Poker Tilt

Being on tilt means letting your emotions get in the way of your ability to play. All poker players go on tilt at least once during their career, but limiting these episodes is essential to winning at poker. Poker is a game that requires reason. If you have JQ of spades, and the flop comes AQ10, all of hearts, and there is a lot of betting action, you need to know to fold. If you were on tilt, you would let your emotions take control and make you do whatever it took to take down the pot. You would keep chasing, hoping to catch a king and hoping that no one had a flush.

In general, people who get upset and don't stay focused and reasonable will lose all the money they brought to the table. I don't mean to scare you or act as if all poker players are unemotional stones, but it is imperative to stay focused and rational while at the poker table. Generally, most players tilt due to a bad beat.

For example, take a hand once played recently. The individual had AQ and the flop came AQ2. he bet and was called. A 10 came on the turn. Bet, call. River was a 7. He bet and the other raised. The man decided to just call, thinking he may have actually had KJ. No, he had 77. The idiot had called him to the river with little hope but won on a very lucky river catch. Needless to say, he was not playing well the next couple of hands.

Going on tilt is natural, you need to limit it. Generally, the best way is to get out of a couple of hands and go on a walk. Another good way to handle a bad beat is to just think about all the bad beats you have laid in the past. After the bad beat mentioned above, the man sat back and thought about the time he stupidly went all in in a pot limit omaha with botJoe set. He had 33J7, 3J7 of spades, and there was 368 on the board- the 8 was a spade. His opponent had 88, the best hand when all the money went into the pot. He was lucky enough to catch a backdoor flush on the turn-river and took down a huge pot. He went on to win the most money that day that he’d have ever won. If he had lost that hand, he probably would have called it quits and never would have won all of that money.

Many people tend to curse at the computer if they get bad beat. Cursing tends to make you more mad and will cause you to develop some bad habits. When you are about to go on tilt, sit out and think of goodthoughts and hopefully you can resume playing your best.