just smack the table, that's about it

[PokerCat69]

Shutdown the games and take a break. I'm pissed off right now myself. Played 3 hours of .5/1 and was up $26. Then in 10 minutes I had AA,KK cracked. AK 3 times that missed, and AQ that hit, but I lost to a guy with Q2, who made 2 pair.
I also had flopped 3 different flush draws that didn't connect....3 hours down the [censored] drain.
This is why I'm here. NO one is immune to tilt, when you start losing your cool, close the games and take a 15-30 break.

[Publos Nemesis]

dude, find a stripper, a whore, a slut, or just about anything to get you off without emotional attachment. if you are in a relationship then get off on that. basically you need to do something physical and mindless but also very pleasurable.

[RUSE]

All good advice.

Tilt is inevitable. I know of no one who can retain his equanimity under every circumstance.

A couple of tips a friend once gave me:

1 If you make your third mistake in a session; stop right then and there. If it was a BIG one, don't even wait for the blinds. Quit. And relax.

2 Be honest with yourself. Every mistake you (or someone else) makes is more than just a mistake. It is an opportunity to 'grow' as a player. Don't let your ego get in the way of your game.

3 Try to draw up some ground rules you need to play by. Something like Ciaffone&Reuben's Ten Commandments. Not adhering to them is mistake number one before you even start.

On a side note. This forum has given me many hours of pleasant lurking already and more than enough material to improve on my game. Thanks all of you who don't know me; you might be seeing more of me in the future.

[kongo_totte]

When I find myself not playing my best, due to tilt, being tired or whatever, just quit and play when you feel confident again.

Also, post the hands that makes you tilt. I have more or less gotten over tilting from bad beats. They're a part of the game and makes the fish keep playing. The reason I sometimes tilt is because I feel I have played a hand badly, for example, getting alot of money in whith the worst of it etc. However, often when I have played such hands, I post them here and find out I played them OK after all. This boosts my confidence right back up.

What to do when a tilt does not go away between sessions? When I first started playing I was unsure of my game and the tilts could last for days. To avoid this, I made a check-list which I had to go through every hand I was involved with (only works online). The list had statements like:
1) Don't chase with bad odds.
2) Play solid pre-flop. (i.e follow the 5/10 rule, don't play hands likely to be dominated etc.)
3) Don't bluff a calling station.
4) Don't go broke in an unrasied pot.
5) Don't make fancy plays at SSNL.
6) If you block, fold to a raise.
7) Don't check a set on a draw rich board multiway.

There were alot more, which I can't remember now.

If I managed to brake any of these rules, I quit imediatly.

This worked great for me.

[crazygoose]

Remember that when a fish calls you down with a shitty hand that you have beat and then draws out on you YOU STILL WIN MONEY. Today I had about three premium hands totally drawn out on with a 4 outter hitting the river or something like that. I just sit back relax and wait for the fish to make the same type of call again.

[Gustavo]

A pleasent way to start the day, Two donks who hit a 2 outer
i couldnt care less, think in the long term Gustavo, breathhh , kidding

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (9 handed) converter (http://www.selachian.com/tools/bisonconverter/hhconverter.cgi)

Hero ($49.25)
MP3 ($73.70)
CO ($55)
Button ($20.80)
SB ($39.10)
BB ($29.65)
UTG ($80.30)
UTG+1 ($50.35)
MP1 ($10.15)

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with 4/images/graemlins/spade.gif, 4/images/graemlins/club.gif.
<font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, UTG+1 calls $0.50, <font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, Hero calls $0.50, <font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, CO calls $0.50, <font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, SB completes, BB checks.

Flop: ($2.50) Q/images/graemlins/club.gif, 4/images/graemlins/heart.gif, T/images/graemlins/diamond.gif <font color="#0000FF">(5 players)</font>
SB checks, BB checks, <font color="#CC3333">UTG+1 bets $1.5</font>, <font color="#CC3333">Hero raises to $5</font>, CO folds, SB calls $5, BB calls $5, UTG+1 calls $3.50.

Turn: ($22.50) 3/images/graemlins/heart.gif <font color="#0000FF">(4 players)</font>
SB checks, <font color="#CC3333">BB bets $9.5</font>, UTG+1 folds, <font color="#CC3333">Hero raises to $20</font>, <font color="#CC3333">SB raises to $33.6</font>, BB calls $14.65 (All-In), Hero calls $13.60.

River: ($113.85) T/images/graemlins/heart.gif <font color="#0000FF">(3 players, 1 all-in)</font>

Final Pot: $113.85

Results in white below: <font color="#FFFFFF">
SB has Tc Qs (full house, tens full of queens).
BB has Ts Qh (full house, tens full of queens).
Hero has 4s 4c (full house, fours full of tens).
Outcome: SB wins $66.37. BB wins $47.47. </font>

[TheWorstPlayer]

[ QUOTE ]
NO one is immune to tilt, when you start losing your cool, close the games and take a 15-30 break.

[/ QUOTE ]
Yup. I couldn't agree more. Close these SSNL 'games' and open up a bit of 15/30. Always makes me feel better, too!

[TheCat]

I don't think you ever can totally avoid tilt no matter how disciplined you are. My tilt threshold does raise over time and it takes far more before steam comes out my ears now.
Personally my only solution to tilt is just to take a break for at least a couple of hours and sometimes a whole day. Some folk need even longer.
I dunno what your game is but I been practising 6 max NLHE of late, boy is that Tilt City.

[PinkSteel]

The hard part about stopping tilt is that you need what you obviously don't have at that moment: rational thought, and a little self-discipline.

Rational thought always stops tilt for me. "He drew out on me. Yep, I made the odds properly, yep, I made the proper play, he just drew out on me. No problem. If I play this hand 1000 times, and then we swap hands and do it again 1000 times, all against him, I take all his money. I'm on the right track. Next hand."

And the more I play, the better I am getting at catching myself when I am incapable of thinking rationally -- when I'm tired, distracted, whatever -- and exercising the bit of self-discipline required to stop right there.

We all know what it feels like to play mindlessly, even to WIN mindlessly. That's STILL tilt. When you're capable of catching yourself being mindless, you can stop your tilt until you get your mind back.

[Gustavo]

Most of the people is this thread , says that everyone at some degree will tilt. I tought with experience and self discipline , you could become immune to tilt.

[PinkSteel]

I think "immune" is a very strong word. I would say "ever more resistant." One of the most important things I do to help prevent tilt is to admit that it can happen to me, that I can in fact lose control.

I find that words describing absolutes -- like "immune", "never", "always" -- don't help my thinking. It's a game of judgement and gray areas. An issue may be 99.9% white and 0.1% black, but that's still gray.

[salloch]

couple of thoughts...

-I play my best poker while walking on my treadmill. I'm not sure why, but I think that doing something physical while playing keeps my mind from stewing too much.

-I have noticed that some on-line players will click the "sit out" button whenever they're involved in a big pot. So whether they win or lose, they can't play in the very next hand.

-I will unclick the auto-post blinds button when I feel sketchy. Then I have a second to re-evaluate my prospects at the table. I hate to leave the table before my blind comes up, and this helps to remind me that I need to think for a second about whether I want to keep playing.

-Saying "get up and take a break" is kind of like telling a fat person to stop eating so much. The real problem is not how to avoid tilt, but how do you get yourself to get up from the table when you need to.

-Just when you think you are growing as a player, and can control your emotions, the poker gods will deliver some perverted horror show of beats that will make you want to set yourself on fire. That's what's so fun about poker.

-salloch

[jacknine]

When I notice I begin to tilt, I like to open up a $5 heads up game where I can cheaply splash chips around untill I calm down. Mind you, you got a good chance of winning the heads up like that too.

[Ghazban]

Read everything Tommy Angelo has ever written (articles on his website: www.tommyangelo.com (http://www.tommyangelo.com); he also posts here, mostly in the mid- to high-stakes limit forums).

[TheCat]

I hope we do, your first post is good stuff.

[jacknine]

the introduction of Schoonmaker´s Psychology of Poker is also quite good to get your focus back.