On Tilt: An Introduction

There are two major keys to being a profitable poker player. The first, and the easiest, is to understand the odds. You can make a consistent profit just by playing the strength of your hand. There are valleys and peaks. Swings. But that's just the nature of both poker and of life. Overall, though, if you play the odds you should survive.

The other key is handling tilt. This is by far the hardest aspect of poker. It is really easy to get frustrated, mad, and make stupid decisions if you catch a run of "bad cards." People lose hundreds of dollars because they went on tilt after getting bad beat out of $20. The truth about going on tilt is that it is something normal and it may even have nothing to do with poker. But everyone goes on tilt. We only vary in the degree to which we let it affect us and in the way we each deal with it.

So now the questions are: What exactly is this "tilt" and what do you do about it?

The first question is fairly easy to answer. PokerNews defines on tilt as "playing worse (usually more aggressively) than usual because a player has become emotionally upset." Alan Schoonmaker, writing for Cardplayer, provides a similar definition. "'Tilt' means someone is making plays for emotional reasons that he would not normally make."

Now if only the answer to the second question was so quick and painless as the first answer. And in truth there is no one right answer except that everyone has to find his or her own way past this obstacle.

How do you find your way? Well you can learn by trial and error. However, this could cause major damage both to your psyche and you bankroll before you figure it out. Or you could search poker literature and online poker articles for tips and advice. Only problem with this is that books can be expensive and a simple Google search for "on tilt" provides about 17,500,000 results. A third solution would be to ask other players for their advice. Unfortunately, everybody is different and what works for one person might not work for the next. This is, of course, assuming that they are even giving you truthful advice. After all, they are trying to take your money.

I am going to offer a fourth solution. A guide to preventing and controlling tilt. I am not worried about whether this will prevent me from taking your money. I don't believe I need you to be on tilt to give it to me. And if I am unable to take it? Well there are always plenty of fish in the sea. Besides, putting this into writing may help me too. As my recent few days of poker have reminded me, tilt happens to everyone. Even me.