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Message: [QUOTE="CuttleFish, post: 1867390, member: 84262"] Dealing With Tilt I’ve noticed a lot of threads on here lately asking how to deal with tilt. I am no poker expert, but this is an area I might be able to help with as it has a lot more to do with psychology than it does with poker. So, here goes………….. The best way to deal with going on tilt is to not go on tilt in the first place. This might seem obvious, but it is a valid point and more importantly, an achievable goal. The key that will allow you to develop this skill is this: [B]Manage your expectations.[/B] [B] [/B] Tilt, frustration, even anger sometimes, comes from one simple situation that plays out in all sorts of ways. It happens when the reality you face does not meet up with the expectation you had of what “should” have happened. Think about a few poker scenarios that might cause you to tilt. [FONT=Calibri]1. [/FONT]Someone goes all in with 10 2 off pre-flop and cracks your pocket A’s. [FONT=Calibri]2. [/FONT]Someone shoves all in chasing a gutshot against your set of K’s and hits it on the river. [FONT=Calibri]3. [/FONT]You get it in best three hands in a row against the same opponent and he sucks out on you every single time to knock you out of the tournament. These are just some simple examples, but for each and every scenario you can come up with that might put you on tilt, I guarantee you that it comes down to reality not matching up with your expectations. We face tilt in all areas of life, but poker is a place where we can face it a lot more often. People who go on tilt in poker usually go on tilt in other aspects of life too. Take driving a car as a case in point. As a tilt-prone person, when you get in a car to drive somewhere, you normally have an expectation that other people on the road should be good drivers too right? So you set out on 100-mile trip, you are driving on the freeway when some ‘dickhead’ joins from an on-ramp and cuts you off. How frustrated do you feel? Do you go on tilt? How do you go on tilt? Do you chase after him, swear at him, try to get in front and slam the brakes on? [B]Scenario: Driving on a road trip.[/B] [B]Expectation: “Everyone should know how to drive” [/B] [B]Reality: Idiot cuts you off and doesn’t know how to merge[/B] [B]Result: Frustration - Reality didn’t match up with my expectation. [/B] [B]Reaction: Drive like a maniac and go on tilt.[/B] So let’s take this same scenario and play it out again but this time with expectations being managed before the event. Is it a realistic expectation that everyone should be a good driver? What if that expectation was moderated beforehand to something more manageable like 99% of drivers should know how to drive. Now, on this same road trip, over 100 miles, you might pass or see 300 other cars. That means from your modified expectation, 3 of them will [U]not[/U] know how to drive properly. Now replay the above scenario: [B]Scenario: Driving on a road trip.[/B] [B]Expectation: “99% of people should know how to drive” [/B] [B]Reality: Idiot cuts you off and doesn’t know how to merge[/B] [B]Result : No Frustration - Reality did match up with my expectation. (Thinking to yourself, “There goes one of those idiots”[/B] [B]Reaction: Let it go, and no tilt.[/B] Same scenario, same thing happens, but by modifying your expectation before you set out, a completely different result. Now apply this same logic to poker. [B][U]Tilt Inducing Expectations[/U][/B] · People should play properly according to the odds. · Everyone should be playing to win. · My AA should beat KK 4 out of 5 times all in pre-flop · I’ve flopped a monster, I can’t lose this hand. [B][U] Modified Expectations (based on above)[/U][/B] [B][U] [/U][/B] · Most people don’t know a lot about poker odds to know what is the “right” play.[B][/B] · Some people play just for fun even when it is real money.[B][/B] · My AA should beat KK 80% of the time all in pre-flop but this doesn’t mean the same thing as 4 out of five times. (~4,000,000 out of 5,000,000 times maybe, but that’s another thread)[B][/B] · Unless I hold the top end of a straight flush or a royal flush on the flop, there is [U]always[/U] a chance I can be beaten.[B][/B] [B][U] [/U][/B] People with a lot more poker knowledge than I have will be able to fill in the blanks for what expectations most people have in poker and what the correct modified expectations need to be in order to stop tilt from ever happening. What you can do though is the next time you go on tilt, or feel tilt coming on, take a moment to write down : [B]Scenario: ____________________________________[/B] [B]Expectation: __________________________________ [/B] [B]Reality: _____________________________________[/B] [B]Result: ________________________________________[/B] [B]Reaction: ______________________________________[/B] Write them down, post them on here and people who know more about the game can help you modify your expectation so that it never happens again. Good luck and remember……………………………. Ninjas never go on tilt. [FONT=Wingdings]J[/FONT] CuttleFish [/QUOTE]

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