Tilting
Crazy things always happen at the poker table. Sometimes you work for hours to get the right situation to cash in on your opponents mistakes. Now you’ve got him, or do you?
You call a raise from a loose player with pocket eights. The flop comes A83. He bets the pot, and you call.
The turn is a harmless 5. He bets the pot again. This time you know he’s calling so you push all in. He doesn’t hesitate, and calls immediately. He turns over A4. When a 2 hits on the river, you are left with a sick feeling in your gut.
What you do after that can be the difference between a profitable player and a big loser. Can you stay on your game? Or, does this bad beat freak you out, and get you to make bad plays.
If you find yourself going all in by coming over the top of a raise and a re-raise with pocket nines, you have gone on tilt. Something like QQ will be calling and taking your stack most of the time.
It’s the ability to avoid these reactions to getting unlucky that makes a more profitable poker player. The best solution for avoiding this reaction is to simply get away from the table if you need to. The gamble, and hope to win my money back quick, strategy is a classic tilt.
One of the best solutions is to get your ass away from the table! If you’re not in a hand, you can’t screw up. Once you feel you have your composure back, sit down and play good poker.
Remind yourself that you had played great in that losing hand. You can’t control the fact that he got super lucky. There is almost always some chance you will get hit with a bad beat. It’s rare that your opponent is drawing dead. Therefore, you need to get used to having this happen.
When you are getting unlucky, the statistics are skewed against you. This creates an even tougher environment to avoid tilting. Every play you make starts to feel hopeless. Your opponents make bad plays, and beat you anyway.
Your KK meets an AA. Everyone hits their straight and flush draws against you. Your draws don’t hit. It won’t stop.
You haven’t made one single mistake, and you’re getting killed. Poker is a tough way to make an easy living. In the long run, this will come back to you. It never feels like it, but you must believe and understand this.
The key is not to get wild in the mean time. Don’t play when the numbers are against you. This is what makes losers out of some otherwise good poker players. Simply, DON’T TILT! Now, go to the tables and win some bucks.
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