The
most feared thing for a poker
player is or should be ‘tilting.’ Tilting
occurs to every poker player
and generally happens regardless
of that player’s skills
or abilities at some point
in their poker careers. For
those unfamiliar with the
term, tilting is when a player
loses focus and control over
their game play and usually
occurs after a bad beat or
in other words after they
make either a bad call or
just lose a big hand.
As anyone
can imagine in a tournament
or a table top game the loss
of a big hand can have huge
psychological repercussions
and the one we shall divulge
in here is tilting. Some players
are more susceptible and some
are less and still others
may never let on that they
are but if you can recognize
the change in their bet patterns
or their demeanour then you
can capitalize on the situation.
As
bad as it maybe to say the
truth is when other players
at your table go on tilt it
is nearly always to your advantage.
Tilting characteristically
is the loss of focus and control
a player has over a game and
when a player goes on tilt
they usually start to throw
their chips or money away.
Quite literally they begin
to make bad calls and chase
other players out of sheer
frustration. It is never great
to see a player on tilt but
the fact remains for you that
if others are on tilt it means
more cash for you. There are
two types of people that are
likely to go on tilt and both
are usually new poker players.
The first type is those players
that are just in general new
and don’t
have the control that more
experienced players will have
over themselves. More experienced
players can keep their emotions
in check and will understand
that bad beats happen and
that there isn’t anything
you can do about it, even
if you make the right call
you can still lose. Every
player needs to understand
this and recognize it as a
way of poker life. The best
thing any player can do is
when they feel themselves
going on tilt to just stop
and realize that playing poker
emotionally is just asking
to toss money out the window.
The second type of player
is the result of another mistake
many new players make, and
that is to play with money
that they either can’t
afford to lose or that is
out of the range of their
bank account. Well setup bankrolls
help players deal with losing
a lot of money, but no player
should be playing with money
that they cannot afford to
lose. Whether or not they
can afford to play in the
games that a player may be
in, losing always will have
some unwanted psychological
backlash and everyone needs
to deal with it in their own
way.
Your goal as a poker player
is to not let that affect
your game, and if you can
recognize these emotions remember
that it will affect your game
play; perhaps in the end its
better to just get up from
the table and cool off. |
