Understanding Tilt and Controlling it at the Poker Table
Most folks when asked about what constitutes a really good poker player will respond with such qualities as calculated thinking, talent, lack of risk aversion and so on. The one aspect most mentioned by all, however, is psychological toughness and endurance.
No doubt many of you have heard about "tilt" in poker: the term implies a certain change in the game - a change for the worse. The term stands for a specific poker-related psychological condition, a state of affect in which a player is emotionally influenced into playing the way he would never play in a normal state. Usually a player in a tilted state is taken to start a sudden spell of loose-aggressive play, becomes an unmanageable maniac, though there can be other more or less similarly undesirable changes in the players normal game. Some players are driven into tilt by fear and so become tight-passive. In any case, the result is usually a complete defeat.
One can save money and psyche by averting the disastrous tilt rather than attempting to struggle against it once it has you under its spell. An in-depth knowledge of poker is helpful. An understanding of distance and dispersion in poker will make it easier to get through the rough patches. Also, a general awareness of what mathematical statistics and probability theory laws are can give you a more realistic view of poker and many other aspects of life.
Understanding statistics gives you an awareness that specific combinations do not always guarantee the same result. For instance, AQs is only a 68% successful combination. It stands a good chance of losing approximately one out every three deals.
It would be nice if knowledge alone was all that was needed - not so. Of course you are aware that bad things can occur but you don't dwell on the negative. Even so, when they do happen, that extraordinarily lucky, but obvious beginner, can drive you up the wall and very shortly put you into full tilt mode and you are off on a tangent. Even if you recognize the tilt, you are too far gone at this point to control it.
So besides theoretical knowledge, you might try another means to avoid the tilt and that would be an awareness of your personal triggers or hot buttons that when pushed send you off into the cosmos.
To have any control over the event, you must have a clear conception of it beforehand, so that you can recognize it in advance, be ahead, as it were, of that worst enemy in you. Rather than simply slipping blindly into an uncontrollable tilt, observe yourself before, during, and after the event, so that it no longer feels like inevitable doom out of nowhere and acquires instead clear-cut characteristics which can probably be controlled.
Pragmatism is what you are after here. When you feel a tilt coming on, you will be able to recognize the signs and be far more capable of controlling it, if not being able to completely avoid it.
Most folks when asked about what constitutes a really good poker player will respond with such qualities as calculated thinking, talent, lack of risk aversion and so on. The one aspect most mentioned by all, however, is psychological toughness and endurance.
No doubt many of you have heard about "tilt" in poker: the term implies a certain change in the game - a change for the worse. The term stands for a specific poker-related psychological condition, a state of affect in which a player is emotionally influenced into playing the way he would never play in a normal state. Usually a player in a tilted state is taken to start a sudden spell of loose-aggressive play, becomes an unmanageable maniac, though there can be other more or less similarly undesirable changes in the players normal game. Some players are driven into tilt by fear and so become tight-passive. In any case, the result is usually a complete defeat.
One can save money and psyche by averting the disastrous tilt rather than attempting to struggle against it once it has you under its spell. An in-depth knowledge of poker is helpful. An understanding of distance and dispersion in poker will make it easier to get through the rough patches. Also, a general awareness of what mathematical statistics and probability theory laws are can give you a more realistic view of poker and many other aspects of life.
Understanding statistics gives you an awareness that specific combinations do not always guarantee the same result. For instance, AQs is only a 68% successful combination. It stands a good chance of losing approximately one out every three deals.
It would be nice if knowledge alone was all that was needed - not so. Of course you are aware that bad things can occur but you don't dwell on the negative. Even so, when they do happen, that extraordinarily lucky, but obvious beginner, can drive you up the wall and very shortly put you into full tilt mode and you are off on a tangent. Even if you recognize the tilt, you are too far gone at this point to control it.
So besides theoretical knowledge, you might try another means to avoid the tilt and that would be an awareness of your personal triggers or hot buttons that when pushed send you off into the cosmos.
To have any control over the event, you must have a clear conception of it beforehand, so that you can recognize it in advance, be ahead, as it were, of that worst enemy in you. Rather than simply slipping blindly into an uncontrollable tilt, observe yourself before, during, and after the event, so that it no longer feels like inevitable doom out of nowhere and acquires instead clear-cut characteristics which can probably be controlled.
Pragmatism is what you are after here. When you feel a tilt coming on, you will be able to recognize the signs and be far more capable of controlling it, if not being able to completely avoid it.
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