Avoiding Tilt
No matter how even-tempered you might be, eventually you will find yourself on tilt. Tilt is the poker term used to describe when a player is in a bad state of mind, either because of a bad beat, loss of a big pot, or just running card dead for extended periods of time. When a player goes on tilt, their decision making abilities become hampered and they’ll often find themselves making numerous bad plays, such as chasing low percentages draws or playing too aggressively.
One of the ways I recommend you avoid the effects of going tilt is to just gain a lot of overall poker experience. Players that don’t play frequently will take bad beats harder because they don’t play as often as more experienced poker junkies, players that have seen a lot of bad beats in their time. With more experience comes the knowledge that as long as you play correctly, in the long run you will see yourself benefit more often than you’ll see yourself suffer.
Another suggestion is if you find yourself on tilt, try to force yourself to skip the next few hands completely unless you find yourself with a premium hand. Take a few rounds to cool off, think about the situation, and realize that what just happened to you happens a million times a day to other poker players all around the world. Your bad beat stories are not unique, so don’t act like it’s the end of the world.
Get some more overall experience under your belt and build up some bad beat discipline in order to minimize the negative effects of tilt.
