I was about to start a session but when I scanned over the tables I noticed they were garbage, all full of regulars.. So I thought I'd write a blog in the mean time and play in a little bit.

The other day I had an inspiring session that really got me thinking about tilt.  If you're not familiar with poker and don't know what tilt is, google it.. its pretty straight forward.  Well maybe its not straight forward, because there's multiple variations of tilt, ranging from slight to extreme.  I like to look at it as being sick.  You can have a minor cold, stuffy nose, sore throat, but with quick rest you can recover quickly and be back to normal.  But sometimes you get a horrible flu, you probably don't get enough rest, you stress too much and it turns out to be a terrible time.  In poker, I definitely put tilt control as one of the top attributes a player must have.  Its inevitable to go on tilt, but just like being sick, how you control that tilt could determine you being a winner or loser at the end of the year.

Just say you win $200 a day for 5 days straight, you feel great and things are going good.  But on the 6th day you catch a bad run of cards, and some idiot 2 outters you for a huge pot, then tilt kicks in.  Instead of having a normal losing day, you end up tilting away your previous 5 days profit.  That can't be good for business.  And the vicious circle continues.

I'm not going to get into how to control tilt, or what you should do if you're on tilt, because I'm not a poker coach and this isn't a teaching blog.  But I wanna show a session from the other day where I could of tilted numerous times, and where in the past I would of tilted for sure, yet this time I didn't wound up having a successful session.

I started to play and was really excited because the tables were great.  Limited regulars and tons of fish.  I haven't seen the tables like this good in a while, it felt like Christmas.  You're lucky to get one fish at a table sometimes but this time I was getting 3 or 4.  Unfortunately though the cards weren't cooperating.  I felt like I was playing good, but couldn't make a hand and had trouble controlling my pots.  The fish were doing such ridiculous things at the same time, it was actually confusing me.  I would raise AA upfront, get 3 fish to call, the flop would be 7,4,2 rainbow, and have all 3 of them go all-in before I had a chance to act.  I stayed pretty patient, but that didn't help either, I would start to pick up big hands only to lose more, then lose any coin flip situation I got into.  I also kept getting coolered... set over set, flush over flush etc etc.

Here take a quick look:



There were a bunch more but I think you got the idea.  At this point I was down about 10 buy-ins in a very short time span, maybe half hour tops.  I had gone past my stop-loss rule, I started to get really hot (I always get hot when I'm starting to tilt), and I was about to smash my mouse against the wall.  Now this is the point where what I do next is very very crucial.  I can either tell myself I'm not going to tilt, keep playing (on tilt), tell myself I'm the best player at the table (which at the time I probably wasn't) and proceed to lose another 10 buy-ins and having an absolutely terrible day.  Which would most likely make me play badly for the next few days because I would be so mad at myself for tilting and losing so much, and probably would end up playing less because I know I'm not playing well.  As you can see its a slippery slope!  Or I can take the thousands of hours of practice I've had on controlling tilt, and use that to my advantage and either stop playing or to continue play and try to get back to my 'A' game.

I sat out from all my tables,  did some breathing techniques (that I stole from another online poker pro), and made myself relax and focus.  Quitting at this point would of been a good option as well, but I felt I had to test myself to play good poker even after taking those bad beats.  Now I said good and not great, I truly believe when a player is losing a lot there's no way you can play great poker.  Subconsciously some of your decisions will be altered from losing.  Unless you're some freak like Ivey, durrrr or Phil Galfond.

After I calmed myself down, and basically combated me going on extreme tilt, I took to the tables again and decided I would continue to play unless I continued to take bad beats.  Sometimes its just not your day, and variance bitch slaps you in the face and you need to accept that.  But I just focused on playing good poker and making correct decisions.

I played for about another 3 hours and I went on a small heater and started cleaning up the tables.  I wasn't only hitting big hands, but making great call downs, and picking off big bluffs.  I was also extracting tons of value because I wasn't getting any credit from getting my ass handed to me from the hour before.  When people see you losing, they always will attack you more and they always think you're bluffing because of tilt.

Here are a couple examples:

(pretty ridiculous!)


I ended up winning back the original 10 buy-ins I lose, and won another 8.  Now I didn't write this blog to brag about how I got unstuck.  But I'm writing it because when I look at this session, I can see how much I've improved as a player and how signficant tilt can play a role in a poker player's life span.  I can only imagine how many spectacular poker players out there who either went broke or quit the game from tilting too much.

I know I'm going to tilt in the future, its inevitable... but if I can even tone it down by a few notches every time I feel it coming, I will continue to get better as a player and will even help me outside of the tables.

Ok now I feel like shooting!

Jay