Posted this article awhile ago on a site and never threw it up on here, thought i would do so as one of my students was having tilt issues and wanted to share it with every1 here.

Your Worst Enemy

A poker player’s worst enemy are themselves. Many pro’s have stated this concept time and time again. This is a powerfully true statement mainly because many player’s biggest leak is not how well they play, but how often they tilt and how it affects their play. Because this is such an important issue to all players I have decided to write my second article on tilt. I will be discussing and analyzing it, not only the forms of it, but also why people tilt, and how you can fix this massive leak.




THE FORMS OF TILT:



Super-Aggro (a.k.a. “Donkey Tilt): Shoving your stack all in every hand until you double up or bust. Many players will bust out of a tourney and move down to micros and do this (some will even start doing it in their current game or games while multi-tabling), they will shove until they suck-out vs. someone in a large pot to feel “vindicated” for the massive suck-out vs. them.



Spewing-Off: While not as bad as “Donkey Tilt”, this is one of the most prevalent forms of tilt. Players who are normally positionally aware will begin to 3xing from any position using atc. While they may normally play 15/12/4 (15% of the time they put money into the pot, 12% of the time raise when putting money into the put, 4% they 3-bet when putting money into the pot), now that they have tilted their stats have shifted to 45/35/15. Not only are they no longer positionally aware but they begin to poorly chase draws, and randomly 3-bet over shove hands like 22-77 and 69dd (for “t3h lulz” obv). Players tend to do this because they feel that bad play is working against them so “Why don’t they play like the donkeys around them, maybe they’ll win for once.”



Nit Tilt: Opposite of spewing off. Players begin to play only hands like JJ+/AQ+ and they play them hyper aggressively. Due to this style they lose tons of value and tend to get blinded off when playing under this form of tilt. The reason people play like this is because they realize they are tilted and don’t want to spew off and they are scared of getting sucked out on more.



Semi-tilted (a.k.a. “perma-tilt”): This is by far the most common form of tilt. Most poker players who do not have themselves exceptionally well disciplined play while tilted for long periods of time and may not even realize it. While only partially tilted (maybe you “downswonged” 5 buy-ins in a hour, or maybe you are in a 500 game swing) you will still make many mistakes that are a mix of “Nit-Tilt” and “Spewing-Off”. You will 3-bet shove light on someone after they sucked out on you just because “F**k-them!”, or maybe you will become tight when you should loosen up and play lag when you should be tight. Semi-tilted is simply a shift in your standard +Ev mindset. You may be still playing winning poker, but it is no where near of the level you are capable of.



Bankroll tilt: Players with poor BRM tend to have perpetual issues with this. They may be able to play within their bankrolls (whether it is 30-buy ins they have set for themselves or 150) for short periods of time (maybe a week, or a day, or some extreme cases for no longer then a few hours or till the first major suck-out vs. them). However after they get sucked-out on once or twice or maybe a dozen times and run bad for a period of time they will then stop caring about their bankroll rules and they will take shots at higher limits, they do so to chase losses usually.

WHAT CAUSES TILT?

Now that we have gone over a general idea of some of the forms of tilt and you know what to look for to spot tilt in yourself and others lets take a look as to why people tilt.




Tilt is mainly caused by 2 factors, ego and greed. While running bad many players tend to feel a variety of emotions ranging from “I should have won this hand!” to “He stole this pot from me!” or “I am due for a major win! I deserve it!” and sometimes even “Why does god hate me!?!?!?!?” (Who could say such a thing!? ). Each of these emotions of anger, annoyance, or even hate at another player are in the end a mixture of greed and ego.
For instance when a player gets sucked out on a feels as though they were stolen from (lets say you have AA all-in-pre-flop (“aipf”) vs. someone’s Aj-offsuit, in this hand you are a 92% favorite, however the player with AJ flops jjj and they end up winning the pot), when such a hand occurs you feel that you deserved the pot because not only were you a huge favorite to win but “how could that fkn idiot get in with such **** and win!?!?!?!?” Your ego is stating that by playing well and being a huge favorite all the chips should be yours, your greed desires to have that pot back and thus the 2 combined mean you become angry and either lash out or enter a form of tilt or possibly even both.


Your ego makes all players feel as though they are better then they truly are and their greed causes them to feel anger or extreme happiness at winning pots (nobody likes to lose, and poker players are all extremely competitive).


The 2 (ego and greed) combined make most players feel that when they play they not only should win, but they deserve to win because of how well they play. However the truth is….” YOU DON’T DESERVE ANYTHING”! Lets face the facts people, life is not fair! Poker is a game of skill… However, in the short run, anything can happen (some players consider the short run to be 1,000,000 hands or more). Just because you have been losing a lot over the past week or month, does not mean that if you played like the idiots surrounding you that you will make a miraculous comeback and make a ton of money. If you let your ego and greed control you they will consume you and make you into a bad and losing player.

HOW DO WE FIX OUR TILT?

Now that we know the major forms of tilt and what causes tilt how can we fix our tilting issues?

Something that I have began doing recently is that I made a set of rules that I must read before and after each session and I try to follow the rules to the best of my ability. The rules are the following:







POKER RULES:

1.You must read this every time you start a session and end a session.

2.Poker is about self control, discipline, and making the right moves, the goal in poker is not to win, not to prove others you are better then them, but to make the best decisions you can with the information available and to make yourself better each time you play.

3.Bad beats happen, nobody cares, accept them and move on. Variance/luck are part of the game, if you desire to do well in poker you must accept this and control your greed!

4.Each style of play has flaws, no style of play is the best. Each style can at times win, accept it! Analyze why it happened (variance/luck, miss-read? Over-estimation/under-estimation of skill), accept that it happened, and through this you will become a better player.

5.At the end of each session go over the game you went the farthest in of each type you played (win an 18man, study it, win a 27 man, study it…ect), you must go over the HH from that mtt/sng/cash-game see if you made the right moves and if you are uncertain ask someone/post.

6.Winning does not matter.

7.Did you make any bad plays? Why was it bad? Why did you make the play?
Trust your reads.

8.Did you tilt? Why did you tilt? Did you let your emotions control you? Greed controls and destroys if you let it, there are many great examples from pros and history, do not make their mistakes.

9.Your emotions are your greed, if all your desire is money and winning then you are not worthy of it. Desire to be a better player and a more true/honest/noble person and you will obtain happiness.

10.You owe no proof to others, it is you whom is most important, it is your thoughts on your actions that matter and how your actions affect others. Affect those around you positively and their happiness and respect will give you happiness.

11.Bragging to others of what you have done proves only your insecurity and weakness in your game and life.

12.Have balance in your life! Workout a few times a week, work, hangout with friends when you can, work on your hobbies! Poker is a part of your life, as is everything else. The sum makes up the whole.

13.Control your greed, your anger, the world owes you nothing! You have gifts of intelligence and the means to use it!

14.Poker is not about winning!

15.Look at each day, each game separately, the past cards do not affect the future cards! Accept it and realize it. The better you play the more you understand about poker and yourself the better you will do.

16.BAD BEATS HAPPEN! THERE IS LUCK IN POKER!

17.When you become angry that is your greed that is controlling you, if you let it control it will consume and destroy you.

18.Accept flaws in others, nobody is perfect, people make mistakes and let their greed control them (Greed and ego come hand in hand). If you can accept your own flaws and mistakes and do what is needed to fix them and understand why you did them then you can become the man you desire to be and who you are capable of being.

19.You must read this every time you start a session and end a session.








By reading these rules twice or more every single day I bring to the forefront of my mind what causes tilt, and how I should be playing and behaving in order to become a better person and a better player. Most of the players who read this will realize that they know everything above stated in my rules, however what makes the difference is not just knowing them sub-consciously but also to know them consciously and thinking about them daily. Making yourself something like this (or even using my rules) will help you on many levels, it will keep you more self aware and thus prevent many forms of tilt and anger.


Thank you for taking the time to read this article. Hopefully you can take something away from this and with enough dedication and determination you can become a better poker player, horse, investor and human being.

thx good read

You forgot monkey tilt, where you start breaking stuff such as your laptop, monitors, punch your cat/girlfriend in the face, etc.

There is also gorilla tilt, where after breaking all of your goods you just flip your entire bankroll with someone and then stab yourself on the leg.

Very good read. A+

Good read, only thing I disagree with is when you said winning doesn't matter. Winning matters very much because if your winning youre not tilting and when ur losing, your a lot more likely to tilt.

while this may true, this is only true becuz we humans care about the short term, and wether u are happy or not based on results is flawed thinking. You should only be happy/sad when you play well/bad, no other time. The amount of variance in poekr is beyond belief sick, and allowing even a few k games affect u is stupid and -EV, much less a few hands...

In other words... worry about your actions and not about results.. because your actions are what you can control.. and if you take solid actions, the results will take care of themselves.

Very good article. I will read this daily.

thank you for this article as playing in the micros really induces tilt

ive got the first 2 books in the series and am getting the 3rd soon. these are invaluable and if you take this book to heart and notice what your flaws are...it gets better. I still have some things to work on myself.

Will be keeping these so i can re read if i start to regress.

Thanks for the wake up call!

Nice post. You should also add tilt when you are winning. Many many players suffer from this. They are playing well, winning but many times on "positive" tilt. They start playing hands they shouldn't because they feel "in the zone". This eats into long term profits just as much as the other forms of tilt imo.

Great point there as well. i catch myself doing this alot in our home games. (Heat-check so-to-speak).

Getting this resolved is kind of like being able to actually trust your reads or feel on a hand that you call when you yourself are 99% sure your beat but somehow talk yourself into the call for that 1% "i gotta see it".

bumpity.

Wonderful post sir. I feel I'm almost always in perma-tilt. Usually because I'm tired. I just play a robotic style, berate myself constantly about playing bad 3bet light in wrong spots etc, etc. When I'm really energized and thinking I usually have great sessions, but I lose it all playing sub-optimal because I just want to play. I feel like if I only play when I can play my best game, I can't possibly get enough volume in.

I must say I think the monkey/spewtard tilt doesn't affect everybody though. I've never really found myself going ape after some beats. Sometimes I do play bad after winning some big pots because I feel like I can 'outplay' everybody. Any thoughts about winners tilt?

Rek covered it pretty well. If you are feeling that u are playing poorly becuz u are tilting in the middle of a session and cant just stop playing (best thing to do ldo) as you are playing alot of games (mtts/sngs) it is best to state out loud that u are tilting/playing poorly, state outloud why u are doing so (winning alot, getting unlucky) and state what u should do to fix it (how to adjust your style). While this sounds stupid it is a great method to change your mindset, calm u down, and help u focus.

tl; but i did read.

A great great read, you make this yourself?

i have started this as well. Also, if i think of getting sucked out i now go back and try to rethink if i couldve made a bet, a bigger bet..etc. after sometimes checking and basically letting them hit on me.

I know they say most people think they are better than they really are.... i believe this... although i know how to play the game(s).... mastering it to the level of being a consistant winner is much more than the money in short term (as stated above), I am realizing or "seeing the light" on this.

I have since made a t-shirt (this may be silly to some of you but....), i put some initials on it based on what ive read: D.A.I.. Which some of you may know means " Dont Assume Intelligence". I feel this has helped me to understand that when getting sucked out to a very bad call when not giving someone the odds to call or whatever... i am reminded that some of those im playing against may not know,have a clue or care about the odds...only playing their hands straight up, playing and then praying i guess. Which in turn will hopefully help out the long term returns.

yes, if u liked it please 5star it or w/e so others can read it in the future.

nice read, was expecting something silly like whats your worse enemy

good stuff prot, keep them coming!

This looks very promising. I usually berate myself about 3betting and 4betting the wrong people light. I'll try to state:

1. I'm on tilt.
2. Why am I on tilt? <- Usually perma-tilt, but I think it's partly still winners tilt after doubling my BR in a couple of days at Rush Poker after months of struggling.
3. What am I doing wrong? How should I adjust?
4. Re-evaluate in 10 minutes; Am I still on tilt? If so -> quit.


FWIW, I think this post could easily be added as 'memorable uNL strategy post', or COTW. Some MOD could probably better judge this. Seriously, very good post, especially on the practical prevention part. There are some very good theoretical tilt threads here already, but non of them addressed prevention quite as well so far IMO. Will rate 5 stars, but that probably won't do anything.

Nice one I shall subsribe & read when my giraffe stooops.

If you are your own worst enemy, then shouldn't you fold AA and call all in with 72o preflop, deliberately trying to lose?

nice post, thanks....

good read.