How To Avoid Poker Tilt: Top-notch Advice From The Pros

Believe it or not, tilt is one of the most common mistakes in poker that occur to almost all players, even the professional ones. To put it simply,  tilt refers to a poor state of mind, usually caused by frustration. 

Consequently, players tend to let their emotions control their actions, leading to costly mistakes. 

Poker is not only a game of tactics and skills but also of emotional control. Everyone knows about tilt, but not all can avoid it. Keep in mind that while there is no universal tip to combat tilt, it is essential that you recognize that you’re on tilt. Here in this article, let’s find out the common causes and how to avoid poker tilts. 

What Causes Tilt?

Tilt is a general problem in every poker play. As it is a psychological problem, its manifestations vary in many different situations. That can be when one person dislikes another player and plays his/her hands emotionally rather than rationally. It can also be that one player feels insecure and lacks confidence, which makes him/her become too defensive.

Here we have analyzed the three common causes of tilt that you should learn how to avoid as much as possible:

• Bad beat: This seems to be the most common reason that leave players frustrated. You obviously have a stronger hand than your opponent, but he/she still manages to win somehow. Or, in some cases, when you think you have a strong hand, but it turns out that your opponent’s one is even stronger. Needless to say, such afflictions make you go on tilt easily.
• Long-term downswing: Excessive losses can drive players nuts and make them lose their stability. If they go on tilt, they will continue to lose their money at a quicker pace. When the bad luck ends, these players may have no bankroll left to recover their losses.
• Chat talk/ Table talk: We are all easily influenced by other people’s words. So, if you want to prevent tilt with your best efforts, when playing game bài online, try to ignore the chatbox and avoid attending the conversation, if not necessary. And when in a live poker game, you should be mentally prepared before attending a table talk and choose your words wisely. 

How To Avoid Poker Tilt

Try to recognize the tilt

The foremost thing to do before combating your tilt is to recognize it instead of pretending that it doesn’t matter. There are a variety of syndromes telling you that you are on a tilt, such as:

• You start to count your loss, and you impatiently try to get your money back. 
• You begin to hate a specific player and feel the urge to take revenge on him/her. 
• You are angry and start to trash-talk.
• You lose money very fast, but you cannot stop yourself from playing with the aim of recovering the losses.
• Your ranges abnormally become wider after each round.
• You slack off with managing your bankroll. You do not want to step back down a level even when you have lost some buy-ins.

So, the best advice under all circumstances is to try to keep your state of mind clear and straightforward with rational moves. Make sure that you have considered all the available options before making the final moves. 

Control your emotion

Liv Boeree, a famous poker champion, advised that before sitting down at a poker table, make sure that you are emotionally stable at your best. During the play, it is also important to realize your own emotions to readjust to the appropriate behaviors. If you let your opponents see that you are on tilt, he/she will definitely take advantage of that to defeat you.

In case when you feel that you are gradually losing control, here are some tips:

•  Take a short break immediately: You may want to take a break for some minutes to regain your focus and calm your temper before attending the game. Or if you feel that you need some days off from poker, just do it. Don’t ever let tilt ruin your love for poker! 

• If you are a loose-aggressive player who make aggressive bets with lots of hands, you may need to back down to the micro limits. Don’t let aggression cost you a vast amount of money.
• For the tight-passive player type, consider stepping down the bet to one or two limits in a range that you know you can beat. This will make more gain better assurance and self-confidence.

Make downswing predictions

Don’t be afraid! Downswings and upswings are inevitable parts of a poker game, so you should be mentally prepared that they can unexpectedly occur to you. 

Everybody feels worse-off when going on a poker downswing, yet a good player will know how to handle it. To keep yourself calm and prepared for the downswing, you should understand its nature. 

Keep track of your win rate, your playing styles, and other variances by using a poker variance calculator, for example. Then, try your best to minimize the impacts of the downswings as much as possible. One recommended method is to keep your bankroll balance with enough buy-ins for the current stakes.

Analyze your mistakes

According to Daniel Negreanu, one of the world-renowned professional poker players, if you learn nothing from your mistakes, then you make another big mistake. This rule applies in almost every life aspect, not just in poker. 

Bear in mind that in poker, every mistake is a valuable lesson that teaches you something for future breakthroughs. Also, it is an opportunity for you to take a closer look at your techniques and tactics.  

Practice and practice

Although it sounds like an easy thing to do, not everyone can remain calm while they are sitting at the table in real life. Hence, one practical way to fight poker tilt is to keep on practicing, not only in live games but also in online plays (check out some gambling websites like https://vin88.vip/. Having experience in dealing with your emotions can significantly give you an edge over your opponents.

Besides, it is best to avoid typical ways of thinking like “I’m only having some bad lucks today” or “I’m doing well today.” Such objective thinkings will do nothing but lead you to frustration faster. 

Conclusion

Tilt is an unavoidable part that happens to every poker player that you know. Everybody goes through it, but only the good players can control it. Knowing how to avoid poker tilt does not only prevent you from making costly mistakes, but it is also useful in helping you manage your emotions in real-life situations.

We hope that this article can be a great help to you and your poker plays. Thanks for reading!