How to counter-act tilt

We hope you’re not one of them but even if you don’t suffer from raging tilt, it’s impossible to play poker without suffering some frustration when you play. Even the best players have to deal with tilt.

Curing tilt

There are some practical things you can do when playing. First of all, maybe every half hour or every 200 hands, check you’re thinking clearly and playing your best. If you think you may be tired, upset or frustrated think about quitting or taking a break. After you lose a big pot you should definitely take a big deep breath and a huge pause. The reality is we all have to lose big pots in tournaments or cash games but the damage is done when we allow them to upset us and lose even more pots.

Recognising whatever causes you to tilt is vital– whether it’s hating when you make mistakes, hating losing, hating short stackers, hating the 5c – whatever it is see it and know the signs, so you can stop it before it starts.

Decisions over results

All of the best players who don’t tilt have something in common – they understand the true nature of poker and focus on their decision making not their results. This gives them an inner calm that takes a huge amount to disturb. They still hate getting sucked out on of course but their annoyance is temporary as they go back to making good decisions – the only way to win. If you fully embrace this way of looking at the game, it will go a long way to easing your pain towards bad results. Whenever you play remember this one truth – the cards don’t know you deserve to win, or that you’re upset; the probabilities remain the same whatever your emotional state. 

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