Poker Life: Playing on Tilt

This is one of the most amazing aspects of poker and life at the same time. There are many ways to tilt. We all must know how to, or at least we have all witnessed the devastating effect of tilt in its true meaning. It can be a wonderful thing to see, when a player throws money at everyone. But I’m sure most of us don’t go over the limit that much.

Usually, poker players think they can’t be influenced by the tilt. And it is true, some really aren’t. But most are, at least at some points; in some situations they can become vulnerable and this is only human.

The most dangerous form of tilting is the semi-hidden tilt. It is partially hidden because it is not a genuine tilt, it just tends to be one. It is a subtle manner to it, one that progresses slowly, one step at a time. This is the way someone can place you under the influence of tilt for hours and you can’t even realize what is happening. You will realize it at some point far away from the beginning of the procedure, and we will try to take measures. But unfortunately you lost a lot of money before you realized that you are gradually advancing to tilt.

So, analyze your game and see if you have been ever tilted or if you usually tend to be. And if the answer is yes here’s what you can do: you can count it as just another bad part of your game and try to eradicate it. A definition for tilt would be something that would sound like this: poor reasoning when playing hands as the effect of a bad poker night. This is the classic tilt. But the semi-hidden tilt is different. This one can appear because of simple boredom or because you have allowed your self to lower your poker standards and match your opponents’ ones. The thing you should do in this case is to always play your best and never be influenced by the tilt process.

So, from now on you will have to monitor you game and make sure you are taking the best decisions. The best thing you can do is to imagine yourself in a very important game. Imagine that everyone else besides you opponents can see your cards and therefore everyone can judge you. For example imagine your game is transmitted life on some TV channels. And if you make mistaken, everyone will know and they will al tell you every time they meet you, they will criticize your game or even laugh at it. So this way you have to play in a manner that would make experts value your game.

Being ashamed is the thing we all fear. So just try to play and feel proud of the way you are playing. This is one way to avoid tilting.