Poker and Poker and Tilt

[Tyler Durden]

Have any of you been on tilt before you were even dealt a hand? I thought playing would calm me down. I was in a bad mood before I sat down.

[Homer]

Yes, almost always. I'm usually on tilt for the first 5-10 minutes of playing, then settle down as I get into a good playing groove. I've learned to play excessive tight for the first few minutes because otherwise I'll do stupid [censored] like play J9o in MP.

-- Homer

[vkotlyar]

i agree. i play like crap for the first 15 minutes. the first descent hand, im in there raising. So i try to NOT play anything marginal as my 1st hand because its a lot harder to play when you are down then when you are up.
-vitaly

[Vehn]

I have a beer as I arrive in the card room/sit down. That does the trick. I have the 2nd one ~6 hours later if I'm still there.

[Talex]

I've found I do this too, and it generally really hurts my table image. Suddenly the loose passive table turns to loose aggressive and the swings start. I've managed to temper that instinct mostly, now I mostly find myself tilting on nights when I'm grinding it out and when the big pot and good hand comes I'm on the wrong side of it. It's killed me the last couple of nights, maybe poor evenings into really poor ones.

-Tim

[DaBartman]

Woo Hoo! Glad to head this. I thought I was the only one.

[Tyler Durden]

It's happened to me twice in recent weeks. I'm a big hockey fan and my favorite team, the Washington Capitals, lost Game 3 in the first round due to two bull$hit OT penalties. I went straight from that game to play poker to work off the anger. I guess it worked well, I played 2 hours and won $130 in a 3-6. I was in a really bad mood when I showed up.

Then I played again on the night that the Caps got eliminated. That session went much worse. I like vehn's beering idea. I'll start trying it. Relaxation is important while playing this crazy game.

[sierra 1]

I knew this was a major leak in my game but I couldnt pin it down. Thanks Tyler, Homer, and the rest of you guys.It seems to be much worse on-line then B&M.More comments please.

[Rockfish]

Buddy I've got tilt to spare...

I hit a bad patch last week and couldn't catch a hand for what seemed like forever. Pissed off, hell yes! Me on tilt, OH NO, I'M COOL AS A F******G CUCUMBER BUDDY, SHUT UP AND DEAL! Bust out and call it quits. Next night start playing again and I'm on leftover tilt. Take a beat and lose more. Mostly shows up as not seeing the obvious, reading hands correctly and getting out of the way when I know I'm beat. Tenacious Crazy Monkey Tilt.

Gotta switch to decaf... Maybe take up tiddly winks or ants in the pants or something.

Rockfish

[mike l.]

"I thought playing would calm me down."

read this. does it seem silly?

"I thought playing would calm me down."

replace "playing" w/ "having my teeth pulled".

"I thought playing would calm me down."

(lol)

[34TheTruth34]

Next night start playing again and I'm on leftover tilt

LOL, leftover tilt? That's funny. I've never heard of that before. You need to retard your anger...

[SoBeDude]

You bring up an interesting point.

Some very high adrenaline activites I do actually do calm me down. One that might suprise you all is skydiving. As soon as I call the door and I look down a 10,000 foot drop 1 inch to my right, I swear I get calm and my heart rate falls to near resting rate!

But I sure don't get that effect when I get check-raised on the river holding TP/TK...

-Scott

[mike l.]

"As soon as I call the door and I look down a 10,000 foot drop 1 inch to my right, I swear I get calm and my heart rate falls to near resting rate!"

sounds like you are going into a state of shock. be careful you dont pass out halfway down or something.

i prefer doing something adrenaline/testosterone driven before i play poker. having a fight with my wife or screaming at my kids does not count, neither does driving two hours in rush hour traffic. having sex and playing tennis are two of my favorites. then when you get to the poker room you are in a calm state and not looking to raise every hand in order to get some excitement/adrenaline rush in an otherwise dreary, ordinary day. instead you just want to chill and wait for very good hands and very good situations. works lovely.

[RockLobster]

Wow, I didn't realize others had this problem as well. I always seem to be in the position that, if I threw out my first 15-20 minutes of play, my session would be better. I now play super-tight for the first 15-20 minutes, allowing my thought process to catch up with my adrenaline.

[Tyler Durden]

I don't have a girlfriend and my life isn't exactly like a porno movie where some hot chick shows up to fix the cable and then we have amazing monkey sex so I like to masturbate before playing poker. No joke. At least I wasn't graphic about it.

Man the guys at my home game will never let me get into their game now.

[Tyler Durden]

[mike l.]

the websites at the bottom of your posts make much more sense now.

hopefully you wash your hands, unlike over half the slobs i see walking back to the tables after using the restroom at hp or commerce. ugh.

[Tyler Durden]

Speaking of those websites, I don't even know if they're real websites. I've never checked. Maybe I should. Barelylegalteens.com was the name of an intramural basketball team at my college and the other one is one of my roomies made up.

I do wash my hands. Try to anyway.

[Huh]

Hey Tyler,

That chip from the trop I gave you as a joke when you grabbed me a beer a couple of weeks ago....Yeah...You can keep that. I really don't want that back..Lol

-Huh