We’ve all been there. You’ve been very patient, looking for your spot. Then it happens.
A very loose aggressive player has raised the pot in front of you. You make the easy call with your 88. Out comes the flop, A83. He makes a big bet. You pause for a moment, and make the call.
The turn is a 5 and he fires out another huge bet. Now, you feel he will call, so you push all in. He doesn’t even hesitate, calling and flipping over his A4. When a 2 comes on the river making his unbelievable gut shot straight, you are stunned.
It’s after hands like these that we see what we are really made of. Do we keep our cool? Or, is it time to get crazy.
If you find yourself going all in by coming over the top of a raise and a re-raise with pocket nines, you have gone on tilt. Something like QQ will be calling and taking your stack most of the time.
It’s the ability to avoid these reactions to getting unlucky that makes a more profitable poker player. The best solution for avoiding this reaction is to simply get away from the table if you need to. The gamble, and hope to win my money back quick, strategy is a classic tilt.
One of the best solutions is to get your ass away from the table! If you’re not in a hand, you can’t screw up. Once you feel you have your composure back, sit down and play good poker.
Remind yourself that you had played great in that losing hand. You can’t control the fact that he got super lucky. There is almost always some chance you will get hit with a bad beat. It’s rare that your opponent is drawing dead. Therefore, you need to get used to having this happen.
This type of event is compounded if you’re running bad. When you on a long losing steak it seems that anything you do goes wrong. Opponents make bad calls, and suck out on you.
Your good hands run into better ones. Your opponents make bad calls, and hit their draws. Then, you finally get all you chips in with AA versus 99, only to see two nines hit the flop.
It starts to feel rigged. If you play online, you really know what I mean. The numbers will even out over time. This has to be true. Stop playing if you don’t agree with this statement.
The key is not to get wild in the mean time. Don’t play when the numbers are against you. This is what makes losers out of some otherwise good poker players. Simply, DON’T TILT! Now, go to the tables and win some bucks.