Avoid Going On Tilt

You’ve been setting this guy up for an hour. You finally got him right where you want him. Then your world is shattered.

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.

These moments test our resolve. Can we keep playing good poker, making sound decisions? Can we stick with our strategies? Or, do we start making wild plays to try to catch up.

After a bad beat, like this one, players often find themselves raising, getting re-raised, and going all in with a hand like pocket sevens. Our opponent has QQ and we are giving our money away. Sound familiar?

When lady luck slaps you in the face like this, you need to avoid tilting off chips. The classic instinct is to gamble wildly at the next reasonable chance. You want to get those chips back. This is a big time 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.

If this is happening a lot, in a short period of time, you are “running bad”. This makes tilting even harder to avoid. You outplay your opponents and keep losing.

Your priced in draws don’t hit. You push with KK only to meet AA. Then, your AA gets cracked by some maniac who goes all in with J10 suited.

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.