What is it to be on "TILT?"

[k_squared]

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

[ QUOTE ]
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

[steamboatin]

I am going to disagree but preface it with a disclosure that we are splitting hairs.

I believe the common useage of the term tilt implies you are playing less than optimally. When you are in the zone and playing your A game, the best poker you can possibly play at your current skill level. I would submit that you are tilt-free at that momment. Nothing is clouding your judgement, your mind is totally fucused and you are playing your best poker.

Anything time your emotions distract you from the game, that is tilt. It might negative emotions causing you to play poorly or maybe you are with some friends and having a wonderful time but not playing your A game. That would be tilt also. Its wonderful fun but your emotions are changing the way you play.

You are going to have a hard time selling me on the existence of positive tilt. I think what you describe as positive tilt is actually the few times that we are not tilted.

Humans are emotional by nature and I think we are on tilt as much or more than we are off. Emotions have an effect on everything that we do, so if we say we are tilt free or immune to tilt, we are mistaken. Some have better control of their tilt than others but we all tilt.

[coffeecrazy1]

Let's take another look at this, though: he didn't say "tilt;" he said "TILT." I guess what it means to be on
"TILT" is to be a co-star with Michael Madsen. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[soko]

Tilt is when you begin to think homicide is the only way to ease the pain

[Mayhap]

Tilt is when your old lady leaves you for an amputee with leprosy and steals all your viagra on the way out the door because 'he' needs help and then you get in a homicidal rage.
Not tilting is when you just breathe a sigh of relief and join a dating service.
hth
/M

[Hermlord]

To me tilt is when emotions have a negative impact on your game. Unlike many posters here, I believe your emotions can sometimes lead to a seemingly incorrect play (I'm talking about "gut feelings" here). These are not based on anger or frustration but are still emotional. You don't have to believe that gut reads are valid, but assuming they are, this is not tilt.

[steamboatin]

Here is the thing about gut reads. It can be an emotional desire to play a hand regardless of the odds and that is tilt.

If you are an experienced player it can be your subconcious mind has picked up a tell and it is prompting you to make the correct play.

If emotions are prompting you to make a play, its tilt. If your subconcious mind has picked up a tell, it's probably the right play.

How do you know the difference? Don't ask me.

[Rasputin]

[ QUOTE ]
I am going to disagree but preface it with a disclosure that we are splitting hairs.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think you are on tilt any time you are knowingly playing less than your a game for any reason other than to figure out why you aren't playing your a game.

If you're in a slump and you feel that you aren't doing something right and you drop down while you analyze what the heck you're doing differently, that isn't tilt.

If you're tired and you play anyway, that's tilt. If you're frustrated and you play anyway, that's tilt. If you think you can go to party and play sucky cards and still win because the players there suck that's tilt.

[k_squared]

Steamboatin, thanks for your reply. I enjoy the opportunity to talk this out with someone else. In regards to your opinion that there is no such phenomenon as 'positive tilt' let me ask a few questions (and propose some answers from my perspective).

(1) How often do you play the absolute best that you can?
It would be dishonest if I said that I played my absolute best more than say 20% of the time, which is not to say I am not playing well during those other times, but just that I am not playing my absolute best all of the time. I think if we are to be honest with ourselves we would admit that most of us do not play to our potential most of the time (again that doesn't mean we aren't playing well, or even exceptionally, just not our BEST... and this is for a variety of reasons... we are complicated creatures and to truly be playing our best requires a lot of factors come together, we are feeling well, we aren't tired, no personal problems distracting us, no string of bad beats which set us off, we are focused on the card game exclusively and not the TV too, we are playing only 2 tables no more because otherwise it is very difficult to play our best, etc...).

(2) If we are not playing our BEST then should all the rest of our playing time, even when we are still playing very well, be considered time when we are on tilt? (your answer seems to be yes... my answer is no... my reasoning goes like this... We strive to always be improving our game, to always be making ourselves better. As such there isn't really a point at which we are playing optimally, but rather a point at which we are playing well enough to be winning. Since there is always room for improvement in our game that means that if we say that being on tilt is when we are playing sub-optimally then it would follow that we are always on tilt because we are never playing optimally. We can always improve, there is never a point at which we achieve a perfect state of harmony and have nothing more to learn or improve on (or atleast this is so difficult it becomes an exception to the rule). So, without the ability to claim that we are playing 'optimally' we are left with simply being able to say we played well, we controlled all the factors to the best of our ability and kept ourselves from reacting negatively to stimuli that might otherwise have made us play more poorly, but it seems misleading to say that we were on tilt (maybe we were just making some bad reads compared to when we play optimally, reads that aren't clearly wrong, but just not quite as on).

(3) do you never play better than you typically do? It would seem hard to improve if you could never push yourself past your current level of play. How do you get better if not by playing better than your current 'best'? But, if you do end up playing better, what causes that? Is it only a change in thinking that can precipitate that change in your play? I would propose that not only can a change in thinking (whether from a book, an article, study, observing, more playing...) can also result from paying attention to your own game. Noting when you are playing better than you normally do (are on positive tilt) and for what reasons you are playing better than normal becomes as powerful a tool in our development as a poker player just as paying attention to what sets you on tilt and therebye makes you play worse than you should be playing. Interestingly enough, by observing how external factors affect our own game in relationship to the table we can learn a lot.

I think it goes without saying that there is a spectrum of skill both in the game and in how each of us play the game... my view of it is that we routinely play within a given range of skill, but that given certain circumstances (some of those being entirely external) our game can improve or become worse based on those circumstances (whether emotional or not).

Do you consider it tilt if someone is playing a style of play that is simply not suited to the current structure of the game? Is that tilt or more aptly called poor play? I would think that if you sat in a big game with not enough money or couldn't mentally adjust to your opponent you aren't necessarily on tilt, but perhaps more correctly just a victim of a logical misconcecption about the proper way to play.

just a few more thoughts!
k_squared

[steamboatin]

[ QUOTE ]
When you are in the zone and playing your A game, the best poker you can possibly play at your current skill level.

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I think we are disagreeing upon definitions and probably are trying to say the same thing but we are describing it differently.