Musings of a deranged mind

[BBill]

Musings of a deranged mind
or “How to achieve you full potential playing poker”


Poker is addictive
This is not a bad thing, many things are addictive such as work, some hobbies and exercise but lets not forget about crack, cigarettes and alcohol.

Poker appeals to the same part of the brain as some of these addictive things.

What is “tilt”
Tilt is the natural reaction of the human mind when proposed with the possibility or “fear” that the current feed of its addiction could come to an end.

I estimate the level of psychological addiction that is present in people that like to play poker is equivalent to that psychological addiction in that of a cigarette smoker minus the health problems associated with smoking of course. The addictive patterns of somebody who likes to drink alcohol is another likening to the addiction of poker.

If a beer drinker is out on the town drinking and having fun that last thing they want to hear is somebody telling them to stop drinking. The thought of this happening makes them want to drink MORE. This parallelism is also true of a smoker; the thought of stopping their addiction even temporarily is frightening.

A poker player likes to play poker, after a bad beat or two the fear of short term cessation of playing poker causes a fearful reaction in which they play MORE hands and therefore make bad plays which further increases the chances that they should stop the session which causes MORE hands to be played. This is tilt.


Part II: Delirium Tremors of Poker
or
Reach the next plateau

To be continued?


Anyone agree? Disagree or feel nauseous?

[deacsoft]

I am about a pack a day smoker. I fear not the possibility of not smoking, even if only temporarily. Just as I fear not the possibility of not playing poker, even if only temporarily, and I play for hours a day. I smoke because I enjoy smoking, and I play poker because it pays the bills (including the smoking) and I enjoy it. I could certainly live without either and live happily. I smoke and player poker out of choice. I belive trauma and/or necessity to be the major prerequisites to addiction. I would feel comfortable saying that I'm addicted to neither smoking or poker. I also would say that it is possible to become addicted to either if the proper prerequisites are in place.

[CT11]

I think this is a really interesting post. Do I agree? Yes and no.

I think it depends on how you’re wired. Every one starts playing poker for different reasons. I believe why they play is important. I can only really speak from my experience though. I personally started out curious how such a random seeming game can be so skillful (I took the fact that you see many of the same faces over and over again at the WSOP as proof of this.).

Once I started playing I wanted to be better than every one else. This was why I played. Not to gamble, not to make money but to be good at it. This is still a part of why I play today (though I’ve only been playing for about 9mo to a year). Later I started to think about the money that can be won. I don’t dream about having a huge bank roll or anything but the idea of getting paid to play a game is fun to me. I like keeping track of statistics and thinking about how the game works. I dont think these reasons are good reasons or bad so much as they just are.

What this has to do with poker addiction and tilt is this. I play to be good. I play to learn and think. I play to make a few extra dollars. When I start to loose money it internally reflects negatively on all of those. I will generally tighten up (many times too much—yet another thing I’m trying to fix). If I run into a long bad streak I stop playing at all. I go back and read and try and learn more; I try and be better.

For some people the mental pay off of intermittent rewards is actually more satisfying than consistent rewards (this behavior has been found in rats too btw). I think these people have high potential to be compulsive gamblers. I think these are the people that you are describing.

I also believe that people go on tilt after a few bad beats for different reasons. I think it’s more out of frustration than fear.

That’s my 2cents on how I agree and disagree. I’m interested to know how others feel on this topic.

~CT11

[Lawrence Ng]

Funny, I always thought tilt had more to do with anger and pride than fear. Though I believe fear to be a legimate form of tilt, I would consider anger and subjective emotions to be far more worse, especially in the game of poker.

Poker being an addiction is a bad thing IMO. Like anything in life, having or doing too much of it is bad. This goes the same for work, excercise, smoking, drinking, etc, etc.

The key is to make sure you have control of poker and that poker doesn't have control of you. I have seen it control many of my friends who play day and night, running 24 hour sessions, not eating properly, and ultimately living in a willing suspension of disbelief that all life runs in the cards. In situations like this, the irony is that poker is life and not life is like poker.

Simply put tilt is playing anything but what you realize to be your best and most objective game. Period.

[BBill]

Thanks you all for the replies: I have pre-written a few pages that I wanted to post on the theme of poker being psychologically addictive. This may or may not be bs, but I’m working towards a concept in strategy that I wanted to sort in my mind. This could be geared towards relatively new players like me who have been seriously studying poker for just a few years. Hopefully those accomplished lifelong players won’t be offended.

** **
There is a person somewhere that has the potential to be the best poker player in the world. Since the person that has this potential may or may not actually play poker I will look only at the subset of people that play poker or in other words “have chosen poker as their addiction of choice”.

Is the poker player with the most potential, be it a head for probability or just plain old card sense, actually the best player?
For the sake of discussion I will say the answer is no.

Why is it that this person with the most potential to be the best would not be known as “the best players in the world?
That is the question.

I believe the answer has to do with fear (But, fear of WHAT?) and obsession.
Not fear of going broke, not fear of humiliation of losing but fear of not being able to continue his addiction.
The fear of not feeding his addiction for the rest of the night, rest of the session or rest of his life this fear clouds the strategic mind of many poker players.

An irrational thought of having to stop playing poker when he’s not ready to stop because the cards have taken a turn for the worse and this turn could be permanent? Could it? A rational educated mind knows the answer is no BUT a mind “OBSESSED” with winning (stockpiling reserves of a way to feed the addiction) does not always think clearly.

It is my belief that to achieve enlightenment in the strategy of playing poker a player must overcome the obsession with winning.

Please no not interpret what I am saying here as game advice. Everybody should play poker to win. What I am saying here is that I believe there is a concept that must be understood before a poker player can reach their full potential as a successful player.

I’m working towards a concept here that I will present in my next response if anybody is interested.

Part III
Harnessing the power
Or
As Obi-Wan Kenobi says: You must feel the force!

[BBill]

deacsoft,
you state:
I am about a pack a day smoker. I fear not the possibility of not smoking, even if only temporarily. Just as I fear not the possibility of not playing poker, even if only temporarily,

Are you saying that you would not experience *any* anxiety if somebody close to you asked you to stop smoking or asked you to stop playing poker ?

[BBill]

For some people the mental pay off of intermittent rewards is actually more satisfying than consistent rewards (this behavior has been found in rats too btw). I think these people have high potential to be compulsive gamblers. I think these are the people that you are describing.

I think that for compulsive gamblers it is the instant gratification that winning provides that keeps them coming back. They are continuously in pursuit of the euphoria that winning causes.

[deacsoft]

[ QUOTE ]
Are you saying that you would not experience *any* anxiety if somebody close to you asked you to stop smoking or asked you to stop playing poker ?

[/ QUOTE ]

Not exactly. I am quite sure I could accomplish either of these "feats" at request without being afraid of the consequences or having much difficulty. It is true that I would, at least at this time, not wish to quit either. If someone were to request that I stop either; I would probably require an acceptable reason before taking action. Yes, health is an acceptable reason to quit smoking.

A side note: I did quit smoking through the durration of Lent this year at my own will. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[James Boston]

[ QUOTE ]
Part II: Delirium Tremors of Poker

[/ QUOTE ]

It's "delirium tremens"

[BBill]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Part II: Delirium Tremors of Poker

[/ QUOTE ]

It's "delirium tremens"

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks James, wow all this time I thought it was tremmors as in "shakes".
You know what I meant though - I prolly should have said "Pink Elephants"