No tilt part 2

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No Tilt part 2

from MiiWiin

Last week (to the article)
we dealt with "tilting" and researched preventative activities. We
focused especially on the preparation and the attitude as well as the
table selection.

Today we are going to deal with the "down-rule" as
well as the problems of the bankroll management and its affect on our
tilt-behaviour. We will also deal with some other factors.

If you are aware that you are in danger of
tilting, it often helps to set a limit on your losses. If you reach
this limit you simply leave the tables.

This doesn't have anything to do with swings: "Its not my day today, I am very unlucky..." doesn't count.

If you are capable of controlling tilt, you can obviously abstain from this rule. But who says that they don't tilt at all?

A 3-stack down-rule is reasonable in my opinion. Even though this
sounds very conservative, I take this rule to heart although I don't
tilt easily. If I lose more than 3 stacks in one session I simply quit
the session!

The question is not whether I actually play bad
or whether I am just unlucky. I could obviously run into aces with my
kings in the first hand or lose set over set or lose with top two in
an unraised pot against a straight. I could thoroughly be convinced
that I played the hands right. I know that these hands were tough set
ups or bad beats. Clearly I can't do anything about that, I know this
is part of poker.

The question I ask myself is: How do I lose the
fourth or fifth stack? Do I still play my A-game in the fourth decision
if I was very unlucky three times even though I played correctly? Am I
influenced by the fact that I have lost 3 stacks already? Do I start
overplaying marginal situations? Do I force my luck? What's wrong with
dividing the session to analyse the hands again and start to play again
later with a clear head?

It is tough to play your A-game after these beats.
Maybe it isn't an obvious tilt either. Tilt could be engaging in
marginal preflop decisions which would have been a lot different with a
clear head. Suddenly you find yourself in hard situations and the stack
is depleted again.

So many times you hear people saying how unlucky
they were in their session. They add their hands to the discussions and
realise that the last stack was probably lost because of tilt. This
self-knowledge should alert you at the latest. If I lose one stack per
week due to tilt, how does this affect my win rate? I don't want to go
through any mathematical examples. Anyone could calculate that for
themselves. Shouldn't we do everything to avoid these situations?

If you recognise some similarities in your game
that sessions which started with 3 lost stacks, finished with another
two stacks lost, the application of this rule might be worth it.

However this rule doesn't only keep you safe
during a session. It will give you some security before the session as
well. Many times we have read posts of people who lost 10 stacks in one
session and are now paralysed.

I don't believe that a 10 stack downswing is only due to very bad luck
anyway because peoples play differs from their A-game after having lost
this many stacks and their concentration will have dropped too. I don't
have this problem because I make use of the down-rule.

Not because I think I am a great player or because
I think I am not affected by tilt. It is because I simply quit after
three stacks!

I know from the beginning: The worst thing that
could happen is loosing a bit more than three stacks (mathematically it
is possible to lose more than three stacks because I only leave the
tables after having lost more than three stacks).

Theoretical thoughts about the danger of loosing a
big chunck of my bankroll don't exist. It is a kind of self-protection
which helps me personally

Furthermore you won't be tempted to make a tilt
call after having lost one stack for example. Lets assume I have only
lost two hands up till now but I can already feel the anger inside of
me. I know if I lose another stack now, I have to quit the session. I
see it as a kind of punishment. Quitting a session after only a couple
of hands is not a nice thing for me (but a necessary one). I would
therefore never put my third stack at careless risk. I am forced to
play my A-game! If I am not able to continue playing my A-game the rule
applies and I leave the tables to quit the session.

If players recognise this problem in their own
game, I can only suggest trying it once. If you have to quit your
session due to a small tilt, you don't want it to happen again.

Bankroll management (BRM) is one of the basic
prerequisites to become a professional poker player. The best poker
abilities are no use if you go broke because you have invested all your
money on one coin flip and lost. Of course it is mostly not that bad,
but I think this does happen quite frequently to some extent.

We don't want to deal with any mathematics but
look at how the BRM is connected to tilt. A common advice is: Anyone
who tilts a lot should have a very conservative BRM. This statement is
most definitely not wrong, but not as general as you think.

We are assuming a normal tilt in this case which
could have to anyone. I can't advise everybody here to have a 50 stack
BRM hoping that everyone will be free of tilt.

Clearly everyone understands that loosing a stack
with a conservative BRM is less painful than loosing one stack with an
aggressive BRM. The question you have to ask yourself is: Does my BRM
influence my decisions at the table?

The differences between a conservative and an
aggressive BRM are obvious: With an aggressive BRM I quickly move up in
limits if I run good, but have to move down just as fast if I lose a
couple of stacks. Many players can't deal with this mentally because
they think it is a personal defeat to move down one limit. With a
conservative BRM you need much longer to move up in limits, but you can
also play longer on these limits and survive a downswing.

So which one is better? Both have their advantages
and disadvantages. If I am on a large downswing with an aggressive BRM,
I have to move down in limits pretty quickly. If I am on a downswing
with the conservative BRM on a higher limit this would cost me a lot
more. Do I become more resistant to tilt if I have a 10 stack down on
the higher limit?

Furthermore you run the risk of not valuing your
stacks any more. For example if you have a 50 stack BRM you could lose
a couple of stacks in a short time without thinking about it too much.
You think that you have enough. You tell yourself that even if you are
on tilt it doesn't cost much. You legitimize loosing one or more stacks
just like that. Eventually that's what you have the conservative BRM
for. However is this thought correct?

The correct way would be to have a BRM which you
think you won't go broke with, can rise in limits with and also go down
in limits with. You shouldn't play over rolled too long and definitely
not under roled. If you think that your BRM influences your game, you
have to figure out in which way it does that. What increases the risk
of tilting? If you know that the stack is very precious or if you think
that you have enough of it anyways? Maybe you tilt less if you know
that every lost stack is worth twice as much. Or maybe you need the
security of having a lot of stacks.

There is no general answer to these questions. Every player has to ask these questions themselves.

Just one more thing: Doesn't it decrease the risk
of tilting if we combine an aggressive BRM and the down-rule so that we
know that we can't lose more than three stacks in one session and at
the same time know that every stack is very valuable and shouldn't be
risked in unprofitable situations?

It should actually be pretty self explanatory, but
unfortunately many players are enticed to flaming to much in the chat.
After a couple of bad beats and comments from opponents they explode
and start flaming.

They insult each other and try to take the Mickey
out of the opponents to distinguish themselves. I have seen so many
players compare their win rates on certain limits just to show how good
they are.

Is it good if every player knows that you are a
winning player? Why can't you leave the fish to be a fish? Do you have
to insult him and basically force him to leave the table to make room
for a TAG?

Do I have to show him his mistakes just to make him a thinking player?

Do I have to insult a TAG because he hit a lucky
card that I would have played differently? In poker the question of
which actions are +EV is of interest to us. Is it +EV to tilt in the
chat? Do I get an advantage from that?

Furthermore how would the player concentrate on
his other tables and his A-game if he is engaging heavily in the chat?
He couldn't! Nobody can tell me that they flame in the chat and play
their A-game at the same time. Anyone who flames is tilting and not
able to reach concentrated and sound decisions.

How can we avoid this? We either turn the chat off
completely or don't write anything apart from the occasional "nh" or a
friendly "hello". Anyone who notices them breaking this rule should use
a more consistent measure. Our goal is to avoid tilt. You should
therefore turn off the chat completely and play poker.

As long as your are sure that you are playing
well you are more capable of dealing with swings to avoid tilting. What
do you do if you are not sure though? Everyone knows the following
things, but I have to mention them:

• 1. Evaluation of hands

  Let others evaluate your hands if you are unsure. You could even go one
  step further and save all your tilt hands to put them on the forum. Let
  others tell you how many bad tilt calls you made. You can then consider
  to stop posting hands and continue tilting or to stop tilting because
  you would be "punished" otherwise.

• Is it a disadvantage if other players see your
  bad hands? No! Both you and the others will learn from it. You don't
  have to prove anything to anyone. You want to play poker successfully.
  This will involve a lot of time, and even cost some effort sometimes.
• 2. Recording videos

  Record a video and put it online. Do take the critics seriously. If you
  recorded a video and played bad, you should definitely put it online!

• 3. Let someone watch you playing

  Letting others watch you play is another good possibility. No matter
  who watches you, simply the fact that you have to explain your moves
  helps to uncover your hidden tilt moves. Maybe you would even start to
  play completely different which actually might suit you better. This of
  course should be implemented in the sessions you are playing alone as
  well!

Cahsouts could further prevent you from tilting. People quickly feel
bad if they think that everything they worked so hard for is at risk
because they can already see themselves go broke. The fact that you
will have learnt a lot in this time is ignored. The only thing that
counts is the bankroll and if it shrinks the self-convidence shrinks as
well.

Cash out some money and buy something nice.
Preferably something that you always see when you are playing poker.
Maybe a new monitor, a new keyboard ( this probably stops you from
smashing it ). You will instantly know that you are a winning player
because you only bought these things because you made the money player
poker.