C'mon....does anyone seriously not TILT?

[MikeNaked]

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Lastly, you mention a upswing tilt. This is great, but sounds dangerous to me. Once you've caught a few bad beats you'll define yourself as on bad tilt when it may not be so.

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Well, what I mean is, the positive emotions I am feeling now during my latest upswing has assisted my play. I am making the right play more often.

Now will this change once I start taking some bad beats? Probably not...I am properly bankrolled, I have rakeback, and I recognize they're just minor flucuations.

But as soon as I start contemplating angrily calling down the 80/8 donk w/ A high on a paired, straight flush board, something needs to happen.

I believe that, as mere humans, we can't get away from tilt; we can merely manage it. As you all pointed out, you can manage tilt by:

1) avoiding it, i.e. leaving.
2) implementing a self-management routine, a la Dov or Snowball.
3) lessening its impact - overbankrolling, rakeback, etc.

[vexvelour]

Yep. The best thing that book (Zen..) put into black and white was to not put money on crappy cards when your nuts might be right around the corner. That echoes around in my head everytime I play poker. Its hard to rationally accept that when on tilt but it's possible.

[DyessMan89]

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Honestly, has anyone totally abolished tilt from their consciousness?

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My goal is actually the opposite of this.

I want to know the very instant that tilt has crept in.

Once upon a time, I thought I was better than everyone else and could beat the tilt monster into submission forever.

I no longer believe that this is a useful approach and simply consider each hand on its own. My first decision in every hand is no longer preflop, it is predeal.

My first look is at myself in the game. Am I still playing my best? Yes? OK, I'll look at my cards now.

No? I don't even look at them anymore. I just get up and take a break.

If I can't recover in a reasonable amount of time, then it's time to call it a day.

I've never lost a bankroll since implementing this strategy.

BTW, if I realize that I haven't checked my own status in 15 minutes, then it's quitting time too.

These days, for me, it's play for keeps or don't play at all.

I can't think of any other way to get to the HL games.

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What about in a tourney?

[Dov]

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What about in a tourney?

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What about it?

Keep your eye on the goal.

If you screw up, you lose. If you don't screw up, you still often lose.

Maybe I missed your point.

[SNOWBALL138]

Here's one thing that helped me limit my tilt. I stopped feeling sorry for myself. Its really unhealthy to act as though the money you have in play is just supposed to grow. Having money in play means that you are comfortable with losing it, and other players have the absolute right to take your money. If they outplay you, or just get lucky, they are entitled to the pot. When I get angry about losing, some of it comes from feeling like other people don't have the right to take my money.
Another thing that helped me to limit the effects of tilt on my bankroll is something one of the posters here said. He said (paraphrasing) "Its just ridiculous that some people go broke because of steaming. Its a choice and completely a matter of self-discipline, and there's no excuse for this kind of personal weakness"

[coffeecrazy1]

Not going on tilt is a constant battle with me.

I am a very emotional person by nature, which tends to make the fact I play poker an awkward proposition. Generally speaking, I play a very solid game around 95% of the time, but the other 5%, I seem to make very donkish moves and go a bit off the deep end(i.e. bad bluffs, chasing foolishly without proper pot odds, calling down when I know that I'm beat).
This issue has been ruinous to my bankroll many times, especially in the last six months when I have tried to make the jump to no limit. Part of my most recent upswing is my realization that a)right now, my emotions will flare on me occasionally, and b)I can limit their effects better in a limit game. I know it seems like I'm a losing player(and right now, I am a lifetime loser, though only by about a grand or so), but I think that until I learn to control myself a bit better, my game has to be, in part, about damage control.

I am sure that there will be much flames on me about this, saying I should quit, look at the long-term, don't sweat the short-run variance, etc. I mentally know all of these things, but it is harder to internalize them. I am not claiming that this is an ideal way to be. I'm just being honest in responding to the OP.

[Budget Boy]

I have really improved this aspect of my game, but once in a while that tiltmonster will still get ahold of me. Most of the time now I can just shake off a bad beat, but say its a huge pot, and an improbable draw comes in to beat me, and I'm already down for the session before that hand, well then I may start steaming. When it happens I have learned to get up and walk around, or just go home. Once you become even a pretty good player, I think controlling tilt is the most important factor in keeping that winrate up. Last year I was about a 1/2 bet an hour winner, and I'm pretty sure going on tilt and playing like a jackass at times is what kept me from winning much more. I haven't learned to control tilt from reading or being a smart guy, I have learned from multiple 16-hour marathon donkey sessions, where I lost over $1000. Pure operant conditioning.