I know that a large part of poker is ensuring that you are in the right mindframe to be playing poker. Don't play tired, don't play upset, don't play distracted etc etc. What I was wondering is how people recognize when their mindframe changes to that of one that is not conducive to playing good poker. Now bad beats dont bother me the way that they used to and often I play mutliple tables so I dont always pay attention to them as much. But after multiple bad beats (like the other day I had AA cracked twice in the matter of 5 min with all in pots by hands that should not even be played let alone reraised preflop, and then several other bad beats on the river) sometimes I do feel myself tilting. But IMO I feel that I have differing levels of tilting. One that I have been able to recognize is I start telling myself that I can make that BI back and I set that as a goal before i end the session. I have also come to realize that as soon as these thoughts enter my mind I immediately walk away from my computer. Other times I will just play a couple of hands aggressively and I can get the tilt out of my system and resume proper play. I have slowly begun to recognize specific indicators within myself to prevent downswings due to tilt (tilt being any irrational play due to emotion).
I guess what I am getting at is what do other people recognize as indicators that they are on tilt or it is time to take a break? Thougts that they have (mindframe), getting ansty, verbally berrating your computer screen, chasing your cat under the table cause it looked at your plants the wrong way.....any input would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
