I Got Your Tilt Right Here Buddy
By C.L. Hen So
Cards go flying, chips stacks tumble over, someone keeps yelling donkey and everyone’s game play is being critiqued by the losing player. Swearing Sam had pocket Aces and they just lost to George’s pocket Queens. I am now in a unique position based on my hours at the table. I have the knowledge to view Sam’s tilt behavior as an opportunity for me to strike. Sam’s new mission is self destruction and he is committed to his own down fall. Two hands from now Sam will have given all his remaining chips away and will soon be slamming the door on his way out. Swearing Sam just found his tilt factor through entitlement.
It happens when Aces get cracked, Ace King doesn’t pair and when Calling Cletus hits his river card. The player felt like their hand was the best and they were entitled to win. The simple fact of life is that we are entitled to nothing. You may go in with the best of things and come out the worst. Those that can’t handle this fact of life will continuously go on tilt and generally leave the table very unhappy. Now the player, who feels shunned by the gods start to say things like “How can you call with that”, “I cant believe you played that” and several references to the winner being a mule used to haul goods. The goal is to view these questions in an optimistic light and use the players against themselves while avoiding tilt. Let us journey down a profitable poker road where tilt is just an exit that we never get off on.
We will become the tilted player and attempt to exclude or limit tilt in our game. This doesn’t happen overnight. I will be the first to admit that no one is immune from getting a little rattled at the table. No one understood why I stood up from the table after a big beat and simply told them to fold my hands until I come back. They thought I was crazy; after all they didn’t come to just watch their cards folded without looking at them. Well that wasn’t my original plan either but I was in full tilt mode and would have knocked myself out of the game if I hand continued without a breather. In my first dealing with tilting it was the only weapon in my arsenal and it saved me a few times from the destruction spiral. I soon realized that although this was a good coping strategy, I knew that this was not preventing tilt and I needed to change my strategy. I needed to take a proactive approach instead of a reactive.
Anyone that has a Swearing Sam in their group has heard the comments more time that they care to. “How could you?” and/or “Why would you? I start to ask myself the same questions. Then I thought of a new question; “How could I have played that differently to become the winner?” So I take the simplest approach and just ask them. Confusion and frustration comes from a lack of knowledge. Let’s make the attempt to bridge the knowledge gap with simple questions. Ask the player; “Would you have folded if I had raised bigger on the flop?”. You can gain a lot of information by asking people how they would react in certain situations. You may even get some interesting and unexpected responses such as “I would have folded to a bet on that flop but once you check it I figured my hand was good”. Now you have an additional tactic to employ against them and they are giving you insight on how to defeat them. You are also taking your mind of the hand which will slowly start to calm you down.
General MacArthur said in a speech, “The core, the core, the core”. At the poker table we are all generals. The chips are our armies; the table the battle field and the power struggle begins. This is war in its basic form. General Hen So has his own motto, “The odds, the odds, the odds”. This may be used in actual poker strategy as well but for I am specifically using this motto as a method of tilt avoidance. You are the general and you command the troops. Never leave a man behind and a chip that falls for knowledge is a chip that did not fall in vain.
Focusing on the motto along with Sam’s questions we can begin to form a new thought process. The next stage is to consider your poker career as a time line. On a big enough time line the player that has the favorable odds will emerge the victory more time than not. This is just the mathematical fact of the world. Poker games must be viewed as individual sessions and judged accordingly. The only way to take losing sessions in stride is to focus on the timeline. Now you’re probably saying, “C.L. this has nothing to do with tilt”. My friend and competitor, this has everything to do with tilting and our new strategy of tilt avoidance.
Now you are getting into pots with favorable odds and the other players are paying you on your big hands. Everything is going to your plan and you are on top of the world. Then it happens. They got lucky. Your Aces cracked. Your Ace King turned into nothing. They called your raise with nothing and hit their cards. Your plans are ruined, your stack diminished and you can feel the tilt coming on in full swing. You have to regain your composure quickly to continue your game. I heard once that if you close your eyes and take deep breathes then you will calm down. The problem is that every time you close your eyes all you see is Lucky Larry raking the pot away from you. Some how you know the only thing that will make you feel better is to knock Larry out of the game.
All of the sudden you remember you strategy; tilt avoidance. Your vision starts to clear, and for a moment the felt actually looks greener. You can feel the tilt going away and the next hand begins fresh and your back on track. How? It happen because you thought of the motto and the time line. It started when you asked them a question. “Would you have folded if….” You gained some knowledge, you know you had the odds and you know you will win more time than not over your time line.
Now we are going to flip Sam’s question and use it against whoever almost put you on tilt. Attempt to view the question from a positive approach. They called with the worst and came out the winner. You asked the questions to avoid it again but that’s not enough. Let’s combine the motto and the time line. When player go in with a draw against your made hand they will lose more than win. This is your motto-timeline combination. You know that they will pay your more often than not so you can take a new outlook on the beat. “Keep playing like that and you will pay me off”. Miracles will happen on the river. Runner Runner will send you to the rails once and a while but that’s not important. Our eye is on the prize and focus is never swayed. We will never go on tilt and our clear head will prevail. We are armed with the time line and the motto. Good luck and hope to see you at the tables.
Best Regards
