No tilt part 1

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No Tilt part 1

from MiiWiin

Basically, everyone knows but disavows it: Tilt is a big
problem for most poker players and has ruined many possible
higher limit careers before they even got to that stage. Today we want to go through the
possibilities of precluding this phenomenon in a practical way.

I want to deal with this topic in two articles. In this first article we are going to talk about the origin, the problems and mode of action
of tilt. You will learn how to prepare for a session correctly, how
to gain confidence before and during the session and how important
table selection and the number of tables is.

I will talk about the "down-rule" next week. We
are going to evaluate preventative means of the bankroll management and
deal with other aspects that can help us to prevent tilting.

Why do we tilt at all? People blame the variance
and that they are not getting paid off properly in the short run even
though they are playing well. There are many articles about variance,
up and down swings. We don't want to go into these topics further.

The reason why we tilt and which emotions play
part in it have already been discussed in other articles. This is the
reason why I want to focus on things we can do to avoid tilting.

Why is tilting one of the main problems of a poker
player? What is the point in knowing that we have a good preflop and
postflop game and know how to make value bets but give away lots of
stacks in pointless situations.? Most players will have experienced
this at least once. They analyse their sessions and think: "what the
hell did I do there...?!"

Especially the stacks, which are needlessly lost,
hit us very hard. The anger about having tilted creates even greater
tilts. You'll think that it won't matter any more.

How do you notice tilt? Some players become
more aggressive, other more passive. Some might even become a maniac
and bluff a lot of hands. Others might become a calling station and a
showdown junkie. Obviously none of these things are any good.

Any excursion from our a game will reduce our win
rate. We will move into uncommon situations, which we can't play
profitably. Furthermore our concentration will suffer making us
concentrate more on our cards than on our opponents. We start to
overplay our hands.

Our goal should be to avoid these situations as well as we can!

The preparation for a session is absolutely essential. I often read
that players start a session when they are demotivated or think that
they are going to lose anyway. Simply turn on the hand converter,
collect all the bad beats and them on the forum to be able to nag
about these hands. Say that you don't have any luck and that poker is a
game of luck anyways or even that the site XXX is rigged.

If I were to start a session with that feeling, it
would probably end up being a very bad session as well. Where is the the courage and the confidence in your game going to come from if you are
basically just waiting to get sucked out only to prove to yourself how
bad you are running?

There is an essential danger to sitting down and waiting to lose your first stack knowing for sure that others are going to follow. If you start a session with such a negative attitude you are basically beginning it, already in a state of tilt. 

What can you do about it? Many ask themselves
whether it might be a good idea to take a break if the game is not
going to well. The answer is pretty simple: Yes and no!

If you think that you are playing well and that
you aren't affected by the results, you should continue playing. Swings
are part of poker and have to be lived through by every poker player.
Simply sitting down in a corner and waiting for the downswing to finish is
definitely not recommendable.

However if there is a danger of tilting,
especially if you are sitting down at the tables in a bad mood, you
should definitely take a break. Ask yourself before every session
whether you are even up for playing poker, be concentrated and give it
your best! If this is not the case, you should simply not play at all
and concentrate on theory or something completely different.

If you are not satisfied with your game or unhappy with how you deal with expensive decisions, you should do something about it.

Before a session you should look inside of yourself,
concentrate and set specific goals. If I know that I have been getting
stacked too many times with over pairs in the past, or have the problem
that my turn play is very bad because I am too weak, I would focus on
these two thinigs in the session. The more concentrated I am the less
room there is for tilt.

Try to create an atmosphere that makes you feel
comfortable. A nice place to "work", a favourite beverage and some nice
music in the background. It is better to play music that makes you feel
comfortable rather than music that makes you aggressive.

Try everything to start the session in the best possible mood and the greatest feeling of confidence.

Furthermore you have the option of evaluating
hands or reading articles before the session to get your brain going.
You would start a session with some poker specific information still
stored in your short term memory. You could also use the skills you got
from videos or articles straight away.

Dealing with some content half an hour before the
session starts is not a bad idea. In addition you won't have the
motivation to deal with theory after a session. Combine these two
useful things and deal with the content to start your next session
focused and prepared.

Just as the tilt problem, table selection is one of the most
underestimated things in poker. Why do so few people pay attention
to table selection and why is it so important?

I have to figure out how many tables I am able to
play. Do I have some empirical values that I can still play my a game
if I am at many tables? Do I know my limits? Do I have some comparisons
in my hourly win rates?

Lets start with table selection. Many people don't pay attention to it
because they are too lazy. I open the number of tables I want to open,
organise them and start playing. After a while you notice that some of
the tables aren't that great. One table might be too aggressive, another might not have any fish on it, while you don't have a good position on
another one. You should start looking for a new table. You have to
consider the number of hands played per hour, the average pot and known
opponents whether they are fish or regulars. This is a lot of work. I
will probably not pay as much attention to the other tables while I am
doing this. Is the other table even better than the one I am at now? If
I close the table now I would be missing valuable hands!

As soon as you think about this, you might also think
that the maniac who has position on you is a challenge rather than a
problem. I try to make money on the other tables while trying to prove
myself on this table. I am definitely able to take on one of these
super aggressive opponents. This actually wasn't my goal because I knew
why I should have selected tables. However I am in the situation now
and have to deal with it.

Even though you might know that the maniac is a
good player, you try to stay in the game with loose 4-bets. You ignore
that you could be avoiding this table. There are no fish at the table
so nobody will give you anything for free. You are faced with tough
decisions which are very expensive and increase your variance. It is
also obvious that our game at this table won't be +EV. As soon as there
are only good players at the table, you will probably be playing break
even while the rake will do the rest.

We are on a path to tilting. Other tables are
perfectly playable, but instead of focusing on our a game and
profitable situations, we will only be looking at the tough table which
we should have closed a long time ago. We are trying to make very hard
moves not to let others bluff us out of the hand. We want to prove
ourselves in -EV situations and disregard the other tables while we are
doing it.

Basically the one thing we tried to avoid will
happen. We loose a stack. We also lost another stack on a different
table against a fish. We are getting very annoyed and totally overplay
a top pair. The third stack is gone. We are tilting. Concentrating to
play a good game is hardly possible any more. The pulse is raging and
playing our a game would be wishful thinking.

Does anybody recognise this situation?

How could we have avoided this phase? Take the
time to look at the tables to figure out whether they are profitable
for you or not. Leave the tables if they are not; you will benefit
greatly from this.

Connected to this is the number of tables. This is
very specific for every player. There are many players who can play
several tables at the same time, while others might not have this
ability. You will notice that you are playing too many tables if your
actions become very hectic. Why do I display so many stats of my
opponents if I don't have the time to look at them, interpret them and
then reach a good, concentrated decision?

Anyone who wants to improve their game and reach a
decision using the stats, should only play 4 tables. Everything above
this number has to be tested by yourself. I personally admit that I
only play my A game if I am playing less than or equal to 6 shorthanded
tables.

Anyone who plays a lot of hands, can't look at his
position, the opponents, the stats from the opponents, possible ways of
playing the hand, not only for now but also for other streets, on three
tables simultaneously within 15 seconds. I have respect for any player
who can play more than 6 tables with full concentration. I am also sure
that many players are probably able to do this, in contrast to me.
However I am also sure that there are many players who just think that
they are able to do this. Maybe these players have never asked
themselves whether less tables might be more fun and improve the
average decisions which you have to reach relatively often.

The more tables you play, the more often you will
reach suboptimal decisions. If these mistakes accumulate, it might
become very expensive because if you aren't able to play your a game
any more, it will be much worse if you are doing this at 8 tables
rather than 4.

We should set ourselves the goal of only playing
tables which we can easily beat. We should also choose tables carefully
and leave them once they are starting to become bad tables, to find
another one. If we were to do this, we would be in many more profitable
situations and stay away from tilting as far as we can.