***3000th Post: Tilt and R.A.A.***

[PJo336]

I know there have been many posts on tilt and cures etc, but as a once
chronic tilter, i thought i would throw in my thoughts and ideas on
what I have learned on the topic.

The fact is simple, you WILL NOT WIN if you continue to let tilt run
thru your game. There are players who know this, and fix it, and then
there are players who "know" this and basically ignore it. Im here to
help the latter. I think its fairly safe to say, i am pretty well
versed in tilt.Im not proud of this lol



The process I developed in terms of tilt is called R.A.A.

R.A.A.
1. Recognition
2. Alleviation
3. Adjustment

Each portion is important, and if followed, your game will develop 10-fold.

1. Recognition
This is perhaps the hardest thing about tilt, the fact that alot of
the time, people will not KNOW they are actively tilting. I sweat
people a ton, and alot of times I see people doing things that i know
they know they shouldn't be doing. However they dont realize it. (hope
i didnt lose anyone)

So how can you come to realize it? Well, what is tilt first off?
I would define it as a state of mind a player enters that causes them
to deviate from ANY play they would make normally with sound
reasoning, to a play of pure emotion. Lets face it, emotion will kill
you in this game, and as much as the 12 tabling hudbots want to
believe, we are all humans and prone to such emotions.

Common tilt thoughts:
"This [censored] has min raised my cbet far too many times"
Yes, annoying as hell, but worry more about his stats and reads. This
is emotion getting involved and is deviating you from playing
optimally
"Come on gimme a hand"
Patience child. Nothing makes a cold hand streak stick out more than
tilt. If it seems to be bothering you especially today YOU MAY JUST BE
ON TILT.
"I never win flips"
[censored] you dont. STFU noob, quit tilting

Recognition is the hardest part of this process, because everyone is
different. Next time you have found yourself tilting, stop!, go thru
the session and find what caused it, whether it was a beat, a player,
or your gf bitching at you. Write it down and remember it. Eventually
youll have a solid list of "What to avoid" while playing.

2. Alleviation
This step is of course coming down off of tilt. There are 2 different
forms of alleviation.
#1- Long term: This of course means one thing. DO NOT CONTINUE
PLAYING. STOP. Nothing is harder than the first time you leave a 60/4
monkey sitting on your right with 5 buy ins, but I promise you, it
gets easier. Most of us have the advantage here in the micros of
knowing there will ALWAYS be fish to feed us sharks. When you get
rattled, you play less optimally and become part of the "force it"
crowd. You start playing against the 60/4 with 89 offsuit, flop an
oesd and check call half your stack. WHY? Leave the table until you
are settled, whether its 5 hours or 5 days later. The fact is, THE
GAME WILL ALWAYS BE THERE, BUT YOUR "A" GAME WILL NOT.

#2-Short Term: I recommend trying to avoid this, but if you are for
for any reason in a spot where you need to continue (i.e. a
tournament), there are a few quick things you can do to calm yourself.
Pretty simple: Have a smoke if you smoke, get a soda, wash your face
with warm water or draw a warm bath and play in it, put on a soothing
song. Even talk to someone, about poker or not, on the phone or aim.
Hell im on this site way too much, pm me, ill help you out! Personally
I light up a scented candle and reflect on finding my center. You
would be surprised how much taking 10 seconds to breath and focus on
something else would really help, but people fall into a trap of
getting MORE into the game when they are urked. Dont do this.

3.Adjustment
Finding what caused your tilt can help, but its more or less finding
what you can do to avoid ANYTHING that will hurt you.

Shorter sessions [img]/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img]!!! I used to sit and play till i reached 1500
hands. By 1100 i was usually going batshit insane. Shorten it up. Play
500, take a five minute break, then play another 500. It adds 5
minutes to your time, but also adds to your ptbb/100.

Less tables. Not all of us can handle 2 hour sessions at 12 tables.
Hell I cant handle 8 without tilting. Lessen it up, even by 1 and im
sure youd be surprised at the somewhat calmer pace calming you.

Sufficient Br. This ones pretty obvious as well. Dropping 2 bis then
noticing you still have 32 bis left is much easier to handle then
realizing you were never really rolled for this level in the first
place.

Excercise. This is more important than you will know. Its science.
Endorphins and what not people. Take a walk, pump some iron, hell [censored]
someone ferociously. Do SOMETHING to get your blood flowing a few
times a week. This will not only improve the quality of you emotional
state, but even health state, and lets not forget, life isnt all about
poker.

Take a break. An hour. A month. A year, w/e. I tilted off a very
sizeable roll in about a week of nonstop tilting. I took a 4 month
hiatus from poker, and I have come back stronger than ever. Guess what
guys, the secret to success is passion and patience. If you lose
either, you are screwed. Stop playing for a day and pick up a book,
whether poker related or not. (I recommend Take Me to the River by
Peter Alson as a non-strat poker book). Don't force anything! If your
not in the mood to play today, there's always tomorrow.



Everything about tilt and its elements are pretty individual, so in
reality, its up to you to find how it all pertains to your play and
your emotions. Try filling in on a piece of paper one day how you
recognize your tilt, how you alleviate it, and how you can adjust to
avoid needing alleviation. It WILL help your game 100%. I PROMISE!
And remember,dealing with tilt is just like sex. You can watch 100
people do it, but this does not make YOU a professional.

Well I hope this rambling helped someone out so I can say only 99.9%
of my posts are worthless. Id love to hear thoughts on the topic. ill start, tl:dr [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]