What is it to be on "TILT?"

[k_squared]

This is a definition I found posted by another poster recently that made me think...

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Tilt is any time, repeat, any time you let emotion affect your play.

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Note: personally i think TILT inherently implies a negative connotation and as such should be defined as "Tilt is any time, you let emotion negatively affect your play.." In one sense, the difference is small in so far as it is simply adding a single word, but in another sense it is a profound difference that completely changes what the term 'tilt' means. One case involves only half of the times (maybe less than half if we are affected adversely more than not) in which emotion affects how we play, and the other includes all of them. So, why is this distinction important? Well it is important because it helps us clarify the topic at hand when someone asks a question about being on tilt. It is certainly a problem (in so far as we accept it being about negative affects to play) we all have to one degree or another and becoming a good player is about minimizing it.

When we attempt to define 'tilt' without the sense that it is only about affecting us negatively we make it into a concept which is much less meaningful and easy to discuss (we would have to always specify what kind of tilt we meant, the positive or negative, and that would make it much more complicated to talk about). No matter what, how we play is affected in someway by our emotions (we are emotional beings) and sometimes it is affected in such a way that it helps us play worse and other times it helps us play better.

What is interesting to me is when we let our emotions start effecting us in such a way that we begin to make poor decisions . It is that time when a bad beat causes us to stop playing well (regardless of whether that means becoming a maniac or a super-tight rock) that causes us to have to come to terms with what it means to be a good poker player.

So, unless we define 'tilt' such that it implies this negative connotation it becomes something which isn't particularly useful in isolating those times in which your emotions adversely affect your play.

Although, an equally interesting question becomes what changes in your game when you are on 'positive tilt' (your play improves because of your emotions). Does such a thing exist? I would have to say yes, but I am sure it is also easy for us to discount it because when we are winning it is because we are so GOOD at the game, and as such not something we tend to think about... asking "what made me play so well today?" is just as important a question as asking "what made me go on tilt?" In one case the hope is to figure out what went well and to help ourselves play like that more, and in the other case the goal is to avoid putting ourselves in a state that adversely affects our play.

What makes this so difficult is of course that our outcomes are not directly related to the results of our session. Sometimes we will play well and lose, and other times we will play poorly and win... So even figuring out when we are on a subtle form of 'Tilt' or what we are doing right is very complicated (which is not to say that our outcomes are not affected by our ability to avoid Tilt, but rather that it can be hard to isolate when you are on tilt rather than playing well because it does not correlate directly to winning and losing).

Any thoughts? What would you call 'positive tilt' have you ever noticed it in your game? (I know some nights I just feel on, I am making good reads playing my hands particularly well...better than I normally play).

-K_squared