Tilt & Playing Online Poker

One of the most important things while playing poker is controlling your emotions. If you get upset for whatever reason during play you may go on, what poker players call, TILT. Tilt is when your emotions take over and you make plays you would never even think of making when in the correct state of mind. A lot of different things can put you on tilt: losing hand after hand with good cards, or perhaps another player at the table rousing, or upsetting you, with comments.

Controlling Your Emotions in Poker

Now lets be honest, if I have a great hand and lose I get pissed off! Let's say I get 3 great hands in a small time period and lose them all - I am REALLY pissed off then. My emotions take me over, and at this point I am feeling that even good cards won't help me, causing me to start making plays on cards I would normally fold. Controlling these emotions and moving on is VERY important. If I let these feelings continue I will only lose more and more money or chips.

How to Control Going on Tilt

The best thing to do is just suck it up and move on. I know, easier said than done, huh? This is where I would suggest taking a break and walking away from the table for a minute or two. Sometimes walking away is not an option - you may be in a tournament and the blinds may be huge and you need to stay at the table. Take an emotional break and clear your head to the best of your ability. After years of playing poker I still get mad, and I still go on tilt, just not as often as when I started playing so long ago. You can train yourself to get over these feelings and chalk it up to bad luck. Tell yourself, "It's poker. It's gambling. I can't always win, even with good cards".

Another form of tilt can be brought on by players at the table. There may be someone at your table with a big mouth who wants to talk smack to you over and over again. If you let this player's comments or attitude get to you, his ploy is working and you may let your emotions take over. Players like this are found more online than at live tables, due to the anonimity of online poker sites. These players may laugh when you lose a pot and make a big deal for a long time about the same hand you lost. Players like this may even personally attack you and every play you make. This is one form of tilt that I am SO over!

Strategies for Dealing with Online Poker Tilt

The best thing to do in this situation is to either hit back with a witty comeback or simply block their chat. Blocking their chat works great - they will either keep going (and who cares, because you can't see what they are saying since you blocked them) or move on to someone else at the table. I, on the other hand, can never leave it alone. I feel obliged to start fighting with the person messing with me and have yet to lose a chat war! This works for me on the flipside as well. I like to rouse players at the table, but I do it for good cause. I don't just pick someone and start with them for no reason. Usually a player would have to do something like play a lot of bad cards and get lucky with them, acting like they are the next Chan, because they got an unreal draw to take down a pot.

Whatever the reasons are that make our emotions crazy while playing poker, tilt is controllable with a little bit of experience and training. If you try to rationalize what is happening or what has just happened, you will find peace a lot faster than if you rant and rave about it. As unfair as it may seem when you lose with a really good hand, try to always remember that it is gambling and the unthinkable can always happen. If we won every time we got a pocket pair, or if our top pair on the flop always held up on an outdraw, poker wouldn't be that fun. The adrenalin that rushes through your body while in a big hand - the wondering if it's good enough, if your going to win, the terror of the card you don't want to see on the river - is what makes the game of poker what it is. Without these things it just wouldn't be poker.

If you really enjoy going on tilt, you should check out Full Tilt Poker.

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