Breaking Down the Seven Types of Tilt

Introduction

In this article

What factors can trigger tilt
Why should you attack tilt at the roots
How can you work on your tilt problem

Defining tilt as being caused only by anger begs for an in-depth analysis of the different ways anger manifests itself in poker. All anger is not created equal. In fact, during my 4 years of coaching poker players, I’ve found seven unique types of anger and each is resolved using a different approach.

When the advice I gave wasn’t specific enough, clients saw limited progress and ultimately did not solve their tilt problem. Consequently, they will have to constantly focus on managing tilt, rather than on the subtle details of the action necessary to make the best decisions. The goal is to resolve your tilt problem, which means that a trigger, say a fish sucking out on you, no longer causes anger. At that point, there’s no more tilt to manage, and the mind is freed up to focus on playing.

Effectively resolving, or solving, a tilt problem, means correcting the root cause of it. The simplest way of doing this begins with breaking down anger into smaller parts; hence the reason for defining seven different types of tilt. This makes tilt easier to analyze, making it easier to prescribe the specific advice needed to solve the root cause of the problem. Failing to solve the problem at the root means that, much like a weed not pulled out by its roots, your tilt problem will just keep coming back again and again.

In The Mental Game of Poker, I break down the seven types of tilt into even more specific parts than I do here for the same reason: it’s easier to analyze the root problem and thus easier to prescribe specific advice. As the idea that tilt can be broken down this way may be new to many of you, consider this article an overview of the seven types of tilt, along with a few ideas how to begin correcting each one. There are overlaps among the seven types, like a Venn Diagram, to ensure the most important root causes of anger are covered.

Running bad tilt

The first type of tilt is so common that players often think it’s a natural part of the game. As though getting angry because of a streak of bad luck is written into the rules of poker.

Running bad tilt is not actually a unique type of tilt. The most common reasons players tilt when running bad is because lots of other types of tilt happen in a short period of time and the mind can’t handle it. You’re not happy about losing a big pot against a fish while running hot, but you’re also not tilting. Lose three in one session after 5 consecutive losing sessions, and you’re steaming. Tilt starts small and builds up, day after day, bad beat after bad beat. Each day you come back with residual anger lingering from the day before. That means you’ll tilt faster because less tilt inducing factors are needed to get you steaming.

While a streak of bad cards seems unlucky, it can be very helpful for identifying the offending types of tilt in your game. All that’s required is some analysis of your thoughts:

“This isn’t fair, I should be running normal, I never win a flip!” = injustice tilt
“How is it possible to lose like this again!” = hate losing tilt
“I knew that! Dammit, how can I play so bad?!” = mistake tilt
“I’m too good a player for this to happen. How can I keep losing to this donkey?” = entitlement tilt
“I’m gonna 3-bet this idiot; who the f*&% does he think he is!? F*&% you I shove.” = revenge tilt
“I’ll stay here for a f*&%ing week until I win if I have to!” = desperation tilt

In order to reduce, or even eliminate tilt during a bad run, use the strategy I presented in the previous article on the offending type(s) of tilt.

Injustice tilt

Ever feel like you’re not getting your fair share of luck? As if you’re always getting screwed? Does jealousy of others who are running better than you consume your thoughts? Is a bad beat, cooler or suck-out worse when it happens against a fish or during a long, break-even stretch? Do you ever wish poker didn’t have variance, even though you know variance is what makes poker profitable?

As the name suggests, this type of tilt is about what you believe is fair, equitable and right. This type of tilt happens when you feel as if you’re not getting what you believe is fair and/or when you see less deserving players getting more than they deserve. Watching a fish or other regulars at your limit run hot while you’re losing can be infuriating. Afterwards you may wonder when it’s going to be your turn to run like that. The longer you go without winning, the more intense your anger and the harder it is to comprehend how sickening variance can be.

Logically you know the realities of variance in poker mean that streaks like this happen, that knowledge isn’t enough to stop you from tilting (which can be tilting in itself—“the tilt of tilt”). The reason that knowledge isn’t enough is because deep down, you didn’t think it could be this bad, didn’t think it applied to you and/or want poker to be fair.

Poker doesn’t care what you think is fair and harboring wishes that poker didn’t have variance or that you could somehow control the cards, means you aren’t completely dealing with the reality of the game. One of the major reasons that injustice tilt develops is because players are terrible at spotting good variance. Consequently, bad luck appears to happen more, but this is a perceptual error caused by ignoring good variance. Bad luck is believed not to happen to that degree—one example of denying the reality of variance that causes tilt.

One solution: study variance. Improve your ability to see both positive and negative variance in real time. Identify your faulty beliefs about variance and train the corrections by injecting logic (see the previous article). While there are a ton of instructions on how to play poker, there is only a tiny amount out there about understanding one of the most basic components in poker. With significantly less skill at truly understanding variance than at actually playing the game, tilt is much more likely to be a problem.

Hate losing tilt

Being competitive and wanting to win is a great trait to have in all sports and games and especially poker. All elite players share this trait and I want to make it clear: my advice is not to get rid of this trait, it’s to redirect it.

The cause of this type of tilt is losing, because competitive players hate to lose. The problem poker players face is there’s no other competitive environment where the stronger player loses at a higher frequency to inferior competition. A golfer with a 20 handicap will never beat Tiger Woods, no matter how many lucky bounces occur during their round. In poker, weaker players win every day. For highly competitive people, this kind of losing is hard to take, partly because of the feeling of losing. Losing can make you feel worse about your game, further from your goals, like a failure and as if losing will never end.

By equating poker to other games or sports, your ability to define winning in poker is flawed. In the long-term, money or titles are the ultimate measures of a player’s success. However, some players will never reach their potential, because they get too caught up by using money or results as the measure of success in the short-term. They’re unreliable and you know it. That doesn’t mean you should de-sensitize yourself to results, instead, focus your competitive drive on factors that you can control in the shorter term. Here are six of the most important ones:

Your actual skill in the game
Emotional control
The work you put in away from the table
Your ability to identify your actual skill in the game
Your ability to recognize your opponents’ skill
Your ability to recognize variance

Focusing on the factors you can control means you’ll be in greater control of your game, mentally and tactically. That means, regardless of the short-term results, you’ll have a measuring stick for success that is reliable and you’re far more likely to play better in the short-term.

Wanting to win is not a problem. The problem is how you define winning in the short-term which makes dealing with inevitable losses so hard to handle.

Mistake tilt

If you aren’t making mistakes it’s because you’ve already mastered the correct way to play. Mistakes are part of the learning process, but making them at the table can be infuriating, especially at particularly costly times. The fury that follows a stupid play isn’t entirely a bad thing, provided it motivates you to work hard off the table to correct it. However, that doesn’t always happen and worse, the anger that follows a mistake often leads to more mistakes in that session or tournament.

Of all the types of tilt, mistake tilt is the most obscure. Only a handful of clients knew before our first session that they were struggling with this type of tilt, yet around half of them had it. This means many of you aren’t aware of the impact mistakes at the table have on your mental state. Look more closely at how you react during your sessions and if you find anger, ask yourself why the mistake(s) caused it. Here are some common examples:

“It’s such a waste of money and it’s going to take a long time to make up for it.”
“It’s inexcusable to make such obvious mistakes. I should have known better.”
“It feels like I’ve taken a huge step backwards. I failed.”

At the core of mistake tilt are fundamental errors in your understanding of the learning process and the nature of performance. In reality, if you make a mistake, you simply have not mastered the correct way to play. If that mistake makes you feel like you’re not as good a player as you thought, that’s correct: you’re not.

All players have a range in their ability; call it C-game to A-game. When basic mistakes happen, they happen because they are still part of your range. There are some mistakes that you would NEVER ever make again, because you’ve mastered the correct way to play. They are no longer part of your range. Everything else is still in the process of being mastered. Until that point, don’t be surprised if they happen and instead, do everything you can not to make them.

I advise analyzing the current range in your game, from your absolute worst to your absolute best, (to be clear, I only mean tactically – not mentally – although the same principles apply mentally too). Doing this helps you realize what to expect from your game and what to be improve on each time you play. Then, once you’ve proven (consistently and under pressure) that a mistake is no longer part of your range, you can focus on the next set of mistakes in your game. Remember, as long as you’re improving, you’ll always have weaknesses to correct.

Entitlement tilt

At the root of entitlement tilt is overconfidence. A belief that you have the right to win for reasons that you’ve defined yourself, such as being smarter, better or working harder. Entitlement tilt used to be classic Phil Hellmuth tilt, because he believed that his previous accomplishments earned him the right to win—but Phil was a different player at this year’s WSOP, so I have to give him credit for correcting this problem.

The players who struggle with this type of tilt have a feeling that winning is something that is rightfully theirs. When losing, it’s as though they’ve been robbed. When losing to someone particularly undeserving, like a major fish, tilt happens almost instantly. Then, thoughts or statements such as these usually follow:

“This guy sucks. How can I possibly lose to him!?”
“I’m too good to allow that to happen.”
“I work harder, I’m better, so how the f%#@ can I be losing here!?”

Reading those statements out of context may give you the impression that entitlement tilt only happens to players with really big egos. That’s not true. Many players that you wouldn’t expectto react to losing this way. The reason is that it can happen by simply getting too caught up in good runs of cards. As a result, they start to overestimate their real skill in the game and believe they’re in more control of the outcome than they are. This sets the stage for tilt and, inevitably, losing. Thus, one of the easiest ways to prevent this type of tilt is to avoid over-confidence during a great run of cards. Doing so can be hard but not only will you play better when losing, you’ll play better when winning too.

Revenge tilt

Picture a scene from the movie Scarface, where Tony Montana get’s that crazy look in his eye. Revenge in poker is not very different from this (minus the methods of exacting revenge). An intense focus on the player who crossed you consumes your mind and getting your money back, humiliating them, or making them feel your pain become your only goals.

Revenge tilt is most common in HU play because the nature of the game is much more personal. Consequently, there may be bad blood between you and a lot of players. Just hearing a name can cause anger—even if you’re not playing!

There are many reasons to seek revenge: being disrespected, constant aggressive action, someone thinking they’re better than you, beating you, or getting lucky against you. However, the great irony of revenge tilt is that while your anger is an attempt to gain the upper hand, or control, the way you go about doing it proves you’re actually in less control. By getting angry and making poor decisions tactically or which games to sit in, you’re losing command of your game, not gaining it.

Instead of losing control, use that anger to fuel you to play as well as you possibly can. Getting real vengence isn’t going to happen any other way. Take a leaf from Michael Jordan’s book. He was a master at using disrespect from other people as motivation to win the only way he could—on the court.

Desperation tilt

Desperation is a feeling that can be hard to recognize until you analyze the intent behind actions such as: trying to get unstuck, chasing losses, playing outside your bankroll, playing any two, constant 3-betting, forcing the action, jumping up in stakes, and playing monster long sessions. These actions alone don’t mean that you’re tilting because there are other reasons they can happen. What distinguishes desperation tilt is that the urge to win RIGHT NOW is so strong that you’ll do almost anything to win or get even.

The real cause of desperation tilt is what I call “accumulated tilt.” Accumulated tilt is anger that has built up over time and is stored in the brain. It’s the reason why something as simple as a bad beat can cause you to totally lose control. The anger triggered by one bad beat is small, but it also triggers a reservoir of stored emotion that has accumulated over time. The intensity of all that anger instantly takes over your mind and you do things that afterwards that you know full well are -EV. But in that moment, the urge to win is so strong that nothing else matters.

Desperation tilt has busted many solid players from the game. To avoid becoming a casualty, you must follow these steps with sense of urgency, as though your poker life depends on it:

Write out your pattern of tilt, and study it, so you can recognize when it’s happening and take immediate action
Implement a strict stop/loss approach
Use a timer to take regular breaks
Take aggressive action towards any small signs of tilt
Work hard to keep playing well at times when you typically wouldn’t (inject logic)
Work off the table to reduce “accumulated tilt”
Shift from being results-oriented to focusing more on skill/playing well

Conclusion

If you want to solve your tilt problem, you need to know precisely what’s causing it. Being specific about tatical mistakes made in your poker game is something that you already do well, now it’s time to do the same with tilt. Use the advice in this article to firstly identify the type(s) of tilt you struggle with, then along with the information from my previous articles, you can begin making improvements. As always, if you need help, I’m available in the forum to answer questions and help you to break down and solve your tilt problem.

Jared Tendler, MS has a master’s degree in counseling psychology and is poker's leading expert in the mental game. He coaches some of the top players in poker and over a 180 pros from around the world. Jared's groundbreaking new book,"The Mental Game of Poker” is now available at www.mentalgameofpoker.com. PokerStrategy members save 10% by entering code: 2421