Being on Tilt

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Being on Tilt

Being on tilt means letting your emotions disrupt your ability to play. All poker players go on tilt at least once during their career, but limiting these episodes is essential to winning at poker.

Poker is a game that requires reason. If you have Q J, and the flop comes A Q 10, and there is a lot of betting action, you need to know to fold. If you were on tilt, you would let your emotions take control and make you do whatever it took to take down the pot. You would keep chasing, hoping to catch a king and hoping that no one had a flush.

In general, people who get upset and don't stay focused and reasonable will lose all the money they brought to the table. Poker is almost anti-human in the way it triggers emotions but rewards people who are made of stone. I don't mean to scare you or act as if all poker players are unemotional stones, but it is imperative to stay focused and rational while at the poker table.

Generally, most players tilt due to a bad beat or if they just can't seem to win a hand. Some players have a slight tilt after they win a big hand or two, but those episodes generally are much shorter than tilts caused by losing.

Posts: 398 · Posted: 25.02.2006, 04:52

very good info.....thanks....hmmmm explains alot !!!
whew....i was wondering if tilt meant something in pokerworld.... Thumbup

Posts: 654 · Posted: 27.02.2006, 02:57

I think there might be or probably are other reasons for playing while on tilt.

For example, when you have played for too long at one session and are just plain too tired to think well.

At land casinos and online both, I have often sat out a few hands to go and wash my face, hands, and arms and brush my hair -- or just anything to fresen up. When my body feels refreshed, my mind does too and so it is possible to bring yourself out of tilt!

Trouble is -- when you are on tilt, you sometimes don't realize it (just like road hypnotism while driving a long distance).

That's my 2 cents worth on the subject of tilt.

royalblush

Posts: 398 · Posted: 28.02.2006, 13:21

ok well seems now i could be confused though not.
i just sat for 10 hours in land casino, playing at 3 different tables and the stupid slots. the tables were texas shoot out,spanish 21, and three card poker. boy oh boy i think i hit tilt or something. texas shoot out is similar to texas hold em, everyone is dealt 4 cards including the dealer who is an employee of the casino, duh huh, well anywho its dealer against paying customers. you can hold two of the four dealt, unless you decide you want to shoot out, which means playing all four cards and that case you have to match the bet placed before the cards were dealt. after customers choose their cards the dealer looks at the cards which were dealt for the house, and there are guidelines as to which cards house keeps, which usually are different than guidelines i follow when chosing the cards i keep. well the dealer chooses two cards and then everyones cards that are in play are all face up and the dealer deals out 5 cards to the board and are face up all at once, no more betting can be done. oh also there is a bonus spot which you get paid if you bet on the bonus for straight and up whether you win against the dealer or not.all bets are placed before the dealer deals the four cards you chose the two cards to hold. well anywho it really sucks if the dealer has to hold the same cards as you. no push just lose. ouch unless you get a bonus paying hand and tonight i matched the dealer for two of my four of a kinds, ilost my bet yet i won on the bonus which paid 7 to 1. on the 5 other 4 of a kinds i won bonus and the hand. i guess i should tell you there are more than 3 decks used not sure how many just know could beup to 10. well for the first time in a long time i came home with money in my pocket. i started with 100 and came home with 300. i lost alot in the slots well after i won several hundred in the slots i lost all but 74, then a friend showed up and well i decided to stay for some more losing on the slots, i think i still have 30 on my card not sure. anywho my point of tilt happened and instead of betting more like i usually do , i remembered Dr.Crushes post here and was able to recognize , and didnt come home without. three card poker was where i lost alot of my winnings from the 4 of a kinds.....yes 7 four of a kinds, $5 dollar bonus bets. i believe the pay out on four of a kinds was 7 to 1 coulda been 10 to 1 not sure, i hate to count my winnings until i cash out. out color up my chips. i just felt good having 100 dollar chips in my pocket. and thats one of my tricks, i color up and put the big chips in my pocket and try not to take those out unless to cashout. big smiles, yet i wish i had left sooner, and didnt play the 3 card poker, usually thats like christmas money, not this time though, well thanks Dr. Crush for your post on tilt. and royalblush thank you as well, some good ideas of freshening up would have saved me from losing some of the money i lost which i had won. none the less the drive home was at 330 am and 45 mins. and rainy, boy was i in trouble, my son and my guy were not happy. ooooops. my bad. had fun though.
thanks for letting me share my lil bit of fun. big adventure to lil ole me.

Posts: 647 · Posted: 12.03.2006, 15:27

I'm gonna have to read that about Texas ShootOut again, maybe a few times, notLOL! One time definitely wasn't enough, 'cause I still didn't quite get it. But I'll give it another try and I think I can figure out what you meant. I don't know if I'd like that game or not though.
I've heard of it, but I've never seen it anywhere.

And I'd say that session for you might've qualified as TILT!

There is a good side to players going on "tilt" though if u think about it. Their opponents can use that time to their advantage and end up with some wins that I bet they wouldn't have otherwise, if s/he was playing sensibly, instead of on tilt.

I know a few times when I've won when I had no right to win that hand, only because the other player was on tilt.

So there is a good side to "tilt" but the key is to recognize it in other players, and then you can play a little differently than you normally would, and maybe end up with a win that you wouldn't normally have. One thing about it is that it definitely IS recognizable! Kinda funny how obvious it is sometimes. And especially because it'll usually happen to someone right after they lose a hand they thought they were gonna win.

So if you see that happen and then see someone playing kind of recklessly right after it, that's a good sign to me to step up to the opportunity, probably play a lot more aggressively, and basically take advantage of their weaker, vulnerable state of the moment. At that time, they're thinking they're doomed anyway and expecting this to be their final hand or hands, so they just play as if they don't even care, as if they think they have no chance of winning. Or that they might have a chance, but this is it, right then, right there - they seem to be thinking that if it's not done in this one hand, that it'll never happen, so they do stupid things and play cards they normally wouldn't and make bets they normally wouldn't, etc... as if that's their one and only chance to do anything, even if they're stuck with crappy cards like a 7 and a 2, doesn't matter, they try to make them into cards that'll beat all the other cards at the table, which couldn't and doesn't happen. Well, not usually!

And I'd say a big part of being on tilt is also tunnel vision. You can have an ace in your hand, and you see only smaller cards on the table (duh - can't be any cards bigger than an ace, but you're not thinking of it like that) You see all those smaller cards on the table, and feel like you're gonna win 'cause you got the ace, the highest card you see, and go all in with just high card ace, and then get beat by a pair of 2's - ouch.
Or if you have, say, a jack in your hand and there's a jack on the table to give you a pair, and no overcards, so you think you'll win "of course!", but tunnel vision doesn't let you see that all those undercards on the table make up an outside straight, minus one card, meaning that there's 2 cards of every value, times 4 for each suit, times however many people at the table -- however many cards that adds up to is how many cards there are that would give someone their straight to beat your hand, and it would only take ONE card of all those possible cards for ONE player to get, and that'd do it. But you don't see it that way on tilt! Makes you blind to a lot - makes you blind to a lot of REALITY in effect.
Sounds a lot like life sometimes huh.

Anyway, so go out there and find someone on tilt and take advantage of them and win yourself some chips!
(But not if it's me!)
Good luck!

sunspun

Posts: 398 · Posted: 12.03.2006, 21:32

oh sunspun...what a lovely screen name...ever since i met you over at faircasinos, i have liked you and now even more, thank you for taking the time to read of the texas shootout!! it is a fun game, can even be profitable, unfortunately, not many dealers , which is whom you play against at land casino, are on tilt....ya know what i mean...they arent playing with their money, the houses money, so anywho, as you know i frequent the pitbull freerolls, and im sure you see it there as well as i do. so i dont have to look to far....big smiles. most of the time here lately ever since i ventured this topic, i have been experiencing tilt.
thinkin i got a good hand and wahla.....shoulda thought more;....

see you at the tables.

Posts: 647 · Posted: 19.03.2006, 03:34

notLOL,
I'm at Pitbull right now, and I just now realized you were at my table and I didn't notice til just as u were leaving! Or I woulda said hi!
So ... HI! (and bye!)

wink

sunspun

Posts: 398 · Posted: 19.03.2006, 21:09

hello sunspun!!! i saw ya....you mean just as i all ended it.....lol ....had to cut the tourney short for myself couldnt stay connected....my stupid computer... my sons is like a caddy compared to my ole volkwagen computer....lol...i think you won that all end....WTG...

Posts: 654 · Posted: 20.03.2006, 03:18

sunspun and notLOL ~

I was fascinated by your articles above! And now I am convinced for sure to join you at Pitbull Poker! Did I spell Pitbull right or does it have 2 p ?

So thanks to both of you!

royalblush

Posts: 398 · Posted: 20.03.2006, 09:01

well its about time...i think i have a pittbull poker ummmm....maybe we could say a...daily , sometimes hourly, well mostly hourly , task i have chosen. lol hope to see you there royalblush. and its 2 t's not 2 p's....hmm....if it were with to p's would you think it was spelt...... pitpull poker? hey wow that has a shnazzy lil sound....the onlything about pittbull is its slow....its gotten better than when i first joined ....new site and its flash. though hey i just played at another flash site and it was actually very sharp and smooth. just remember its improving all the time.

oh and if you ever see screen name notLOLonTilt or notLOL4sure , thats me. seems there is another notLOL joining before me....olol .....oooops LOL
unless somehow i am creating multiple accounts....ouch. i better figure that out really quick....well thanks for allowing me the time to babble away at the keys , and i just happened to babble myself into realization of a possibility. wow....Poker-Crush is having the same theraputic waves I experience over at Casino-Crush....go figure. ok well thank you for your time and lookin forward to seeing yall at the tables.

Posts: 398 · Posted: 20.03.2006, 09:16

oh and i almost forgot ....sunspun ...i am going to figure away of posting the casinos rules and instruction persay , im sure i could be explaining it different than maybe it should be. Texas shootout
is the game im speaking of. just yesterday i accidentally on purpose found myself in the cardroom casino down the road , and i looked for Texas shootout and instead was thrown for a loop...Ultimate Texas Shootout , lets just say there are more bonus possibilities, which means more bet spots on the table to fill. ok ill post those descriptions in another topic as well. ill let you know when i do...

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Good going Notlol on your win. The thing is a win is a win and even if your up only $100 you are still UP!! and ...lol..as we all know..that is a good thing.. Smile

I might have to try out PittBull poker as well. I usually play at Partypoker for them ost part as it seems I do far better there...lol..but I am always looking for a new poker site to test my skills. I ecently was looking over a UK site that plays in pounds versus US $$'s and thought...hmmm...lol..winning in pounds could be really profitable since a pound is worth $2.12 canadian...lol

See you at the tables and good to see you both posting.. Smile

DrC

Posts: 398 · Posted: 22.03.2006, 19:14

ok i think im me today so ill post....sunspun....
you do make me laugh.....ok yea its me....and Dr.looking forward to see you .....let us know its you....not sure of your screen name....unless its DrCrush which is an awesome screeen name. uhoh sunspun if you read this i just dont like to back space so i didnt correct my spellings.....lol

Posts: 647 · Posted: 23.03.2006, 19:02

OH hey wow guess what!!!

I just finished a freeroll tourney at Pitbull and when I say finished, I mean FINISHED!

To the very very very end of it!

Last one to leave the room!

Yep, I WON one!!

It took a loooooooooong time. I'm not even sure when it started, but I'm sure it was still dark out and it's noon now! That can't be right, can it?? Maybe not, but it was a marathon.

I can't imagine how all those multi-1000's of player freerolls at other places must last ALL DAY!

This one had around 300.

So not quite as much an accomplishment compared to those major major multiplayer ones, but still an accomplishment! I impressed me anyway!

OK, so that's 2nd place twice and then this one - surely no one can say it's just luck now, right?
I have to say I gotta be getting better - what else could it be?

Sure is hard to see it that way sometimes though, when you play tourney after tourney, and never make it past the 4th hand or so, one after the other, like I did right before this last one that I ended up winning.

Hm, so maybe that's evidence that it IS actually luck - well, I'd rather use that to support my position that it's skill more than luck, so I will.

I know a lot of luck is always involved too, but I think it's a lot less luck than some would have you believe. And I feel like I'm living proof - today, at least!

Just had to share that with someone! (Haven't told anyone else yet!)

Have fun and good luck!

sunspun Very Happy

Posts: 647 · Posted: 27.03.2006, 09:59

OK, I thought I was doing so well when I made that last post, and now I can't seem to last 5 minutes in any tournament!

For example, just now, I just lost one very early on into the tournament, and I think this would be what qualifies as a "bad beat"!

I had JQ of diamonds, so I thought that looked pretty good, but then someone had to go All In, and even though I wouldn't have done that on my own, I felt like I had no choice, so I did too. But then as the cards fell, and the last 3 of them were all DIAMONDS, so I had made my flush, believe it or not, then I started thinking I was glad I was "forced" to go all in after all.

That is, UNTIL I saw that the guy next to me had...
the King and Ace of ... yep, you guessed it -- DIAMONDS!

Which meant he made his flush too, and unfortunately, they liked his flush better than mine, so I was no longer ALL IN, I was ALL OUT!

That was so sad! It sure did look good at first.

Oh well, guess that's poker.

sunspun Sad