5 Ways To Conquer Poker Tilt
by Henri Junttila
The river card peels off, it is harmless, until your opponent flips over his hand. You’ve just lost the huge pot on the river to a runner runner straight. You feel yourself getting warmer and the frustration builds up until you just don’t care about what happens.
For the next few rounds you lose more and more money. All the while you think about that horrible beat you got. He was practically drawing dead and he won, how can it be?
You know why you’re reading this article. This happens to all of us and you are not an exception. I am glad you’re reading this because that makes you one of the few that have the guts to take a hold of this phenomenon. It is not easy to face yourself and improve in this way.
There are simple steps to eliminate and minimize this kind of behavior. I call this poker tilt or simply tilt.
In simple words, it is when you lose control that bad things happen. It often looks like you have control when you do not.
Here are 5 ways you can start minimizing tilt:
1. Fear - There is fear in everyone of us. Some have more, some have less. It doesn’t make you any better or worse than anyone else. It does sound new-agey, but trust me. After over 3 years of playing poker and battling with my inner demons, I know there is truth to this. I am one of those people who try stuff out before telling others about it. And this time I am telling you that you have to identify why you are tilting. You cannot banish something before you have identified it.
2. Identify Your Goal(s) - What is the reason you are playing poker? Most non-professionals get mad because they lose to bad beats. Why do they play poker? I would assume it is to have fun. My #1 goal is to have fun and making money comes second. I started playing poker because I enjoyed it and I intend to keep it that way. What is your goal when you are playing? What is the need to feel like crap while you’re playing? So what if you lose some money. Play the limits where the money doesn’t hurt and have some fun!
3. Listening To Yourself - Have you ever thought about listening to your mind and observing your body? What are the signs of you going into that zone of “I don’t care about anything”? My signs for example are that I get a feeling in my chest, I get hot and start to sweat. Frustration and anger build up and this is when I know I have to stop playing unless I want to lose money. Sometimes I slip and keep playing, it happens to everyone but everyone has lapses. The more you do this, the better you become. If you even practice these steps a little you are way ahead of most people on this earth.
4. Knowing When To Quit - Let us face it. We will not be able to control ourselves, we are not robots. That is why you have to learn when to quit a game. Learn what your signs of poker tilt are and quit before you start making those bad moves! If you are an aspiring poker player and would some day want to make money playing poker then this single poker tip will be HUGE for your poker game, I promise!
5. Fun - Keeping it fun is what has kept me from going insane. It is all to easy for me to fall into a rut of making money, making money and making more money. Money is not where happiness lies, it is the things that it can give us. Freedom is one of those things and of the most important for me. And if I cannot keep poker fun then why would I want to play? Ask yourself these questions and see what comes up 
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