Tilter's Annonymous. All tilters welcome.

[Riku]

For those of you who have been clean from tilting, this awesome keyring is now available. Just print it, glue it on a cardboard, attach it to your key with a string.

[Wetdog]

Really good post, Guru. It's been a while since I read Tommy. I guess I will again some day (procrastination tilt).

I think that I get over bad beat tilt by reminding myself that I've given a few beats to others myself.

My biggest tilt leaks are due to impairment, Sleepy Tilt and Beer Tilt. I've mostly been playing 1 and 2 table donkaments for the past year. I'll play until after midnight most nights usually with a bottle of Blue Moon always at the ready. Couple this with having played in a bar tournament earlier and there's quite a bit of beer coursing through the brain box. Decisions that should take some analysis (what's this guy's range here?; hmmm, coordinated board; wait, that's a scary card) are supplanted with gut responses (oh about two-thirds of the pot should work). It's also happened more than once that I fall asleep in my chair during a MTT on a weekend night. How I make the money in those I attribute to some fundamentals that I learned right here in the micros (thanks guys).

During the latter part of last year and early part of this I went on a horrible downswing. Had I not won a $4/180 man tourney in the middle and end of the skid, I would be busto. My Sharkscope looked like a series of really ugly Ns. In the middle of this skid I moved down in buyin and began questioning my play. I found way too many loose (middle offsuit connectors limped in EP & folded to a raise, playing any two sooted in LP, really stupid bluffs that had no logic to be able to sell to the villain) plays that I had gotten away with previously that started biting me in the ass. I guess that was mostly impatience due to some sense of urgency to act in a donkament that I've since gotten over.

It's funny that I've done pretty well in tournaments yet I suck in ring games. I'm sure that there is an explanation for that here somewhere but I'm too lazy to find it (lazy tilt).

[Befolder]

Very nice post Guru.

Hello, I'm Ryan...and I'm a tilter.

I find that when I'm tilting that I cbet pretty much every time regardless of the board that flops. Naturally, I'm missing every flop, which also helps.
[img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Shillx]

I lost about 80 BB playing 50/100 the other night while blasted out of my mind. Ugh. I think I might have been cheated though. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] So yeah I tilt. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[inferno]

[ QUOTE ]
Bless me oh father for I have sinned. It has been -- What's that? I'm in the wrong place? My people are outside in the alley behind the dumpster? Okay, I'll go find them.

Hi, my name is Tommy, and I'm a tilter.

[/ QUOTE ]

<3 TA

[DavidC]

[ QUOTE ]
it should be at least a little concerning that you tilt easier now than before. After the time you have invested, you should know that suckouts happen and poker is what it is.

[/ QUOTE ]

it's possible that players (including myself) have certain var/ev thresholds before they tilt (long term).

i.e. it's easier to handle a 200bb downswing if you're running at 3/100 over 30k hands than it would be running 1.5/100 over the same number of hands, etc.

[DavidC]

Brad, this is the second time I've heard about drunken high stakes from you. Jesus man... if this wasn't the same incident that you're talking about you've got to stop that. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[Mano]

[ QUOTE ]
Bless me oh father for I have sinned. It has been -- What's that? I'm in the wrong place? My people are outside in the alley behind the dumpster? Okay, I'll go find them.

Hi, my name is Tommy, and I'm a tilter.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hey Tommy,
I saw on your website that you are working on a book. Any info you can give us about it (contents, publish dates, publisher, etc.)? Thanks for any info, and GL.

[Guruman]

So we all tilt.

My tilt is particularly damaging because it just does not feel at all like tilt. It feels like solid poker. It's not, but it sure feels exactly like solid poker feels.

Essentially I feel like my tilt is the poker anagram of a self-destructive and compulsive disorder. I don't believe that it is as bad as an actual compulsive disorder, but because I don't really feel it while it's going on sometimes I worry that it has the potential to develop into something of that level. If tilt takes over my game then I'll have reverted from a poker player to a gambler, and frankly I don't like that so much.

I noted before that I think body dysmorphic disorders can serve as a serviceable analogy, especially when it comes to seeking methodologies for eliminating the tilt. While looking into it I stumbled across the practice of cognitive behavioral therapy, which is in practice as a treatment for BDDs as well as other types of addicts and compulsives.

The whole premise is that our thoughts create emotions that influence our actions. If we reframe our impressions of things as they occur then our thoughts will create different (and hopefully better) emotions that will in turn cause better actions and reactions.

As I look deeper into it though, it seems like this can only address some of the tilt that I run across (mostly demolition tilt, ego tilt, and any other emotionally based tilt), and the types of tilt that it does address I am capable of recognizing while in the act.

So it may not be worth the effort to look into the practice of this stuff (though it could be cool because it appears to be legit, clinically proven, and computerized) for the majority of what I personally face.

I think I need some kind of re-focusing technique. Some kind of something that can slow me down and sharpen me up. Also a little honesty with myself about skillz at the table would be good. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Guruman]

Another thing I'm going to try to do is to prioritize my tilt.

Its clear that some kinds of tilt are more damaging than others because they occur more frequently or in more damaging situations.

Once I prioritize my tilt, I'm going to have to start working on the list one at a time from top to bottom. I may need to develop a specific technique for each different type.

I realize that I can't cure it all at once.

I realize that I'll never 'cure' any of it - only marginalize it's influences.

I realize that it will probably suck at first.

I hope that it will put my game in a place that I can consistently win money with it.