Dealing With Poker Tilt

By Author: Sally Crown
Total Articles: 25
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Poker is a essentially a gambling game and with all gambling emotional control is very important. Poker players will often describe tilt as one of the biggest leaks in their game. What they mean by tilt is that a loss of control due to a loss of money at the table has caused them to make an irrational or incorrect decision which they would have not have made if they were not on tilt.

Tilt normally occurs after a player takes what is known as a bad beat. These bad beats come in all different shapes and sizes but always involve all the money going to the pot and opponents getting lucky on the turn or river card causing them to win the hand when you were a favourite to win the pot. This is without a doubt one of the most frustrating aspects of poker and the tilt which results from it can turn a winning player into a big loser very quickly.

So how do you handle tilt? Firstly it is very important to remember that you cannot control what cards come out and if you win the hand or not. The only thing you can control is whether or not you get the all your chips in with the best hand and are therefore a favourite to win ...
... the pot. When you manage to do this congratulate yourself and don't worry about the actual result of the hand. After all you have done the best you can and played correctly so you should be happy about it.

It is also important to remember that if you are only a percentage favourite then some of the time you will lose the hand. If you are an 80 percent favourite then you must realize that 20 percent of the time you should mathematically be losing the hand. Many people will complain that it seems to happen more than 20 percent of the time and claim they are more unlucky than others. Well to be quite frank this is total rubbish. Maths is maths and if you are an 80 percent favourite then that's what you are. You are without doubt not more lucky or unlucky than anyone else. Remember that and don't get depressive about your luck as this will only breed tilt.

A way in which you can counter tilt is to create a trigger for yourself. What this means is that every time you feel like you are going to go on tilt or whenever you take a bad beat have a set process to calm yourself down. Some people choose to stand up and walk around for 5 minutes to get mentally prepared to continue playing to the best of their abilities and others will take 5 deep breaths and let the frustration out. Try to find something that works for you and as soon as you feel yourself tilting sort it out before you play any more poker.

Sally crown writes for Bonus Poker Code about gambling issues and news. She also reviews many sites such as Pokerstars and Expekt to show players where to get the best deal.