Tilt Getting You Down!

To state the obvious, tilt happens to everyone inand worrying about what might happen right now,
Texas Hold Em poker, regardless of who you are.with this hand.
Indeed, "tilt" is one of the scariest terms - andYou have to convince yourself that winning and
experiences - when playing poker.loosing are one in the same in poker, at least in
So, what can cause tilt? It's not the same forthe mean time, until you can accomplish this. This
everybody. It could be your constant bad luckmight be counter-intuitive at first because the
when other players are hitting miraculous two andobjective of the game is always to win. You have
three-outers on the river, or it can simply be ato accept every losing hand as it is a part of
bad run of cards. It can be simply playing poorlygame.
for a long time, for others.Consider your approach to a coin toss. When you
Regardless of the reason, when the majority ofare on a winning streak facing a coin flip, you are
players go on tilt, they no longer play sensibly andgoing to be more cautious because you don't
they tend to lose. They then start playing thewant to take a chance on losing what you have
wrong cards in the wrong situations, or playingpreviously won or possibly more. On the contrary,
them at the wrong times, and lose a lot of chips.if you are in the same situation of losing, you
This starts a vicious self-destructive cycle formay be willing to take a risk to get your money
some players where their self confidence isback by going for the coin flip. In either situation, I
destroyed, and their money is lost.think both cases can hurt your game because in
The most important thing to know is what tilt is,each instance, you are more concerned about the
but you might also wonder what causes tilt.short-term outlook than about playing a good,
Personally, I have read it's a chemical reaction insolid poker game over the long term, which really
the brain which puts us back to primal days ofis what a winning player is all about.
fight or flight. Except now we are being hunted byWhen you can develop this indifference to winning
other players, instead of wild animals, who seekand loosing, it will help you focus on how you play,
to kill us down with another bad beat.and you will find yourself worrying less about
This primal emotion has an overwhelming impactgoing on a tilt. All that counts at the end of the
as it causes your entire chemistry to change andday is how you played, anyway. Being poker
sends you into another frame of mind, causingplayers, all we can do is play the best game we
you to change the way you play your game. Youpossibly can and let the cards fall as the may. No
have to be able to remove yourself from thismatter what kind of variance you face over the
emotion in order to stop that change from takingshort term, your long-term results will simply be
place and sending you on a tilt. You have to focusbetter when you adopt this attitude.
on keeping your cool and using your head whileThank You.
playing poker, instead of playing with your instincts