How to Avoid Tilt
Tilt in poker refers to an emotional response which causes poor play. There are two main types of tilt: hard and soft. Hard tilt, sometimes described as mega-tilt, is extremely obvious, and involves high levels of anger along with misplaced aggression and the inability to fold in a lot of clear spots. Soft tilt refers to any other less obvious poor play due to emotional factors. This can refer to being scared money and folding too much, being frustrated and unable to fold without necessarily increasing aggression, and other emotional poor play.
Causes of tilt can be poker related, including bad beats, highly aggressive opponents, one’s own bad play, opponent table behavior, hit and running, and extended bad luck. It can also be caused by external factors, including financial stress, poor relationships, or simply having a bad day or week. Identifying the root cause of one’s tilt can be the key to fixing it, particularly when the tilt is not poker related.
Similarly, there are both poker related and non poker related ways to avoid tilt. One poker related way to avoid tilt is to not play a very high variance style, as you are less likely to experience large swings which can induce tilt. Another can be to avoid opponent types that cause you to tilt, especially when playing heads up. These opponent types can range from those who 3-bet a huge percent, to those who limp a lot, check raise a lot, or donk bet a lot. Generally however, highly aggressive opponents are more tilting as they will be more difficult to play against when you’re not running well and hitting lots of flops.
For non-poker related ways to avoid tilt, one should first consider physical activity and attempts at physical cures. Physical activity releases endorphins, which contribute to a sense of well-being, the antithesis of tilt and steaming. Among physical activities, those which involve deep breathing are probably the most effective, specifically yoga. Running will also be very helpful. Tilt involves a lot of physical tension, and so one should do whatever is possible to relieve or avoid that physical tension. Good diet can also play a substantial role. Also, removing aspects of stress or conflict from your life when possible is helpful.
Finally, one must accept that sometimes tilt will occur and cannot be avoided. In these cases the goal is simply to minimize the effects of it. The simplest, brute force way to do this is to implement a stop loss. This involves quitting after losing a certain number of buy-ins. it will depend on the game type you are playing, as well as the stakes. For instance, if you are a small stakes cash game regular taking a shot at mid stakes, you may want a tight stop loss of between 3 to 5 buy ins. On the other hand, if you’re playing your everyday game and don’t have large tilt problems a 10 to 15 buy-in stop loss may be appropriate. Always remember though, that the point of the stop loss is to avoid tilt, and not to avoid big losing days or adopt some kind of risk averse strategy.
* If you find the article helpful and want to information on how to avoid tilt, check out Mental Game of Poker and How to Stop Tilting.
