Pokerwiner.com → Within poker principles
ON TILT: PART I
How often do you go on tilt? I have had players tell me they never go on tilt. Usually it has turned out that their definition of tilt and mine differ greatly. They are able to say they don’t go on tilt because they define tilt as a major breakdown in play, in which a player goes from reasonable play to the actions of a maniac, or at least a calling station.
There’s no question that many players are able to avoid this kind of problem entirely, but you are setting your standards too low if you are content simply with staying off this kind of tilt. I use a more precise, yet broader definition of tilt which will be provided shortly. But first, consider an important corollary to the definition which provides a simply way of identifying when you have gone on tilt: Tilt occurs any time you make an incorrect play when you know better. If you’ve been running badly and play a poker hand that normally you would feel is just barely substandard for the circumstances, and would therefore throw away that’s tilts therefore throw away that’s tilt. If you call someone down with middle pair after he raises you on turn, rationalizing it with the notion that it sort of looks like he could be bluffing even though you know he virtually always has a real hand when he raises on the turn that’s tilt.
If you make an automatic pilot call on the end after you’re raised, just because you’ve been betting top pair all the way and are frustrated that you could have been drawn out on again by a very weak player, that’s better, yet make the play anyway. Many instances of tilt are quite subtle. If you fail to scrutinize your own play closely, you may not even recognize being on tilt. This is especially so when you have been erring on the incorrect side of some close decisions. (This is virtually always the less conservative side; for, although incorrect, playing too conservatively can rarely be called tilt ). You may, for example, make a call or perhaps a raise which could be correct under similar circumstances, but under these circumstances, if you were thinking more objectively, you would realize a fold was, in fact, the better choice. Playing that slightly substandard hand is another example. Though these are near borderline decisions, their cost becomes significant when they are frequent, or when one error compounds itself by leading to another in the same hand.
Making an unwarranted bluff on the flop, for example, may lead you to follow through with bluffs on fourth and fifth poker streets in a futile effort to get an opponent to lay his hand down. When these kinds of misplays are included in a definition of tilt, it becomes clear that there are few players who do not go on tilt at least occasionally. I would guess that fewer than five percent of professional players have tilt under such control that they can honestly say that it rarely, if ever, appears in their play. The cause of any instance of tilt is emotional. This is self evident. Unless you are just goofing around, not trying to play well, what other cause could there be for playing a hand poorly when you know how to play it correctly? Emotion is the trigger. A reaction such as frustration, or feeling demoralized, triggers an impulsive decision to play a hand in a way that you know is incorrect.
This leads to my definition of tilt: Tilt is any adverse impact of emotion on one’s play. It is widely understood that tilt is nearly always triggered by losing. During a given session it is most likely to occur after losing one or more hands. Looking at your play from a longer term perspective it is highly likely that tilt surfaces most during periods of running badly. When you go for many sessions getting a disproportionate percentage of bad cards, missed draws, and the like, it takes maturity and an exceptional appreciation of the nature of the fluctuations in poker to play on correctly, without reacting emotionally. It is not easy to estimate the cost of going on tilt. It will vary as a function of frequency of occurrence and of the types of errors you tend to make when emotion affects your play. What is clear though is that most otherwise good players could significantly boost their hourly rates simply by reducing the frequency with which they act on emotion during play.
Many players have developed their fluency with poker theory to a far greater extent than their understanding of how and why they go on tilt. Indeed, they are still beginners in their ability to stay off tilt. I should point out as well that some poor players use tilt as an excuse for their disappointing results. Even if they never went on tilt they would lose, but they would then have to face the truth that tilt allows them to avoid that they simply don’t play well enough to win. For players engaged in such self-deception, some serious self-examination and study of the game will be needed before this essay and the one that follows will be of much help. If, as is likely, you could stand improvement in this areas of your game, then consider applying effort in two areas:
1.Make sure you have a thorough and accurate understanding of the swings generated by poker play over time.
I am assuming that you have a solid grasp of the basic odds/probabilities involved in the games you play. If not, then you must establish this basic component of your playing foundation as well.) Read and think about Mason Malmuth’s work in this area, as well as everything related to this topic that David Sklansky and Mike Caro have written. If you’re ambitious you can also research the topic on Internet poker sites such as the Two Plus Two Forum (go to www.twoplustwo.com and click “Forum”) and the newsgroup, rec gambling poker. Then go back and look at your own results over a long period of time. (Assuming you keep records.) One easy way to do this is to graph them. This should help clarify your view of the “long run.” When you see a graph of a thousand hours of your play you will better understand how pointless it is to fret over how you are doing during a given session. The deeper your understanding of the effects of the chance element in poker, the less likely you are to feel frustrated or victimized by it has not worked in your favor for some period of time.
2.Adopt an active method of preventing yourself from playing on impulse, and for reducing the likelihood that you will go on tilt in the future.
An important step in this direction can involve a conscious shift of focus as you play, as well as an effort to reshape your thinking about your goals during play. Part II of this discussion of tilt will address this step with a description of an attitude which gives many top players significant immunity to tilt while they play.
On Tilt: Part II – The Professional Attitude / Subtle Losses of Judgment: Part I
Subtle Losses of Judgment: Part II / A Poker Player in Therapy