Only 1% of Poker Players Know These Tilt Control Strategies

Your mind is your greatest weapon at the poker tables. But sometimes your emotions can get the better of you in this game and cause you to tilt, play badly and ultimately lose money.

If this happens to you frequently, don't worry because it happens to everybody sometimes, even pros.

In fact, in my 10+ years experience as a poker pro and working with my students, tilt is easily the number one destroyer of bankrolls and dreams in this game.

The best way to stop tilting in poker is to understand why bad beats happen, learn to laugh them off and ultimately move on. However, if you still can't stop tilting, then it is best to just quit playing poker for the day. The games will always be there tomorrow.

But this is a pretty simplistic answer. So let me break it down further for you. In this article I am going to provide you with the top 6 anti-tilt techniques that I have used in my career as a poker pro.

Hopefully these will help you finally stop tilting!

By the way, if you're new to poker and you just want to learn my simple system for exactly what hands to play, grab my free poker cheat sheet.

Memorize the charts. Stop guessing. Start winning.

1. It's OK to Quit (Really)

The first and most important lesson that I needed to learn in order to stop tilting in poker was that it is ok to quit. We live in a society where we are often told stuff like "quitters never win" and so on.

True in some cases, but not so true in poker. Learning how to quit is actually a skill that you need to master in order to succeed at poker.

There will simply be days in this game (I call them "hell days") where there is absolutely nothing on earth that you can do to win.

You are going to lose every single flip, miss every single draw and get setup again and again (i.e. KK vs AA or flush over flush). At the same time, they will hit every card they need and crush you in every way possible.

There is no point in continuing to bang your head against the wall during days like this. Don't even bother trying to understand it either because believe me, you won't.

On days like this the best thing that you can do is just physically remove yourself from the table and go do something completely different.

Always remember that your results in a single poker session literally mean absolutely nothing. Turn off the computer or leave the casino and come back the next day with a clear mind.

You can instantly skyrocket your long term poker results by learning how to quit when nothing is going your way instead of stubbornly trying to win it back while in a poor mental state like most people do.

By the way, if you just want to learn my simple no BS system for exactly what hands to play, when to bet, raise and bluff, I cover this all in my brand new training program, Play Fearless Poker.

Memorize the charts. Stop guessing. Start winning.

My new Play Fearless Poker training program includes 12+ hours of advanced poker lessons, 100+ step by step example hands and "cheat sheets" below every single video.

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2. Making Sense of the Beats

Not many days are like that though. Hell days at the poker table are rare. Most days when the cards aren't falling your way, it is much more minor. In other words you can play through it.

So one technique that I have long used to understand the endless amount of bad beats that you will endure in this game is to always remind myself of the math.

This helps me make sense of the situation in a logical way. This is because the one thing you can't do in poker is fight the math and expect to win in the long run.

So for instance say I have AA, they call the whole way with their bottom pair, and nail their trips on the river.

Well I can easily put this hand into the equity calculator in PokerTracker for example and see that I was a huge favorite to win at every step of the way.

Flop equity AA vs bottom pair

Things are looking even worse for them by the turn!

So what if they managed to hit their lucky card on the river this time.

Cool story bro. But if we run this same scenario 10 times, 100 times or 1000 times their entire bankroll is gonna be mine. Now that's an even cooler story!

You can't fight math.

3. Congratulate Them

Something else you can do to help lessen your tilt after a bad beat is to congratulate them on their excellent (terrible) play. The mistake that most people make here though is that they say it in a sarcastic or passive aggressive way.

The next time some goofball calls you the whole way with bottom pair and spikes his trips on the river say "nice hand" to them without any kind of ill-will at all.

Or just say it inwardly to yourself, you don't actually have to actually say it out loud or type it in the chat.

The point here is to be thankful instead that there are people like this in your game. You should just see dollar signs every time they make bad plays like this. Because this alerts you that you are playing in a profitable game.

Look, don't berate your best customers. Thank them for being such loyal donators to your cause. And invite them to keep coming back again and again to make more contributions.

By the way, check out my brand new video on why we tilt, for even more high level strategies to prevent you from tilting:

More videos on my Youtube poker channel just like this every single week. Make sure you are subscribed.

4. Take a Mini-Break

I mostly play online poker but you can use this technique in live games also. Phil Hellmuth is arguably the most famous for using this strategy as well.

And this is the idea of taking what I call "mini-breaks."

What this means is that after a particularly bad stretch of hands I will sit out on all of my tables at once and go take a 5 or 10 minute break to compose myself and replay a few of the hands in my head.

I will also do a bit of deep breathing or meditation to calm my mind and try to ascertain if I am still fit to be playing or if I should just quit for the day.

Don't feel like you need to be forced to sit in your chair and grind it out if you are feeling tilted. But instead of quitting completely try just taking a quick break to compose yourself.

This is one of the main benefits of cash games which is why I prefer them over tournaments. You can sit out without having to pay the blinds or just simply leave altogether whenever you want.

Make sure that you take advantage of this flexibility!

5. Learn to Laugh

This anti-tilt technique is arguably the most important of all. And that is to simply learn how to laugh off this silly game more often.

You see, over the course of your poker career you are going to take countless numbers of bad beats, setups and nasty river cards.

This means that you are going to need to find a lighter approach to this game or it is probably going to wind up being a very miserable experience for you.

Daniel Negreanu even specifically talks about this art of keeping your cool and learning to have a lighter approach to the game in his new advanced poker training program.

Another thing to always remember is that the money doesn't really matter. Most people who read this poker blog are playing at stakes online for like $2, $5 or $10.

Is it really worth it to get all worked up over the price of a cup of coffee or a movie ticket at worst?

We get to make money playing this silly little card game in the comfort of our own home or in a coffee shop or even at the beach. Sometimes the donks are going to hit their lucky card.

Fish gotta win sometimes too!

Learn to laugh it off and see the humour in this game a little bit more often. The bad beats, the setups and the two outers will always be a part of this game as long as you play it.

The sooner you can learn to separate your emotions from them and take a more light hearted approach to poker, the better your results will be.

By the way, I discuss this in much more detail in my new Elite Poker University training. 

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6. The Secret Weapon

Alright this last one is actually my secret weapon and that is why I don't talk about it very often.

It is the #1 reason why I am able to stay sane (most of the time) at the poker tables while many of my opponents tilt away all their profits to me.

And this is a fitness lifestyle.


The place where all my tilt melts away


And what's more is that I know that this is not just me. I live in Thailand where there are countless online poker pros just like me from places like America, Canada, the UK, Germany and so on.

I can't tell you how many times I have met them in the gym!

And that is because we all understand the profound mental benefits of regular exercise and strength training. It reduces your stress levels, allows you to sleep better, makes you feel more confident and on and on.

These are all vitally important when playing a game that can be highly stressful at times like poker. And of course this is not even to mention all of the incredible health benefits that come along with regular exercise as well.

Furthermore, all it takes is a couple hours a week, everybody has time for that. You don't need to be one of those guys who spends 3 hours every day in the gym.

I really can't stress it enough. If you take poker seriously, then this is the best thing that you can possibly do for your tilt control.

Heck, forget poker, just do it for you. Don't accept average. Be the best version of YOU!

Final Thoughts

Learning how to stop tilting in poker is a huge problem for many people.

This is something that I specifically talk about in Crushing the Microstakes because if you play the lowest limits, online or live, then you are simply going to face a lot of crazy bad beats.

There is just no other way around it when you are playing against so many loose and crazy players. But this is also precisely why these games are so profitable.

Because in the long run you simply cannot fight the math in poker.

I know how painful it can feel in the moment to lose to some clown who called the whole way with bottom pair and made his trips on the river.

Trust me though, this guy pays for it BIG TIME over the long run once the math takes care of him.

But it really is a shame when you think about just how many good talented players allow their emotions to get the best of them because of stuff like this, and ultimately ruin their results.

Look, I am not perfect. No poker player is. I still tilt sometimes even though I have played millions and millions of hands and made a lot of money playing this game.

But at a certain point you do have to find some ways to tame the tilt monster if you want to survive over the long run in this game.

Because quite frankly, the beats, the coolers and the suckouts are never going to end.

They are a part of the game which I like to refer to as a "tax" you need to pay in order to keep the bad players coming back to lose their money again and again.

Therefore, it is up to you to simply learn how to react to them better. Hopefully some of the anti-tilt tips in this article will help you out in your own games.

Lastly, if you want more specific anti-tilt tips and the strategies I use to make $1000+ per money consistently in poker, make sure you grab a copy of my free poker cheat sheet.

How did you learn to stop tilting? Let me know in the comments below.

How to Deal With Poker Downswings - What the Pros Do [2025]

Downswings and tilt are the most difficult part of the game of poker for most people. But in many ways they are also one of the most beautiful parts of the game. This is because they are the proving ground upon which winners and losers and separated.

A poker downswing is an extended period of time (from 1 week to several months) where you simply cannot win at poker due to bad luck. Downswings can last even longer than this in poker tournaments. Downswings eventually happen to everybody and they can often lead to tilt which can cause disastrous results at the poker table.

We spend so much of our time as poker players trying to keep up with the latest strategy advice and tactics and forget that the ability to keep our wits about us during the tough times is what will really benefit our win rate the most.

Many people think they have their tilt under control for the most part. They point to a guy who is open shoving or going crazy in the chat box. Now that is tilt they will say! True, it is. But what they don't realize is that there are many minor forms of tilt which are just as destructive in the long run.


Here are just a few of them:

• The bad call on the river when you know you are beat
• The hopeless feeling which makes you play less aggressively than you should
• The frustration triple barrel against a reg who you know "has it again"

Added all together these can have a very negative impact on your win rate as well. In fact often the damage can be equal or even more than the guy who has lost his mind tilt shoving because he will usually quit after he loses a few stacks.

Many people will continue to play for hours though with these minor forms of tilt which end up costing them just as much or more in the long run.

By the way, if you're new to poker and you just want to know exactly what hands to play, grab my free poker cheat sheet.

Memorize the charts. Stop guessing. Start winning.

A New Way of Looking at Downswings and Tilt

There is a different way of looking at downswings and tilt though which has helped me improve my reaction to them in recent years. But before I begin here let me be clear:

Everybody tilts to some degree.

As long as you are human you are going to get frustrated with this game to some extent at times. So I don't believe in the idea that we can ever "cure" our tilt. You have to accept it as a natural part of this game and as a part of who you are. My goal then has always been about minimizing it's impact on my results.

So what is this new way of looking at downswings and tilt? Well it isn't really a new way of thinking but I would say that it is not well known. All of the credit goes to the poker mental game theorist and coach Tommy Angelo.

Many years ago he created a video series called "The Eightfold Path to Poker Enlightenment" which as the title suggests is a sort of Buddhist take on the mental game. One idea that stuck out to me in particular, and consequently had a deep impact on how I view the entire game of poker (not just the mental game), is something that Tommy called "Reciprocality."

In his own words:

"In the world of reciprocality, it's not what you do that matters most, and it's not what they do. It's both. Reciprocality is any difference between you and your opponents that affects your bottom line. Reciprocality says that when you and your opponents would do the same thing in a given situation, no money moves, and when you do something different, it does."

You see, we all get frustrated with this game in the short run at times but there is a long term pure mathematical nature to poker which is the great equalizer.

That is, everybody will eventually get dealt all of the same hands (both good and bad) in equal frequencies. Therefore, everybody will eventually experience all of the same downswings and short term "bad luck." 

Nobody gets a free pass in this game.

So therefore, the only difference between me, you and the next guy is how each of us reacts to the adversity that we will face. If we all react the same then we will all get the same results.

But as Tommy would say, you are "mining for reciprocal gold" when you seek to make better decisions than your opponents in a particular situation. In the case of downswings and tilt, if you can handle them better than your opponents, then you will profit in the long run.

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I Will Handle Downswings and Tilt Better Than My Opponents Will

So building off of this idea I now take downswings, and the tilt that inevitably comes with them, as a personal challenge. Rather than take the "woe is me" attitude (or worse yet go complain about my bad luck to somebody else) I challenge myself to handle it better than my opponents will.

When I have one of those really bad days where absolutely nothing works and I lose stack after stack I think about how my fellow regs will handle this situation when it happens to them.

I know they won't handle it as well as me and I take pride in that.

This "reciprocal gold" that I create eventually shows up in my win rate. Every time I handle one of these bad days for instance better than my opponents, I separate myself from them and profit in the long run. How do I handle downswings and tilt better?

I do everything in my power to make sure that my losses are only those which I deem necessary. That is, they are situations where I think that I made the right play and the short term luck simply was not on my side.


In order to do this:

• I am constantly on the lookout for minor forms of tilt (such as those highlighted above) 
• I constantly remind myself that this game does not owe me anything, I have to work for the results that I want 
• I constantly remind myself that anything can happen in a day, a week or even a month
• I constantly remind myself that I have seen far, far worse than this before
• I constantly remind myself that I am a long term winner bringing up graphs if necessary
• I will practice breathing exercises while playing to keep my mind calm and focused
• I will take short breaks to regain my composure and think logically about the situation if necessary
• I will quit altogether for the day if I believe that tilt (major or minor) is affecting my decision making in any significant way

I am confident that most of my opponents at the micros are not doing all of these things.

I know that each time I quit when most regs would have lost another stack or two because of tilt, I win. I know that each time I remain focused and play a hand optimally when another reg would have lost value or failed to get away, I win.

More importantly than anything though, I know that this is a long term game and no matter how hard this day, week or month has been, all of my opponents are eventually going to have to go through the exact same thing.

I know they won't handle it as well as I will. Therefore, I win.

This is something that I discuss in much more detail in the "going pro" chapters of my latest poker book, The Micro Stakes Playbook.

I credit reacting better to adversity in poker as one of the main reasons why I have been able to play poker for a living for over 10 years now.

By the way, if you just want to learn my simple no BS system for exactly what hands to play, when to bet, raise and bluff, I cover this all in my brand new training program, Play Fearless Poker.

Memorize the charts. Stop guessing. Start winning.

My new Play Fearless Poker training program includes 12+ hours of advanced poker lessons, 100+ step by step example hands and "cheat sheets" below every single video.

If you're serious about taking your poker game to the next level, enroll today.

Enroll in Play Fearless Poker

Get $100 OFF Use Code: 100OFF

Poker Downswings are a Blessing in Disguise

So I believe that if you choose to look at downswings and tilt as an opportunity to "one up" your opponents as I do, then you could conceivably even start viewing them as a blessing.

Dealing with the kind of adversity that poker can bring (especially online poker where the beats and coolers can come at super-sonic speed) is something that most people at the micros in particular are terrible at.

And there are no easy answers out there because this is the mental part of the game. There are no mathematical calculations, odds or software tools to help solve this problem. There is no clearly defined +EV line to take.

So therefore, it is during these times when you are facing the most adversity in this game that you can mine the most reciprocal gold. This is when you can truly separate yourself from the masses.

Almost everybody at the micros knows how to play their aces these days. Most people know how to value-bet a set.

Many even know how to get away from an over pair when it is obvious that their opponent has them beat. But very few people at these stakes are good at dealing with a really bad day, week or month at the tables.

You need only look at all of the endless complaining in places like poker forums and the like. You have people literally writing novels about their bad luck!

It is as if they think that all of their bitching and moaning (which nobody cares about) will somehow change the mathematical certainty that they will run bad in this game sometimes. This is the kind of truly bizarre behavior which this game can drive some people to.

And this is why I think that you should actually celebrate short term bad luck and downswings when they occur.

Next time your aces get cracked 3 times in a row try jumping for joy instead. Go ahead and pop a bottle of champagne if you want!

The reason why is that many of your opponents will react very poorly when something completely routine like this happens to them. So this is actually your time to shine!

This is your opportunity to distance yourself in a big way from most players at the micros.

For more on this check out Phil Ivey's brand new poker training course.

He talks about how his darkest times and biggest losing streaks in poker actually taught him to become the world class player he is today.

Conclusion

I have often believed that poker is simply a microcosm of life. That is, many of the lessons that we learn (or do not learn) in this game are mirrored in our regular lives.

This is definitely one of the biggest lessons I have learned in this game through my 10+ years as a professional poker player.

We all face setbacks in our day to day lives such as getting laid off from a job, going through a divorce or a major illness. We also face much more minor stuff like a screaming baby on the subway, stubbing your toe or rain on your vacation.

The only difference between us though is how we react to these situations. Some people see these things as merely small obstacles or even opportunities to grow. Many other people though view them as debilitating disasters that end up ruining their day, week, year or even life.

Poker is a highly emotional game filled with ego. We all want to win. And it is this competitive fire that drives the best poker players forward on the technical side of the game. But success on the mental side of the game requires a lot of the opposite reactions.

We need to take a more serene, detached and objective viewpoint. The ability to "let it go and move on" and keep getting up after you have been knocked down are the hallmarks of success in this facet of the game.

The best way that I have ever found to flip this switch is through the simple understanding that everybody else will eventually go through the exact same situations as me in this game. No matter how bad things get I know that all of my opponents will have to deal with this some day too.

I take a deep breath and smile because once again: I know that they will not handle it as well as I will.

Lastly, if you want to learn how to start consistently making $1000+ per month in low stakes games, make sure you grab a copy of my free poker cheat sheet.


Let me know in the comments below what you think of looking at downswings and tilt in the manner. Do you agree with it? Is there a better way?

How to Stop Tilting at the Micro Stakes [2025]

The 8 million pound elephant in the room when it comes to poker, and especially with less experienced players at the micros, is tilt.

It's something that everybody talks about and suffers the effects of to some degree, but hardly anybody really knows how to go about dealing with it in a truly effective way.

I have worked with over 50 people now in the year and a bit since I started coaching. I get every student of mine to fill out a short questionnaire before we get started and one of the questions that I ask is "list your weaknesses as a poker player."

After briefly skimming over the answers to that specific question from all past students I would estimate that about 90% of them listed tilt as a weakness. And not just any weakness. Almost invariably they listed it first before anything else!

Now I am not a psychologist. I can teach the technical side of the game and when I work with people "what to do with AK in this spot" type discussions comprise the vast majority of our time.

I wrote a 251 page poker book on the micros but there is a reason that only 6 pages at the very end actually focus specifically on how to combat tilt. I haven't made a single DragTheBar video focused solely on this subject and have scarcely discussed it in detail on this blog.

Tilt is just such a difficult subject to approach. And that is reflected in the amount of literature, training videos, and forum talk on it. So it's not just me. 

But managing tilt is at least have the battle in this game! In fact it is closer to 100% for many people especially at the micros. So I am going to try and talk about it in a bit more detail over the next little while starting with this article.

By the way, if you're new to poker and you just want to know exactly what hands to play, grab my free poker cheat sheet.

Memorize the charts. Stop guessing. Start winning.

Everybody Tilts and Everybody Runs Worse Than Everybody Else

The truth is that nobody is tilt-free in poker. As long you are human you are going to tilt. So the main issue here is controlling the extent to which you tilt. And that is where there is a wide gap between the winners, breakeven players and losers in this game. I have tilted off god knows how many thousands of dollars in my poker career.

I would like to have that money back but my emotions at the time chose to give it away instead. Poker is a game that will drive anybody mad at certain times. Just give it some more time if you haven't seen it yet or even if you think you have. Here is an example of a very experienced, solid winning player going through a 3 month soulcrushing downswing right now at NL50 and NL25. Fun stuff!

I get emails all the time from people complaining about all the bad beats and coolers that they get and that if it would just stop they could finally become the winning player that they know they are. They tell me that they must be the unluckiest person in the history of the game. And they ask me if I have ever heard of a run of cards this bad before.

No, in the 6 million+ hands that I have played it has all been roses and daisies! I have received so many of these types of emails now that I actually just created a canned reply, "bad beats happen, coolers happen, the best players rise above them blah blah blah" so I don't end up wasting so much time responding to them anymore.

I am always reminded of one of my favorite poker quotes of all time from an extremely old post by "Irieguy" on 2+2.

"Everybody will eventually run worse than they thought was possible. The difference between a winner and a loser is that the latter thinks they do not deserve it." 

For the vast majority of newer players who think they run bad one or both of the following two statements is very likely to be true:

• You haven't run nearly as bad as you think
• Even if you have, you ain't seen nothing yet!

By the way, if you just want to learn my simple no BS system for exactly what hands to play, when to bet, raise and bluff, I cover this all in my brand new training program, Play Fearless Poker.

Memorize the charts. Stop guessing. Start winning.

My new Play Fearless Poker training program includes 12+ hours of advanced poker lessons, 100+ step by step example hands and "cheat sheets" below every single video.

If you're serious about taking your poker game to the next level, enroll today.

Enroll in Play Fearless Poker

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Predict the Future

The thing is, you just have to accept variance at some point. When you start taking this game seriously you need to look at it as if you signed a contract. You are in it for the long haul. And the long haul in theory is whatever amount of time you continue to play this game for. For many that will be years, decades or even a lifetime. The long term is actually over at that point, not before it.

If you play a reasonable amount of volume you know full well that you are going to get horrifically bad beat and coolered every single day. Back when I used to grind like a maniac I would actually prepare myself mentally for sessions by simply quantifying this. I would assure myself that today I will run KK into AA 3 or 4 times.

I will get stacked by two outers a similar amount of times and fish will nail their flush or straight draws on me at least half a dozen times. Also I will stupidly pay off a nit or two which actually tilts me more than anything!

All of these things are going to happen. Predict the future. You will be right! So why get mad about it when it happens? You knew it was going to happen right?

All Sounds Easy in Theory

Yup, sure does. It is easy in theory but nobody executes it perfectly in real time. I can say all these things to myself before my session begins and even foresee it all. Nostradamusaments. But I still tilt to some degree and throw away some money nearly every time that I play. It is just not possible to not get mad at least a little bit.

But I would say that I have had my tilt under control for the most part for quite some time now. When I tilt, it is more like mini tilt. A bad call here or there. I might play a few more hands than I should, 3bet a little bit more, make a silly 4bet bluff from time to time and double barrel in some bad spots.

In essence I make small mistakes here and there but am able to prevent myself from making the crippling mistakes that hold so many back. Barreling off stacks on wild bluffs is not something that I do. Making desperate hero calls in big pots with marginal hands is really rare. Open shoving, nope. Jumping stakes, definitely no.

Quitting for the day, shutting the computer off and going to do something completely different when I know that I am just banging my head against a wall...yes, most of the time.

But I am pretty stubborn as well so sometimes I will just power through 10k hands playing my C+ game trying to break it as well. Usually to no avail but the key thing is that my D, E or F games never see the light of day no matter how tilted I am. I am always at least marginally +EV.

How to Stop Tilting at the Micros - Have Confidence in Your Poker Skills

Firstly, I know that I am a winning player because I have clear evidence of my success. And let me preface that some more. I know that I am a winning player in the games that I play in which are the micros NL2-NL50, nothing else.

I have overwhelming evidence based on millions of hands to support this. So no matter how bad it goes in the short term, I know that I will show a profit in the long run. This creates confidence, the most powerful force on earth in my opinion, no matter what the endeavor.

What if you don't know if you are a winning player though? What if you just started a few months or even a year ago, are a fairly low volume player and your results are no better than breakeven or worse? Well this is a problem of course, a big one in fact. I think this is something that only you can know based off of your experience playing the game.

Do you honestly feel like you are a winner in that game? And don't bullshit yourself by chalking it all up to bad beats. Are you actually a winner in that game? Unfortunately the only way to find out for sure is to put in the hands. I would suggest 100k at a bare minimum. They don't all have to be at the same limit though.

Trust the Process

Secondly, and as a result of the previous point, I trust the process. I know that the fundamentals that I have developed over the years and the tweaks that I continue to make to my game both at the tables and away from them simply work. When a fish sucks out on me I think about how I made money on that play even though I lost in this specific case.

I know that mathematically he is giving me money if we run this exact same scenario 10, 50 or 100 times. And the great thing about the long term in poker is that you get to do exactly that! And maybe not against that specific player but against the collective multitude of bad players, you will. I will have a lot more to say about this next time when I discuss not putting a face to your opponents.

Math (even though I am not very good at it) is a beautiful thing. I remember sitting through philosophy lectures in college and the prof would be rattling on about how 2+2 always equals 4 in any conceivable universe. It is an a priori truth.

That is, it is true regardless of any physical factors. And so it is the same with math as it relates to poker. If the guy got it in bad versus you and happened to win this time so what? No amount of voodoo or wishful thinking can change the fact that he is simply giving you money over the long run. That is the reality of the situation.

Bankroll?

A lot of people say that having a big bankroll is key to fighting tilt as well. I am not sure that it matters as much as it used to though. I think proper bankroll management is kind of a given these days. I think at the micros downswings by winning players (6max or FR) above 30 buyins are pretty rare. Most people who play for a living or are serious side income grinders all have more than this and get pumped up by rakeback anyways so it is not that big of an issue. If you have been living under a rock or think that 5 buyins represents a solid bankroll strategy then this will apply to you though.

Rigged? Lifestyle Choices and State of Mind?

Obviously everything that I have discussed above assumes that you are past rigtard theories. Also, I don't really want to discuss lifestyle choices and state of mind when playing either because I have also discussed all of that before. Online poker is not rigged and you should never play drunk, tired, angry etc. Eating right and regular exercise will also go a long way.

I think most professionals and serious side income grinders know this kind of stuff these days. You can't just show up and expect to crush anymore. If you want to have success and make good money at online poker then you have to have a solid commitment to it both away from and at the tables.

Next time I am going to discuss some of the key factors that can lead to tilt such as personal entitlement and ego especially as it relates to your opponents. But for now I just wanted to lay the groundwork for how we should approach tilt in general.

First, recognize that it is a problem that everybody faces and a massive one at that. You are not alone. Second, having confidence in your own abilities and trusting the long term process that poker is will be paramount in any tilt reduction strategy.

Lastly, if you want to know how I became a poker pro traveling the world, make sure you grab a copy of my free poker cheat sheet.

Over to You

What kinds of strategies do you use to keep yourself in a positive state of mind and reduce your tilt? How big of a factor do you think tilt plays in your game?

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How To Deal With Tilt

I had a good question in the comment section section yesterday that I will just answer here. The question:

I have a question for you, if you have the time. In one of your earliest posts you stated the following: "Fuck this game. It makes no sense at all lol. How the hell is it not rigged, seriously? "

I'm wondering how you got past this point? I find myself constantly tilting, thinking this game is rigged, PS is rigged, guys like you have a 'boomswitch' account, etc... I've wanted to give up so many damn times! I just can't see how the suckouts and bad beats can happen so damn often when it's just 2 players in a hand.

Any secret to how you got past that statement? Did you read more, watch videos, fold more, meditate, witchcraft, voodoo? Anything?

To answer your question. Yes I did say that. And honestly, I think that statement in my head just about everyday at some point. I just don't rant about it here anymore or at least try not to. Nobody likes bad beat stories. With the amount of hands I put in, the insane shit I see on a daily basis is just impossible to understand at times. I bring bad news however. There is no magic formula to overcome this.

Everybody seems to complain about how bad they run these days. You've all heard the stories of aces getting cracked 3 times in a row, that fish hit his flush draw on the river yet again etc etc. There are so many unlucky people out there! But how can that be? Somebody must be running good right?

Online poker sites have been around for 10 years in some cases. Pokerstars alone has dealt 60 billion hands...I just checked. Each of those hands has a raw hand history file that you can request from them at any time. Surely somebody would have found the rigging by now right?

The problem lies in the human brain. There is nothing rigged going on. We just cannot compute the short term craziness. We expect things to always be somewhat "normal" or close to probability. When the truth is, that sometimes it will be off by a wide margin and for a long time. And this is completely normal. Its just part of the random chain of events.

If you have some time to blow try flipping a quarter a bunch of times and write down the results as you go. I did this once. I flipped it 250 times. I believe I had 3 separate instances where it came heads or tails 6-8 times in a row. Crazy stuff happens. And it only gets crazier as you increase the sample size.

If I really had a lot of time on my hands and flipped the coin 1000, 10000, 100000 times in a row I could probably expect to find instances where it came heads or tails, 10, 20 or even 30 times in a row! How many poker hands have you played again? I think you can see where I am going with this.

We also tend to overestimate our abilities a lot. This happens more in poker than almost any other area. There is so much ego involved. And ultimately this is a big reason why it is so profitable. People constantly have their blinders on. Its not my fault. Look at him. He just runs good. I am just unlucky. When we succeed we tend to attribute our successes to some talent or ability of ours. But when we fail, we prefer to blame it on some outside force. This is called the self serving bias.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-serving_bias

This has gotten fairly longwinded at this point. Basically the only thing you can do is try to lessen the impact of tilt. Everyone is gonna tilt due to short term crazy runs of cards mixed in with feelings that they are cursed etc due to the self serving bias. As long as you are human, you are going to tilt.

But the best players finds ways to minimize it. Some of the ways to control it may be genetic. That is, some people are able to control their emotions more easily than others. But some of the ways can be learned to a certain degree as well, such as constantly reinforcing the rational arguments above. But there are also a whole host of ways to prevent tilt that you can work on away from the table, or before you sit down, that are available for everyone.

Some of these are not playing when tired, angry, hungry or drunk. Only play when you have a fresh mind and there are no distractions. Always remember that the games run 24/7 and you never have to play.

There are going to be disaster sessions every once in awhile. You need to develop the ability to instantly close all tables and just go take a walk. You simply have to have the ability to not chase losses at higher limits. Its gotta be like committing some horrible crime. You are just not going to do it...ever.

Get better. Be humble and approach the game as though you are going to learn something new each day. The guy who thinks he is already the greatest and never studies will get left behind. Be the guy who is always improving his game and thus his winrate. Bigger winrate = more winning sessions/days/weeks/months/years. Bad beats and coolers are easier to handle because they are cutting into your profits more than creating losses for you.

Lastly, living a healthy lifestyle is crucial for me. Solid diet, regular exercise and good sleep. Simple breathing exercises, or meditating from time to time can also work wonders. You can ever do this while you are playing!. Try it sometime.