The True Origin of TILT

[Al Schoonmaker]

Thank you for a good post. I agree with its basic premises, and I've discussed them somewhat more formally in a series of articles.
I'd like to quote from the first of them. You can read the series on cardplayer.com.
KNOWLEDGE IS YOUR FIRST LINE OF DEFENSE.
The first step is to acquire two types of knowledge. First, you need to understand poker thoroughly. Mason Malmuth once wrote: "emotional control is ... aided by a thorough understanding of how the game should be played." Without that understanding, you may overreact to events that would not severely upset a more informed player. For example, I've read many threads on twoplustwo.com's forums stating that someone became tilted because he played well, but was beaten by bad luck and stupidity. Yet the poster's own words clearly reveal that he played badly and deserved to lose.
Or take bad beat stories. Many of them show that the storyteller doesn't understand the most basic fact of poker, the odds. You have probably seen people bitterly complain that they raised with AQ suited and were called and beaten by an "idiot" with K2 offsuit. They seemed to believe that their hand should never lose, but it was really only about a 2:1 favorite, meaning it will lose about one-third of the time. In many situations the “idiot” would have been absolutely right to call.
If you don't believe me, go to cardplayer.com and use the "Poker Odds Calculator for Hold'em." You may be very surprised at how different the odds are from what you believe. And, if you don’t understand the odds, you can easily overreact to predictable losses.
The second kind of knowledge can come only from detailed, accurate records of your own results. If you’re a long term winner, these records will show that the bad beat you just took or tonight’s “huge” loss are trivial, a tiny fraction of your total profits. Even if you’re a long term loser, good records will show that tonight’s loss isn’t that important. That’s why so many experts recommend treating tonight as just part of one continuous poker game. When you put a bad beat or tonight’s loss into a larger context, you’re much less likely to overreact.
IDENTIFY YOUR “TRIGGERS.”
Although a solid foundation of knowledge is essential, it is not enough. By definition, tilt is an emotional overreaction, and emotions obey their own, partly irrational rules. We have all done stupid things for emotional reasons, and we should understand the factors that trigger emotional reactions.
You can see that I've said essentially the same thing you did, and every writer looks for people who agree with him, especially when they got there independently..
Regards,
Al

[WTF]

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By the way, I've never met a lowball player who "expected" to win a hand.

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Lol, so true. Or at least for the Southern California lowball players of yesteryear. They had absolutely 'NO' expectations of ever winning a hand. High-draw players were much more optimistic (and friendly).


-WTF