Online Tilt - The Key to Preventing/Stopping It

[e_phemeral]

I played 2 weeks of solid poker at $25NL and was up 16 buyins. I played 12 hours of monkey tilt poker at $25NL and lost 18 buyins. WTF?!?!?!?!

Tilting when playing online is so dangerous because all of your bankroll is right there, easily accessible and easily dumped onto a table. Time and time again, I build up a bankroll, only to tilt it all away. I am really trying to figure out how to stop doing this and need help.

How do people manage tilt online? For me, tilt is all about anger. I get angry because (a) I play a hand badly and lose money, (b) someone else plays a hand badly and I get sucked out on and lose money, (c) someone else outplays me and I lose money and (d) for various other reasons. Once on tilt, I stop playing poker and instead want to "get back" at whoever has "wronged me", which quickly turns into the entire table - soon it is me against the table and everyone is gunning for me because they know I am on tilt. Queue some more bad beats. INVARIABLY, this is when a string of really bad beats happen - I have used my tilty image to get it in good and some d()che sack sucks out. Now I go on super monkey tilt and start spewing buyins like they are meaningless.

HOW DO YOU AVOID THIS? Is it possible to have such a detached mindset that you never go on tilt? Or do all people, even the most disciplined, detached players, go on tilt at some point?

Once on tilt, it seems the only good thing that you can do is to stop playing. But how do you do it? I'm looking for mental tricks, gimmicks, ANYTHING, to help me control this awful problem. Whether it be some trick to stopping playing or some trick to stopping the tilt, give me your thoughts.

Having looked back at hand histories and graphs, I know that I could be a winning player if I could only control tilt. To me, tilt control is the main difference between winning cashgame players and losing ones.

Suggestions?

[a nonymous]

Self-control.

[slothinator]

You've done the first part in recognizing what causes you to act like that. Now get over it; it happens to everybody. Suck outs and misplayed hands are going to happen. If you can't handle it, then stop playing when it happens.I used to immediately log out and quit for a while after a suck out, because I knew I would go after that player and try to get them back.

The other thing is don't chase your losses. We've all probably done it, and it just makes things worse. If you're down, walk away and get'em tomorrow. Don't play thinking you have to win or have to get it back, because you'll play hands and call bets that you shouldn't.

Everyone gets frustrated. Just don't let it affect your play. If you can't keep it from affecting your play, then recognize when you need to walk away. Eventually, you'll learn to deal with the bad beats and accept that they are part of the game. How long have you been playing on-line?

[excession]

run hotter?

[Tooty816]

I stop after I lose 3 buyins. Whether I lose it off-the-bat in the first 15 minutes or after an hour of play, if I'm down 3buys I'm out.

[Tider92]

Do you have impulse/anger control problems in other areas of life? This type of behavior is consistent with certain types of mental health issues. If so, anger management training has some value (not like the movie).

[Josem]

i find that never losing helps me

[82Steve]

i always wanted to know what those 72/51/3.5 players think while playing?
thanks for explaining

no, seriously: read theory of poker by sklansky and get familiar with "the fundamental theorem of poker". once you get this into your head you will congratulate players when they suck out on you.

[RoundTower]

http://tommyangelo.com

[whangarei]

Highly recommend reading "The Poker Mindset." But if you do find yourself tilting then yes you need to stop playing for a while, or play lower stakes, or tilt differently (super-tight tilt). Everyone tilts, the key is to minimize the frequency of tilting and when you do tilt, minimize the damage.